He has a special interest in marine archaeology, diving down beneath the ocean to excavate what remains of the past. Somewhere in my bloodline the experience exists.ĭOUGLAS: The notion of ancestral recall has particular resonance for National Geographic Explorer and archaeologist Justin Dunnavant. Now I come from the initiated space in America, but I don’t have the same experience of being in the initiated spaces, the backside spaces, in Nigeria or Ghana or Benin or Senegal or Gambia.ĪDJUAH: You feel me? And I had no idea that I was creating a frame that not only housed and had the rhythms, but also the questions and answers and the dialectic components of the rhythms as well. These are the exact rhythms that you are playing. And when I sent it around to these guys to have them add layers of djembe or, you know, sangban, kenkeni, these kinds of instruments to it, they were all calling me back like, Where? How? Weedie specifically, he was like, this rhythm that you’re playing is Kassa Soro. To finish the record up, I sent it to legitimate babas in the old way, like Weedie Brama. JUSTIN DUNNAVANT (ARCHAEOLOGIST): Oh, wow.ĪDJUAH: Right? So all those layers and things that you hear on Ancestral Recall is me playing Ewe drums, Akan drums, you know, dununba drums, you know. Xian told Justin that when he recorded the album, which you’ll hear a bit of later, he found himself coming up with patterns that mirrored many traditional African rhythms.ĬHIEF XIAN ATUNDE ADJUAH (MUSICIAN): Ninety percent of what you hear being exhibited rhythmically is me playing. In 2019, Xian released an album called Ancestral Recall, a concept that he describes almost like a form of cultural epigenetics-a sort of tapping into the experiences of one’s ancestors in the present. Born and raised in New Orleans, he is the nephew of jazz innovator and legendary sax man, Donald Harrison, Jr. He’s a two-time Edison Award winner and he has five Grammy nominations. Today’s guests are Explorer Justin Dunnavant and musician Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, formerly known as Christian Scott.Ĭhief Xian is a multi-instrumentalist and producer, known primarily for his phenomenal trumpet and horn playing. National Geographic explorers will be sitting down with some of our favorite musicians to discuss how history and the natural world inspires their art and adventures. I’m a producer here at Overheard and this is part three of our four-part series focusing on music, exploration, and Black history. KHARI DOUGLAS (HOST): Hey there, I’m Khari Douglas. Listen on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, and Amazon Music.
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