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christian
SCOTT
SHOWS HIS TEETH
By Jennifer Odell // Photo by Jimmy Katz
During Jazz Fest in New Orleans, trumpeter Christian Scott
was driving home after playing a late-night gig with Soulive
when he noticed a car trailing him by the Claiborne Street
underpass. At first he was afraid he was going to be the
target of a robbery. When the sirens came on, he realized
he was being pulled over.
In the moments that followed, he says, nine police officers
drew their guns on him, and he was dragged from the car
and thrown on the hood. Not wanting to become the next
Amadou Diallo, he suggested the officer get his ID out of his
wallet while he kept his hands in the air.
“ Oh, we got one of these type of niggers,” quipped a cop.
In the course of reacting to the use of that word, the slight,
25-year-old musician was told to shut up unless he wanted
his mother to pick him up “ from the morgue.”
Log on to concordmusicgroup.com/cscottjazz to hear
full streaming audio of “The Eraser” from Christian
Scott’s CD Yesterday You Said Tomorrow.