Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and Harlem Stage Present the 3rd and Final Stretch Music Festival

Harlem Stage, the legendary uptown venue that for over 35 years has promoted the creative legacy of Harlem and artists of color from around the corner and across the globe, is proud to present its Spring 2019 season of performances. The 2019 spring season is curated by Monique Martin, Director of Programming for Harlem Stage and features artists who #Disrupt and take creative risk. The performances feature a range of artistic genres, offering audiences the chance to experience legendary performers, as well as rising stars.  

Harlem Stage is thrilled to continue its partnership with Edison Award-winning and Grammy-nominated trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah to re-establish jazz as a social music through the Stretch Music Residency. This third and final year of Adjuah’s residency will feature the 3rd and final installment of the Stretch Music Festival. Featuring artists including Saul Williams, the Logan Richardson band, Freelance and more. The festival also includes a FREE Stretch Music Intensive, in addition to a performance from the Steve Turre Quintet as part of the Jazz Then and Now conversation series.

  

The series kicks off on April 9th as Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah returns to Manhattan School of Music to lead a FREE masterclass on his genre blind Stretch Music. All music students, musicians and lovers of the jazz idiom and all its variabilities are welcomed to join this immersive workshop centered on improvisation, technique and thriving as a working artist today. Also on April 9th, is a free pop-up performance at Silvana’s Restaurant featuring drummer, producer and composer King Klavé.

On April 11th, as part of the Jazz Then and Now series, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah will be in conversation with composer and trombonist Steve Turre on improvisation, technology, collaboration, the importance of the historical lineage and more. The conversation will be preceded with a live performance by the Steve Turre Quintet. Jazz Then and Now is a conversation series, presented as part of the Stretch Music Residency that brings together innovative thought leaders in the field in dialogue on the history, the present and the future of jazz. 

Closing out the series on April 12th, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah curates and performs at his final Stretch Music Festival under his three-year residency with Harlem Stage. The generosity, leadership and innovation Christian has brought to the Harlem Stage Gatehouse and broader New York community is extraordinary. The audience can anticipate another powerful festival that will once again advance and stretch the landscape of jazz. The evening will feature stellar guests including Saul Williams, the Logan Richardson band, Freelance and more, as Christian connects West African rhythms with his Afro New Orleanian cultural traditions to the sonic freedoms of creative improvised music. Come ready to be Stretched!