Thursday, November 26, 2020
*********************** For Immediate Release
Christian Scott and Jon Batiste; Former
students of Kidd Jordan receives Grammy Nominations for Best Contemporary
Instrumental Album
NEW ORLEANS - Two
former music students of New Orleans' Kidd Jordan; Christian Scott;
and Jon Batiste were nominated for 2021 Grammy Awards in the
category of Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. Both musicians are
graduates of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and studied under
Jordan at the Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp during
their formative years. Jordan has served as the artistic director of
the Jazz Camp since its 1995 inception.
Scott, known
professionally as Christian Scott
aTunde Adjuah, is nominated for his album "Axiom" and is
also nominated for a second Grammy, in the category of Best Improvised Jazz
Solo, for his solo performance "Guinevere," a track from his
album "Axiom."
He is the nephew
of jazz innovator and legendary sax man, Donald Harrison, Jr. His musical
tutelage began under the direction of his uncle at the age of thirteen.
After graduating from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) in
2001, Christian received a full tuition scholarship to Berklee College of
Music where he earned a degree in professional music and film scoring
thirty months later.
Since 2002,
Christian has released eleven critically acclaimed studio recordings, two
live albums and one greatest hits collection. According to NPR,
"Christian Scott ushers in new era of jazz". He has been heralded
by JazzTimes Magazine as "Jazz's young style God."
Christian is known for developing the harmonic convention known as the
“forecasting cell” and for his use of an un-voiced tone in his playing,
emphasizing breath over vibration at the mouthpiece. The technique is known
as his “whisper technique.”
Christian is the
progenitor of “Stretch Music,” a jazz rooted, genre blind musical form that
attempts to “stretch” jazz’s rhythmic, melodic and harmonic conventions to
encompass as many other musical forms, languages and cultures as
possible...
Jon Batiste, a Kenner native who serves as the bandleader
for CBS' "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and a previous
Grammy nominee will be competing with Scott for Best Contemporary
Instrumental Album. Batiste is nominated for "Chronology of a Dream:
Live at the Village Vanguard."
Batiste also received
a second nomination, in the New Age Album category, for his work on
"Meditations" with Cory Wong.
As a teenager,
Batiste began self-producing and releasing his music on the internet, as
well as performing internationally. His major label debut “Hollywood
Africans” was nominated for a GRAMMY award for Best American Roots
Performance in 2019 and, along with his band Stay Human, he is featured
nightly on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. His music is featured in the
2020 Disney Pixar film Soul, and his composing and songwriting will be
featured in his large scale, genre-melding symphonic work “American
Symphony,” set to be performed at Carnegie Hall in 2021.
Born into a long
lineage of Louisiana musicians, Batiste received both his undergraduate and
masters degrees in piano from the Juilliard School. He is currently the
Music Director of The Atlantic, the Co-Artistic Director of the National
Jazz Museum in Harlem and is on the board of Sing For Hope.
Joining Scott and
Batiste in terms of nominees in the 63rd annual Grammy Awards with local
ties are P.J. Morton, Harry Connick Jr., Ledisi and Luke James. Morton
a previous Grammy winner and multiple Grammy nominee is nominated for Best
Gospel Album for his album, "Gospel According to P.J.: From the
Songbook of P.J. Morton."
Three-time Grammy
winner Harry Connick Jr. is nominated in the category of Best Traditional
Pop Vocal Album, for his album, "True Love: A Celebration of Cole
Porter." Ledisi received her 13th nomination for Best Traditional
R&B Performance, for "Anything for You."
Luke James, a
singer/songwriter/actor from New Orleans, is nominated for Best R&B
Album for his second album, "To Feel Loved."
The winners will
be announced at the live show on Jan. 31 on CBS and WWL-TV Channel 4. For
the full list of nominees, visit the GRAMMYs website here.
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