BLACK MUSICIANS

Despite decades of oppression and being denied equal access to everything from resources to venues — even as world-famous performers — Black musicians have long been at the center of innovation and skill across an array of genres and types of music, while completely inventing others. 

It’s nearly impossible to list the countless Black musicians who have greatly influenced and shaped many of our world's most recognized musical genres. Rock and roll wouldn’t exist without pioneers like T-Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner, and Chuck Berry. Jazz as we know it wouldn’t exist without names like Jelly Roll Morton, Bessie Smith, and King Oliver, who set the stage for the likes of Louie Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Miles Davis. R&B, hip-hop, funk, soul, and blues are just a few examples of genres that are owed to the efforts, creative minds, and persistent creativity of Black musicians. 

Since the late 1970s, Harlem Stage (known then as Aaron Davis Hall) has provided a platform and spotlight for performances from innumerable Black musicians, both renowned and up-and-coming. From classic artists like Harry Belafonte to contemporary performers like Melanie Charles, Harlem Stage continues to showcase the innovation and immense talents of Black musicians spanning a broad range of genres.

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah

Born and raised in New Orleans, the gift of jazz music has always been in the blood of Afro-Indigenous multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott). At the age of thirteen, Adjuah began a musical tutelage under his uncle, renowned jazz saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., and eventually graduated from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) and Berklee College of Music. To date, he has received six Grammy Award nominations, two Edison Awards, and the JazzFM Innovator/Innovation of the Year Award in 2016 while earning international acclaim for his trumpet abilities — including the development of the harmonic convention known as the “forecasting cell” and his use of an un-voiced tone that emphasizes breath over vibration at the mouthpiece, known as his “whisper technique.”

In 2015, Adjuah released Stretch Music, a recording project that captured his origination of a jazz-rooted, genre-blind musical form that seeks to “stretch” jazz’s rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic conventions to encompass multiple musical forms, languages, and cultures. Stretch Music is also the first recording with an accompanying app — an interactive music player that enables musicians to fully control the practicing, listening, and learning experience by customizing the player to fit their specific needs and goals.

From the Archives Spotlight:
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s Stretch Music

In 2014, Adjuah and his band performed as part of the Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival, which served as one of the first encompassing performances of his emerging concept of Stretch Music.

Braxton Cook is one of this generation’s most exciting emerging talents in the world of jazz music. A product of Juilliard, Braxton’s wide-reaching instrumental skills include both alto saxophone and jazz guitar — in addition to being a uniquely talented vocalist and songwriter whose sound blends jazz, soul, R&B, and alternative music into a fresh new sound all his own.

In November of 2020, in a world still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, Harlem Stage hosted a live stream performance from Braxton as he shared the influence that revered jazz legend Charlie ‘Yardbird’ Parker had on his artistry and the broader jazz cannon. Parker is recognized as the architect of Bebop, which evolved during the tumultuous period in the decades after Emancipation, and Braxton’s multi-instrumental tribute is as mesmerizing as it is fitting.

Harlem Stage continues to host an array of diverse performances from Black Musicians. Stay up to date on upcoming live and digital performances by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.

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