Trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah has released a steady flow of adventurous, genre-bending studio albums, yet it's his live performances that often reveal just how accessible, emotionally visceral, and funky his ethereally textured brand of fusion actually is. It's a vibe he cultivates on his third concert album, 2020's Axiom. Recorded live at New York's Blue Note Jazz Club in March 2020, the set follows on the heels of his Grammy-nominated 2019 record Ancestral Recall and features almost the same group with flutist Elena Pinderhughes, pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Kris Funn, drummer Corey Fonville, and percussionist Weedie Braimah. It's also essentially the same group with whom Scott recorded his 2015 LP Stretch Music, as well as his ambitious 2017 Centennial Trilogy of albums: Diaspora, Ruler Rebel, and The Emancipation Procrastination. In that sense, Axiom works nicely as an overview of Scott's work, showcasing his organic blend of expansive fusion harmonies, skittering electronic-influenced rhythms, and acidic, effects-laden improvisations. The album opens in dramatic fashion with "X. Adjuah (I Own the Night)" off Ancestral Recall. Built around an introspective, minor-key piano riff, the song builds in intensity as Scott lays down a psychedelic flamenco-sounding melody. Equally compelling is his woozy dreamscape take on David Crosby's 1968 composition "Guinnevere." Building upon Miles Davis' rendition from 1979's Circle in the Round, Scott's version is fiery and celestial as he dives headlong into Field's syrupy organ chords and Fonville's spiraling drum groove. While Scott's mutative trumpet playing is certainly the focal point of Axiom, he's also not afraid to share the spotlight, giving plenty of space for his bandmates to stretch out as Pinderhughes does on the buoyantly earthy "Diaspora." It's also illuminating to hear just how much Braimah's African djembe playing informs the overall sound of the band, as on the kinetic "Sunrise in Beijing." Aurally expansive, global in scope, and rife with an emotional immediacy, Axiom is the perfect distillation of Scott's work in the 2010s.
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