Album Review of Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s Diaspora
One of contemporary Jazz’s frontal figures continues his eclectic musical exploration with hopes of unifying people in a troubled world
Over one hundred years have passed since the first jazz recordings and without question jazz has had an extraordinary evolution from its humble and ridiculed beginnings on the streets of New Orleans to the ground shaking paradigm shift of bebop and its rise as, finally, an accepted form of elevated art. But jazz is not finished; in fact, it is still figuring out which direction to go towards. As of now, jazz has turned its efforts, though it has done so previously, towards incorporating various sounds from different genres and traditions. In these times, those genres include Hip Hop, Rap, Electronica and many more. One of such efforts is Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s 2017 album Diaspora. Standing at 11 tracks, it is the second part of a three album project, which Scott calls The Centennial Trilogy, that collectively tries to provide “a sobering re-evaluation of the social political realities of the world through sound”(christianscott.tv). The second album in the series, Diaspora certainly attempts to make musical and cultural statements by incorporating elements of trap music, African rhythms, and ambient production. With those expectations in mind, Christian Scott certainly puts high hopes on the album, but do those hopes translate into a proper musical , or do his honorable intentions fall flat ? let us find out
It is often said that strong first impressions go a long way, and the first track “Diaspora” definitely leaves an excellent first impression. The track kicks off with a succinct piano jumping right into a natural rhythm. After a few more seconds, the digital drum and trumpet simultaneously make their entrance into the song. Immediately after this occurs, one will notice a few things. To begin with, the use of digital drums will be a surprise for those unfamiliar with Scott’s previous work, but, more importantly, the usage of digital drums are still a relatively new adoption instrument in jazz and could be the first time some listen to it in this context. Still, the tempo being played is one that is more commonly found in contemporary rap music than it is in a typical jazz record; the drum has a double stutter during the third beat and has shaky texture every time it hits a note. Moreover, the way the drum plays in a repetitive fairly neutral manner that remains static rather than progressive or playful like in one is accustomed to in jazz. Because of this, there is a plethora of space open for the rest of the instruments to fill it in natural and fluid fashion, which is precisely what the sax and flute do in this song. The trumpet begins the melody in immediate fashion and beautifully chimes it through the space like a fond memory coming back to be heard. After repeating the melody line a few more times, the trumpet and flugelhorn unite with the flute in an impressive collage of sound; they layer up in fluid motion and add echo to the melody line. The trumpet and flugelhorn add some tailgating, but both seem to arrange and rearrange the melody in a perfect unfolding of sounds. To make things even more sonically beautiful, the melody forms a call and response with the baseline. After breaking down a bit with the piano, the melody returns, and Scott’s trumpet cuts the space once more with laser focused solo. Not much later, Elena Pinderhughes takes a flute solo and brings a spring of majesty with her pure care-free notes dancing in the air. Before ending, all the wind instruments unite for one last united blast of sound that slowly retreats into peace as the drums progressively fade into the distance. Needless to say, “Diaspora” is an exceptionally crafted song; one that very wisely uses space and mood to its advantage. The song is probably the strongest in the entire album and emphasizes two key features for the rest of the album, space and ambience.
For the next few tracks, Scott slows down the intensity a notch in order for the listener to recover from the catharsis they probably experienced from “Diaspora”. The next track “IDK’’ brings a more relaxed mood while still harping on the strength of the trumpet to push the song forward in an emotional way. The keyboard and drums line up nicely, but as with before they are mainly there to leave space and maintain rhythm. Moving along, “Our Lady of New Orleans (Hearrest Harrison)” brings the intensity up again and speeds up the time again. This time, there is a bit more syncopation in the percussion plus a nice deviation by including a flute solo to break away from the trumpet momentarily. This piece flows very quickly and goes right into an interlude “Bae”. The song nicely provides some relaxation with a simple drum and piano pattern to keep the sound flowing in the listener’s head without going into full thrust.
Of course, then things take a turn once more with “Desire and the Burning Girl”. The song starts with usage of African drums ticking like a clock before a dreamy synthesizer streams and swirls continuously. Scott then stretches out the space with penetrating sharp notes from his flugelhorn. In this particular song, there seems to be extra haziness and resonance emanating from the horn. Moreover, Scoot has also added another flugelhorn to embrace and caress the other one like in “Diaspora”. However, instead of playing a particular melody, the horns are more concerned with filling the space with lines of sound that move throughout the song like long flashing lights in a dark city. There is no clear sense of direction of where the song is heading, as there is a layer of darkness that follows the space and percussion. This cold atmosphere never seems to leave and only between the seconds of where one can listen to only the drums is there a moment of peace. Scott includes a bit of the trumpet, but it gets swallowed up the flugelhorns that continue to phase in and out. Only towards that ending minute does one feel like this sense of darkness has passed. For its entirety, the song feels like it belongs in suspense or psychological thriller type of film soundtrack rather than a jazz album. As the title suggests, there seems to be a crippling desire lingering in the mind of an individual and we as the audience are given access to that personal chaos and bewilderment. As such, surprises and swirls of those horns enabled thematic depth and highlight some of the most creative sounds in the album.
Unlike “Desire and the Burning Girl”, the song right after brings in a warmer timbre and gentler vibrations to soothe the soul rather than infiltrate subconscious anguish. Marking yet another highlight, “Uncrown Her” is a sweet ballad that open up with soft tones from Scott’s whispering twin trumpet layers. Out of all the songs on Diaspora, “Uncrown her” is probably one of the prices closest to what one considers a traditional jazz track. While there is still the usage of digital drums, the melody moves to side fairly quickly to allow for a sax solo and then a piano solo. The sax takes its time building up notes in the beginning but springs up again in optimistic fashion. Almost as though in conversation, the saxophone is being honest with feelings towards the person they are speaking with. There seems to be strength in the notes that suggest there is confidence yet a lingering sense of hurt or anxiety in this conversation. In response, The piano sprinkles and steps in gentle but sincere way that further expresses a sort of heartfelt longing. There seems to be some disagreement but not any particular hate or regret. How the conversation ends is up to interpretation, for piano ends and the melody returns for a final fade out. “Uncrown Her” represents fantastic example of improvisation, uncertainty, and emotion guiding the song rather than the melody. The result is a beautiful representation of communication between instruments that leave the listener wanting to hear more. The album continues with the riveting “Lawless” that showcases some of Scott’s faster Bebop-esque playing. There is just a stampede of notes that just run throughout his entire midsection solo. This is then followed by the whimsical and gentle “Completely” that is taken over by Pinderhughes’ floating flute solo. “New Jack Bounce” serves as a drum solo piece and interlude for the last two tracks “No Love” and “The Walk” which switch the mood once more a cool and grounded vibe.
With all of that taken into consideration, Diaspora is an album that certainly delivers on many aspects;however, it is not without its faults. Probably the weakest aspect of Diaspora is the way in which songs at times feel a bit too similar. While it is certainly not a negative quality to have a cohesive and unified album, each song that follows should not be predictable after listening to the previous one. One of the things that contribute to this problem is the use of static percussion. Bar the songs “New Jack Bounce”, all the songs have a repetitive drum pattern that becomes a bit too familiar when one listens to the album from top to bottom. It would have been wise to perhaps go back to acoustic drums for some tracks or have a few more time signature changes. More on this point, while the two interludes do offer some breaks from the core songs, they still reiterate the same issue of repetitiveness, and, for this reason, they seem to be superfluous as part of the collective sound of Diaspora. Had the interludes been more piano oriented or perhaps had just horn solos, then it would have been a smoother listen. But back to the point of repetition, the last two tracks “No Love” and “The Walk”, while not being bad or even mediocre, come off as being unnecessary additions. “No Love” came off as uneven due to the unbalance playing of the strong trumpet and gentleness of the percussion; it seemed like Scott was in autopilot mode, and it resulted in a song that one could predict the ending to after a few seconds. The same occurs in the “The Walk” which spouts more attitude but felt out of place like a rehashing of “IDK” with some vocals placed randomly through the song. There was nothing that could have surprised the listener at this point in the album with the last three tracks should have ended after “Lawless” maybe “Completely” if it had just been a flute solo piece instead of an entire song. Overall, there should be more cutting of songs and more variety in the structure of the songs.
After all that was played and done, Diaspora suffers from various amount of redundant arrangements and at times weak levels of percussion. Despite its problems, Diaspora is a solid piece of art that certainly fulfills many of the expectations that Christian Scott strives for. Whether a veteran or newcomer to Jazz, there is a respectable amount of originality and quality that one can enjoy, just do not expect a killer masterpiece. there is definitely a hypnotic yet healthy amount of mental traveling that one experiences from going through each song, even after just one listen. Scott is a master of pulling the listener’s heart strings and soul with the gorgeous whispers and moans of the trumpet and flugelhorn. When all is said and done, if Scott’s goal is to unite people under music and get us to identify with each other through mutual fears and desires then he has certainly made strides in accomplishing that.
Works Cited
“BIO / CONCEPT.” CHRISTIANSCOTT.TV, http://www.christianscott.tv/stretchmusicbio.
