Christian Scott

The Lick Episode 5# Christian Scott (Edison Jazz international winner 2012)

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• published: 23 Dec 2012
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Watch more episodes on: http://www.Zero2jazz.com This time our guest of honor is trumpeter, and winner of the 2012 Edison Jazz international award, Christian Scott! We met Scott in Eindhoven just an hour before he went on stage and recieved the prestigious Jazz international Edison award for his latest album: "Christian Etunde Adjuah". Not only was it our first interview with Scott, this is also the first episode of "The Lick" with Zero2Jazz's newest presentor Angelique van Os. Angelique is well known in the Jazz world and has been writing for o.a. "Jazzism" and "Jazz" for many years. We are looking forward to seeing her in more new episodes of The Lick. In the interview Angelique talks at length with Christian about his career, his new trumpet designs, his approaches to music writing and playing and much much more! Visit: http://www.Zero2jazz.com About Christian Scott: When trumpeter Christian Scott was growing up in New Orleans in the late '80s and early '90s, his grandfather gave him and his brother Kiel extra reading assignments each week as a supplement to their assigned schoolwork. If the young students failed to finish their books within the week, their grandfather would say, "Yesterday you said tomorrow..." It was the older man's way of emphasizing the importance of recognizing the work at hand, and making the most of the available time to complete it. In the end, the two brothers graduated at the top of their high school class at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. Armed with a full scholarship, Christian headed north to Berklee College of Music, where he earned two degrees in two years and eventually launched a music career that has positioned him as one of the great innovators of his generation. But along the way, Scott has learned that there's still much work to be done -- not just within the jazz idiom, but also in the larger world in which jazz exists. Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, his March 30, 2010, release on Concord Jazz, reflects the legacy of some of his musical heroes of the '60s, and at the same time wields the music as a tool to address some of the very important issues of contemporary culture. Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, like Anthem, takes aim at certain injustices persistent in society. The difference this time is in scope. "With Anthem, you had this microcosmic experience -- the hurricane and the resulting devastation to a specific region," says Scott. "With this album, it's a more macrocosmic view of all the broader issues and dilemmas that challenge us today." Aided by guitarist Matthew Stevens, pianist Milton Fletcher, Jr., bassist Kristopher Keith Funn and drummer Jamire Williams, Scott addresses the issues head on, regardless of how uncomfortable the subject matter may be. He opens the set with "K.K.P.D.," a track full of dark harmonies and tense, competing polyrhythms. The title stands for "Ku Klux Police Department," a reference to what Scott calls the "phenomenally dark and evil" attitude by the local police toward African American citizens of New Orleans when he was growing up -- and the similar dynamic that persists there and in other cities to this day. "If you're black, and you get caught in the wrong place on the wrong night, they may do some Klan stuff to you," he says. "That's always the thought in the back of your mind." Scott wipes away some of the darker shades in "Eraser," the melodic followup track penned by singer-songwriter Thom Yorke, co-founder and frontman of Radiohead (the song is the title track to Yorke's solo debut, released in 2006). The aptly titled piece resets the tone of the overall recording, says Scott. "With that song, we're erasing the issue that was raised in the previous song, and then the album starts," he says. "Those first two songs are very much a part of the album, but they're there to establish an environment where you're willing to listen to whatever else we have to say, because you've been opened up to the validity of the original argument." Scott freely admits that the subject matter within Yesterday You Said Tomorrow is anything but lighthearted. But like his grandfather, he has little patience for falling behind on the important work at hand that can't wait. "There's no better time than right now to fix all of the problems and issues that we face as individuals and as a society," he says. "The problems that some of the musicians of the '60s addressed still exist. They may look a little different, but they're still around. The intent of the album was to make a document that illuminated that fact, and illuminated the means to change the dynamics and solve the problems.