New Orleans artist Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (fka Christian Scott) has announced his 14th studio album and first under his reclaimed name as a tribal leader. The self-produced album is called Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning and due July 28 via Ropeadope (pre-order). Its first single is “Xodokan Iko – Hu Na Ney,” a diasporic song that ties elements of the New Orleans standard “Iko Iko” to African chants and polyrhythms. Chief Adjuah says:
Everything from call and response to thunderous drums, music that lives with us in celebratory, proclamatory, preparatory, joyous, and determined moments of our journeys. It was without measure the amount of healing it did to sing the old songs the old way and the new, the new. The Album is a part of my journey into Cheifdom, the gathering of community, and the inspiration it created and continues to foster. It is another kind of Ancestral Recall. Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning was performed on Chief Adjuah’s Bow, a double-sided harp I created in 2021. It was built to serve as a bridge to the African forefather nations of the blues and its descendants, places like Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria, and Instruments like the Ngoni, Ankoting, and Bolon. But now in a plugged-in, lightning in a VOX and smokin’ pedals kinda way. Each record is sung and sewn with the song and story of the Xodokan Nation, and that of the Nations of my kin, ancestors, and predecessor Chieftain. My Grandfather who led many nations Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr. of the Guardians of the Flame and my uncle NEA Jazz Master Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr. of the Congo Square Nation. It’s that roaring sound of the Maroon Nations of New Orleans. Drums make thunder and boom, tamborines ring through time itself it seems. And other times it feels like it’s hailing a future of Rock n Roll that’s fully connected to all these skeleton keys, threads, and seeds. Each thread unites in possibility. Simultaneously centuries-old and focused forward—a Sankofa’n approach to Rock n Roll, Blues, and yeah Stretch Music.
Check out the new song, tracklist, and full list of performers on the album, below.
Tracklist
1. Blood Calls Blood
2. Trouble That Mornin’
3. Xodokan Iko – Hu Na Ney
4. Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning
5. Shallow Water [Tribute Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr. – Guardians of the Flame]
6. On To New Orleans [Runnin’ in 7’s Redux]
7. End Simulation
8. Ashé Chief Donald [Tribute Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr. – Congo Square Nation]
9. Golden Crown [Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah – Xodokan Nation]
10. Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning [Duo]
Credits
Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah – Vocals, Chief Adjuah’s Bow, Adjuah’s N’Goni, SPDSX, Pan African Kit, Bells, Tambourine, Percussion*, Synth Percussion, Sonic Architecture and Production (All Tracks)
Trail Chief Kiel Adrian Scott – Vocals, Percussion (Tracks 3, 5, 8, 9 )
Weedie Braimah – Djembe, Congas, Tambourine, Dun Duns, Percussion*, Vocals (Tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9)
Luques Curtis – Bass, Guembri Vocals (Tracks 2, 3, 5,8, 9)
Elé Howell – Pan African Kit, Drums, Bells, Tambourines, Vocals (Tracks 3, 5, 8, 9, 10)
Brian Richburg Jr. – Drums, SPDSX, Percussion, Tambourines, Vocals (Tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9)
Marcus Gillmore – Drums (Tracks 3, 5)
Joe Dyson Jr. Pan African Kit (Track 6)
Corey Fonville – Drums (Track 6 )
Alfred Jordan – Drums, Percussion, Tambourine, Vocals (Tracks 3, 5, 8, 9)
Mizan Willis – Dun Duns, Bells, Shekere, Percussion*, Vocals (Tracks 3, 5, 9)
Amyna Love – Vocals (Tracks 3, 5, 9)
Amina Scott – Vocals (Tracks 3, 5, 9)
Lioness Sia Fodey – Vocals (Tracks 3, 5, 9)
* [Performers whose percussion credits include Mande Drums, Dundunba, Sangban, Kenkeni, Ewe Drums, Sogo, Atsimevu, Agboba, Kidi, Kaganu, Mbira, Kalimba, and Bata]