<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like a little Beaker,\u201d Adjuah said with a laugh, referring to the reckless scientist\u2019s assistant on \u201cThe Muppet Show.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAll my friends were looking at me like, \u2018This kid is crazy.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Today, at 42, Chief Adjuah is taking his profound urge for innovation to another level entirely. Having partnered for years with a Netherlands manufacturer on a series of custom-designed horns, he has devoted much of his latest music to another instrument of his own creation, an electric harp he calls the \u201cAdjuah bow.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n To mark the 10th anniversary of his landmark album \u201cStretch Music,\u201d<\/a> Adjuah headlines two New England shows this week, on Thursday at Boston\u2019s City Winery and Friday at Jimmy\u2019s Jazz & Blues Club in Portsmouth, N.H. He played the four-year-old New Hampshire club<\/a> in early 2024. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI loved it,\u201d Adjuah said, speaking on the phone from Southern California, where he lives. \u201cWe had such a good time there. You could tell, the people in the city were very used to hearing good music. They\u2019ve done a really good job in terms of what they\u2019re curating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Adjuah\u2019s whole career has been an exercise in curation. Before he graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2004, he\u2019d already started making records <\/b>(under his given name, Christian Scott). He earned his first Grammy nomination in 2006. While still barely in his 20s, he played with McCoy Tyner, Pat Metheny, and other jazz greats. He recorded with Prince in 2007, toured with Radiohead\u2019s Thom Yorke in the group Atoms for Peace in 2010, and explored Cuban music around the same time. <\/span><\/p>\n Adjuah\u2019s most recent album, \u201cBark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning\u201d (2023), is his first to feature no trumpet. Instead, he plays the Adjuah bow. On the 15-minute title track, he delivers a spoken word performance inspired by his friend Saul Williams. <\/span><\/p>\n The album is a meditative song cycle that borrows liberally from the \u201cBlack Indian\u201d tradition of New Orleans, the Mardi Gras subculture of elaborately costumed revelers dating back to the 19th century. Adjuah is the grandson of Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr., the renowned Mardi Gras Indian, and nephew of the saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy family is really, really tight,\u201d he said. \u201cThe lessons never stop. Our culture has a lot of really beautiful pillars.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n His uncle played with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, one of the longest-running finishing schools in jazz, in the 1980s, alongside fellow saxophonist Bill Pierce. Pierce later taught Adjuah at Berklee. <\/span><\/p>\n Adjuah says he gained a world of knowledge by playing in Pierce\u2019s Art Blakey ensemble at Berklee. He also has fond memories of the jam sessions at Wally\u2019s, the Mass. Ave. jazz club that has nurtured generations of Berklee students.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere were multiple universities that were going on,\u201d he recalled. \u201cFrom a practical standpoint, where we needed to be equipped for the next steps, I wouldn\u2019t put Berklee over Wally\u2019s. You learn this [stuff] at Wally\u2019s.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Pierce remembers Adjuah coming to Boston already fully competent as a musician. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAll he needed to do was define exactly what he wanted to achieve,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cHe came to Berklee more than well-prepared.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Like Tony Williams, the expressive Boston-bred drummer who played in Miles Davis\u2019s \u201cSecond Great Quintet,\u201d Adjuah absorbed every aspect of jazz tradition in order to transcend it, said Pierce. He played in Williams\u2019s band for several years beginning in the mid-1980s.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t be futuristic without really learning the past,\u201d Pierce said. Adjuah \u201cdefinitely seems to think in terms of multi-layered performances and concepts. It\u2019s not surprising to me that he would be doing that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Adjuah recently released three new recordings as bonus tracks for a 10th anniversary reissue of \u201cStretch Music,\u201d the album that introduced his concept of a new kind of music that extends the boundaries of jazz (\u201cI hate that word, jazz,\u201d he said) with hints of trap music\u2019s atmospherics. <\/span><\/p>\n His latest songs are a blend of his newest music and the music he was creating a decade ago, he explained. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s both energies at the same time,\u201d he said. \u201cThe trumpet that people played in the 20th century is a relic. But I still enjoy playing the hybrids we recorded [\u2018Stretch Music\u2019] with, the ones that people love so much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Before he picked up the trumpet \u2014 when he was 7 or 8 years old \u2014 he wanted to play guitar, Adjuah said. <\/span><\/p>\n That probably inspired his invention of the bow, he said. The instrument, rooted in traditional West African stringed instruments such as the kora, is equipped with a MIDI controller. Adjuah said he\u2019s fine-tuning the design for commercial sales and developing a version for kids. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re really off to the races,\u201d he said. \u201cThe future is bright for that stuff, man.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n CHIEF ADJUAH<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n At City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston, Thursday, Oct. 9, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $30-$50. citywinery.com\/boston<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Also at Jimmy\u2019s Jazz & Blues Club, 135 Congress St., Portsmouth, N.H., Friday, Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $20 and up. jimmysoncongress.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n