CHRISTIAN SCOTT, the New Orleans-raised, Berklee-educated, Manhattan-based trumpeter’s music is rooted in tradition but it is also part of the modern world, musically and politically. Scott hangs on to what is still relevant in jazz’s legacy and mixes it up with a bag of twists: hip hop, rock, ambient, funk, Afrorock and the reassertion of jazz-as-protest. Scott is not the only young musician traveling this road, but the music he is creating may be the most magnetic around. Scott calls it “stretch music.”’ (All About Jazz review). Audiences worldwide agree. Christian Scott is making major musical waves – he was the break-out sensation at last year’s Jazz Fest.

Keyboard and accordionist HAILU MERGIA was a major star in 1970’s Ethiopia, presiding over the country’s leading instrumental jazz ensemble Walias Band. In 1981 members of Walias including Hailu used the first ever US tour of an Ethiopian music group to escape the dictatorial Mengistu regime. Since then Hailu has been a resident of the DC area, spending most of his recent years as a cab driver at the capital’s Dulles Airport and playing only privately. Enter Brian Shimkovitz of Awesome Tapes From Africa, who came across “Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument”, an obscure 1985 cassette, in a music store in Ethiopia, tracked down the old maestro and reissued it. And voila! Hailu begins his comeback onto festival stages worldwide.

Opening Set By: Aaron Lebos Reality

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