The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation presents the trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and his quintet in concert at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center on Saturday, Dec. 12. There will be two performances, at 8p and 10p. WWOZ will be broadcasting the 8p show and livestreaming video on our website.

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah has had a whirlwind career that has brought him to the forefronts of jazz, hip-hop and pop. He is a leader rooted in the traditions of his hometown, New Orleans, who also pushes boundaries in his music and the music business.

Scott, now 32, graduated from the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts and then the Berklee College of Music (on full scholarship). His uncle is the saxophinist Donald Harrison, Jr., and his grandfather was the late Donald Harrison, Sr., the legendary Mardi Gras Indian chief who ushered young Christian into the tradition when he was six years old.

Building on that foundation, Scott has eagerly looked forward with hsi music, with stellar results. Following his 2006 debut album, "Rewind That," Billboard called the record "“arguably the most remarkable premiere the genre has seen in the last decade.” NPR said Scott "ushers in new era of jazz," and JazzTimes magazine called him "the Architect of a new commercially viable fusion."

He has worked with a wide range of collaborators, including McCoy Tyner, Prince, Marcus Miller, Eddie Palmieri, Mos Def (Yasin Bey), Thom Yorke and Solange Knowles. He has also been active as a composer for film, including several movies by his identical twin brother, Kiel Adrian Scott.

Christian is half the inspiration for the Delmond Lambreaux character on the HBO  TV series,  "Tremé." Lambreaux is a hybrid of both Christian and his uncle Donald.

Always one to resist strict genre labels, Scott has said: "Using the term jazz to describe my work is fine by me. However, just because it can be said that my work is inherently jazz does not mean that it is exclusively jazz."

Scott embraces a term that is frequently applied to his sound: "stretch."

"I have heard some describe our approach as 'stretch,' or calling what we play, 'stretch music.' It’s true that we are attempting to stretch—not replace—Jazz's rhythmic, melodic and harmonic conventions to encompass as many musical forms/languages/cultures as we can. My core belief is that no form of expression is more valid than any other. This belief has compelled me to attempt to create a sound that is genre blind in its acculturation of other musical forms, languages, textures, conventions and processes. This is done as a means of extending the dialogue of the human condition across the lines of cultural and genre based barriers."

Taking that concept further, Scott has named his latest recording "Stretch Music." He is releasing it via his own independent label, also called Stretch Music, in partnership with Ropeadope Records. And the release will be accompanied by the interactive Stretch Music app, which Scott calls "the first interactive offering for this generation of young improvisors."