Item Details

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s critique of the Danziger Bridge shootings

Issue: Vol 13 No. 1-2 (2019) Special Issue: Jazz and Everyday Aesthetics

Abstract:

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah is an African American trumpeter, composer and producerfrom New Orleans, Louisiana. He has written compositions and performed improvisationscommitted to social justice themes. His cultural work is a natural extensionof his community service training directed by his grandfather Donald Harrison Sr. Hiscomposition 'Danziger' (2012) gives voice to the unarmed citizens injured and killed bypolice as they crossed the Danziger Bridge in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. 'Danziger'extends from his stretch music theory which aTunde Adjuah describes as disassemblingand reassembling musical ideas so that his compositions and improvisations canbe understood holistically. While aTunde Adjuah's interpretation of the Danziger Bridgeshootings is funneled through the ontological cornucopia of his trumpet and referenceshis particular community, the message he sends out through his custom-made trumpetbell is universal because his critique supports everyday human rights.

Author: James Gordon Williams

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