Stream a new single from Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, see him at South next month

When we last checked in on Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, he was blowing minds with his interactive LP/app Stretch Music. It was the latest instance of the New Orleans trumpeter’s left-of-center approach to music, which has evolved over the last decade to honor the jazz, hip hop, and African traditions that filter through his hometown. The melting pot of his music is potently amplified on “The Coronation of X aTunde Adjuah,” a single from his newest album Rebel Ruler. Out now on Ropeadope, the record is the first part of an LP series called The Centennial Trilogy that challenges the politcal status quo.

On “Coronation,” Scott’s trumpet and Elena Pinderhughes’ flute converse over a gritty, metallic trap beat. It’s a startling pairing but it jives in its distilled rawness, the two sounds coexisting and even elevating each other through their stark differences.

About this melding of traditional and modern genres, Scott tells Rolling Stone:

I think almost everything you hear that comes out of this culture of music in some way harkens back to what was happening in New Orleans in 1917, right? … Part of what we’re attempting to do with our music is to re-acculturate all of these seemingly disparate musical realities that have grown out of jazz, or creative improvised music, back into the music. So the way we look at it isn’t so linear. We don’t think of it as harkening back to what happened in the beginning of the century, but really [as] a document that celebrates the entire trajectory of 100 years.

Stream “The Coronation of X aTunde Adjuah” below. Scott performs two gigs at South on May 18th and 19th; tickets and information can be found here.