Multi-instrumentalist, producer, Chief, and Grand Griot—Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah’s life and times have long transcended any singular definition, whether personal or professional in nature. A veteran of the creative landscape, Adjuah’s versatility and vast mental bandwidth are remarkable to witness. Hearing him speak, it’s apparent that his uniquely industrious work ethic is grounded in an insightful personality defined by his heritage, thoughtfulness, tact, and warmth.

His 2015 album Stretch Music, a vibrant, high-vibrational fusion of genres upon which jazz has historically left its imprint, has just been republished and given new life after the long, winding decade since its initial release. At its birth, Adjuah’s effort was hailed as a boundary-breaking, multifaceted piece of expression that drew in both jazz aficionados and casual listeners alike with bombastically lush soundscapes and deliberate, sharp compositions. Stretch Music is the album that precedes five out of Chief Adjuah’s six GRAMMY nominations; in essence, the record was the foundation for Adjuah’s current run of critical acclaim. That said, the Stretch Music era and the success that has come with it were itself laid on Adjuah’s extensive foundational work, harking back to the start of his independent career in 2002, and even further back to his teenage tutelage under his Jazz Master uncle, Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr. 

With the ten-year deluxe reintroduction of Stretch Music, Adjuah treats listeners to three new songs, all of which are original to this new edition of his seminal album: “Take Off Your Cool”, “Shared Stories of Rivals II”, and “Back 2 Back”. While all three additions to the Stretch Music canon feel aligned with the original record’s genre-blind sound, the debutants truly add a new texture. All at once jarring, inspiring, riveting, and soulful, these textures are informed by years of Adjuah’s learning and leadership in his spaces, reshaping the complexion of the decade-old fixtures on the project. 

“Take Off Your Cool” unfolds the way a fleshed out, patiently paced novel does—full of subtle tonal shifts that carry our ears and minds along for a gentle yet anamorphic stroll through the world which the song constructs. The song also features jazz genre-bender Robert Glasper, whose piano playing lights the way as one journeys along the song’s exquisitely curvy road. 

“Shared Stories of Rivals II” is concise and intentional, garnished with warping, wandering instrumentation—a stark change from the previous track. The emotion gleaned from listening to the song is moody, complex, and gorgeously shadowy, like feeling the eyes of a rival leering at you from around the corner. One might imagine that the composition feels somewhat like a score you might hear when watching a film depicting the nuanced ebb and flow of a relationship between begrudgingly respectful, competitive contemporaries.  

“Back 2 Back” is a track unabashed about its genre-blending properties. Hi-hats, birdlike flutes, and bass reminiscent of the gravelly hum of an 808 drum machine clearly nod toward Chief Adjuah’s hip-hop influences. The track showcases Adjuah’s range and is a character-filled final flourish on an album which is as powerful and enticing now as it was a decade ago.

Until now, and certainly going forward as well, Chief Adjuah has consistently reclaimed and redefined the fields of music and industry he inhabits. His advent of the Stretch Music App, an interactive media player, predates the explosive rise of music streaming, setting it apart from the mainstream streamers like Spotify and Apple Music. His music, influenced by the sonics of New Orleans jazz royalty and the cultural groundings of his Afro New Orleanian, Black Indian background, embodies both lineage and innovation. His past collaborations with Adams Musical Instruments in crafting trumpets to his own specifications, followed by his pioneering of the eponymous Adjuah Bow exemplify his drive and unaffected bravery in blazing a trail unique to himself—and for those who follow. The titles of some of his post-2015 records, alone — Diaspora, Ruler Rebel, The Emancipation Procrastination, Ancestral Recall — testify to his inclination to reclaim and redefine the oppressive and contrived narratives historically imposed on the Black diaspora. Stretch Music is no exception, as the title has become the name of Adjuah’s record label while the music on the album itself defies sterile convention by creating a platform for all of Adjuah’s influences to roam free, loud, and in vivacious fashion.   

Ever the craftsman and visionary, Chief Adjuah is an artist cemented in his convictions. His work to address a glaring lack of equity behind the curtain of the music industry manifests in his pursuits with Stretch Music, the label. His determination to bridge the gap between genres is clear in his varying, illustrious discography. Adjuah’s belief in the power and majesty of the African and Mother-Country diaspora is on glorious display in his willingness to share the parameters and history behind his status as Grand Griot of New Orleans and his Chiefdom of the Xodokan Nation of Maroons. With a finger in every conceivable pie, Chief Adjuah manages to maneuver around the stifling conditions of musical tradition, on stage and in the boardroom.