Chief Adjuah

Welcome to the Vermont Jazz Center. Tonight, we are extremely energized, feeling fortunate to once again welcome Chief Adjuah to our stage. He performed here in January of 2017 in a breathtaking show that included flutist Elena Pinderhughes. VPR Friday Night Jazz host Ray Vega once asked me to choose the concert held here at the Jazz Center that I found to be most significant, and Chief’s show in 2017 is the one that stood out for me. Along with the ensemble’s extremely high level of musicianship, there was a respectful blending of ancient traditions with modern grooves and an emphasis on rhythm. The group’s sound and lyricism were all unified by Chief’s vision as a leader and composer. For tonight’s performance, Chief Adjuah will be joined by two of the musicians who were with him that evening: Lawrence Fields on Fender Rhodes and keyboards and Kris Funn on bass. For this performance, we will also hear Cecil Alexander on guitar and Brian Richburg Jr. on drums and percussion. Tonight, we will experience a living journey that incorporates the urgent messages of today’s global unrest through the lens of Chief Adjuah’s wisdom and family history.

Chief Adjuah’s music celebrates the patriarchs and matriarchs of his family, whose lineage can be traced back to the New Orleans Maroons—enslaved people who escaped plantations to form independent communities in the swamps, forests, and marshlands around the city. The Maroons cultivated crops, hunted, created art, and traded with other Maroon communities. Many blended traditions with local indigenous peoples, giving rise to groups now known as “Black Indians” or “Mardi Gras Indians.” Though the Maroons were brutally suppressed, their legacy thrives in Chief Adjuah’s music and message, which gives voice to a people often ignored in history books. Their legacy lives on in the Black Masking Indian traditions that are still vibrant in New Orleans culture.

One of the noteworthy factors regarding Chief Adjuah is that he legally changed his name from Christian Scott to Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah. In doing so, Adjuah intentionally severed his lineage to the former colonists who enslaved his ancestors. Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah’s name honors his ancestry as a chief of the Xodakon nation, “a maroon society honoring Afroindigenous resistance and rebellion in the Americas since the 1700s.” Chief Adjuah’s family lineage is rooted deeply in New Orleans. He grew up in the Black Masking Indian tradition and followed his grandfather’s footsteps to become a Chieftain of the Xodokan Nation. His grandfather, Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr., led four nations: the Creole Wild West, White Eagles, Cherokee Braves, and Guardians of the Flame. In a 2025 interview with Tavis Smiley, Chief Adjuah said he was “born into a family of musicians – folk musicians and jazz musicians. The folk music from this tradition, some say, creates part of the beginning of jazz, so my introduction to the music is actually from the root music that created creative improvised music.”

Like fellow New Orleans native Nicholas Payton, Chief Adjuah considers the music he creates to be distinct from “jazz.” He considers the term “jazz” offensive and cites its use, especially in its early years, to be a parody of the authentic music that emerged in the United States, which was initiated by the African diaspora. Chief Adjuah instead calls his music “Stretch Music,” which is “genre blind” and “decolonizes the sound in a way that allows musicians from seemingly disparate cultural groups to enjoy their time together.” He says that, “Stretch Music fights for the very heart and soul of music, honoring the best of the past while stretching its possibilities into the future.