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Tavis: Christian Scott is a rising young star in the world of jazz. The New Orleans native is just 23 years old, and already an acclaimed trumpeter. This weekend he'll be taking part in the annual Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, for those of you here in southern California. His new CD is called 'Rewind That.' In a moment, a special performance from Christian. But first, Christian, nice to have you here, man.

Christian Scott: Thanks for having me here.

Tavis: It's an honor to meet you.

Scott: Oh, I'm honored, man. (laughs)

Tavis: We've been reading about you and hearing about you, and I should say you're not just playing at the Playboy Jazz Festival, one of the renowned festivals for jazz in the world. You're not just playing, you are the opening act, kid.

Scott: Yeah, that's gonna be fun. (laughs) I can't wait, man.

Tavis: So how's that feel?

Scott: It feels really good, man.

Tavis: Yeah?

Scott: It's like a lot of work is coming through, so it's cool, yeah.

Tavis: So what are you gonna do? You got the set all worked out?

Scott: Some stuff. Like actually, the tune that we're gonna do here, it's called 'Katrina's Eyes,' is gonna, it was premiered here, but we're gonna play it there, too.

Tavis: Oh, cool. Well, that's good. We're gonna get a premiere here on our show, 'Katrina's Eyes.' Anything to do with that Katrina? As in the Hurricane Katrina?

Scott: Yeah, well, it's funny, because actually I wrote it when I was, you know there's this Prince song that he wrote when he was sleeping? And I never believed that you could do that.

Tavis: Yeah. (laughs)

Scott: But I guess I was knocked out, (laughs) and I had this dream that I had a daughter, and she had these really beautiful eyes and this mole, and she looks like this girl that I'm dating right now. But I had a daughter, and we were calling her Katrina.

Tavis: Right.

Scott: And I started hearing this theme. But it was kind of happy. And at the end of the dream, I was, like, you know what? This is, like, a bit too much. Like, I'm too young to be thinking about kids and everything. And then the baby threw up on me.

Tavis: Right.

Scott: So, when I woke...

Tavis: And then you woke up. (laughs)

Scott: Yeah, I woke up when the baby threw up on me. And when (laughs) I started writing the tune out, I said, you know what? I gotta put some darker chords in this, 'cause it ends with the baby throwing up on me. So, yeah.

Tavis: (laughs) Does a young jazz trumpeter get influenced by a guy like Prince? He's been on this show, I love Prince, but, yeah.

Scott: Oh, God, yeah. Of course, man. I grew up listening to Prince. That's, like, all that was in my mother's cassette player for a long time.

Tavis: Oh yeah?

Scott: Yeah, a lot of stuff. I have all types of influences, I like, like, rock and roll music, pop music, I listen to everything, yeah.

Tavis: On the trumpet, though, I would assume that one can't put anybody above Miles Davis.

Scott: No. Well, at least not for me.

Tavis: Not for you, I'm sure, yeah.

Scott: Yeah. In context to his artistry, not just his trumpet playing, too. 'Cause he was a great performer and trumpet player, but I once heard this interview that he had did in, like, I think 1979 or something like that, where they were asking him why he didn't do ballads anymore. And his reasoning for that was because he loved ballads so much. And I had never heard anyone speak like that before about art. You're choosing not to do something because you love it? So for me, that was a very paramount marker for his artistry. So I was, like, man, that's my guy from now on, yeah.

Tavis: Now the last time, I don't know how much you know about Miles Davis, I assume as much as I do, if not more, since you're in the genre. But the last time I saw Miles, I saw him play at the Hollywood Bowl.

Scott: Oh wow, man.

Tavis: And true to his form, he played with his back to the audience most of the night.

Scott: Ah. (laughs)

Tavis: You're not gonna do that Sunday, are you?

Scott: No, no, I'm not.

Tavis: Okay. (laughs) I ain't mad at Miles. Miles is a genius. He can do whatever he want to do.

Scott: 'Cause he used to, I also think of the same interview, but he used to always say that, like, I didn't pay to see them, they paid to see me, so. (laughs)

Tavis: I didn't pay to see, they paid to see me. He made fun about that.

Scott: Right. (laughs)

Tavis: I had Herbie Hancock, who of course we all know, Herbie was on this show, who played with Miles. And Herbie told me that he thought and picked up from his conversations over the years with Miles that he played to the band 'cause in rehearsal, you're conducting.

Scott: He was conducting, yeah.

Tavis: You're conducting, and you wanna hear what's happening behind you.

Scott: What's happening. (laughs) Yeah, it's true.

Tavis: So that's why he played with his, yeah.

Scott: It's actually very practical to play like that. It's just sometimes, what can happen is audience members can get kind of ticked off, so.

Tavis: So they'll see your handsome mug facing them on Sunday.

Scott: Right, yeah.

Tavis: All right. Tell me about this horn you got in front of you. I assume yours is custom made.

Scott: Yeah, well, see, this is an Edwards prototype. It's about two years old, and this is called the Generation X. Now, they're making a horn just for me, it's my signature model? And it's gonna be called Christian Scott's Katrina, after the hurricane. And it's sort of like this, but the bell is sort of like a hybrid between, like, a Dizzy Gillespie style bell, and one like this.

Tavis: We got a picture of that, I think, don't we?

Scott: Yeah, we have a picture of it. So it's like the bell comes up...

Tavis: Put that picture up, Jonathan. Oh, there it is.

Scott: Yeah, there you go.

Tavis: So that's the one they're making for you.

Scott: That's the one they're making for me. So...

Tavis: So with the bell high up, what does that do to the sound?

Scott: Well, essentially what's happening is the bell is about halfway as high as Dizzy's was.

Tavis: Right.

Scott: And there's some very practical reasons for it, the first being when I play, and they'll see when I perform, my neck is a bit lower, and it helps me produce this airy tone that I have. And because of that reason, it makes sense for the bell to be a little bit higher, just in case I don't have a microphone. People can always hear what's happening. The bell's not to the ground.

Tavis: Not to the ground, right.

Scott: Also, this break right here is not gonna be as sharp, so I'll be able to hear the sound much more quickly. So it's like instead of me reacting to the sound after the fact, I'll hear it and react instantly. So yeah, it's just a monster, man.

Tavis: So you gonna sound even better than you do already.

Scott: Oh, man, well, (laughs) yeah. I gotta keep practicing, so yeah, I hope so.

Tavis: How did you pick up this particular instrument?

Scott: Wow. Well...

Tavis: At 12. Was it 12?

Scott: Yeah, 11 or 12, something like that.

Tavis: Why the trumpet for you?

Scott: Well, my uncle is a saxophonist guy named Donald Harrison Junior. And they call him Donald The Duck, and I guess when I was younger, I thought he was so cool, man. He would always come around, he'd be Dapper Don, and ladies had this propensity to really like the way he dressed, and his smile, and things of that nature. (laughs) So I wanted to hang out with him.

Tavis: Yeah.

Scott: And he put out an album on Candid called 'Indian Blues.' And this was the first album that he did without Terence Blanchard, and they co-led a group for about 10 years on Columbia. And I was sitting in the car with my grandmother, and I didn't hear the trumpet. And I asked her where was Terence? And she told me that they weren't playing together anymore, there wasn't a trumpet in the band.

So immediately, I was, like, all right, I'm gonna pick up the trumpet and play so I could hang around my uncle. That was the first reasoning for it. And once I got it, and the first day I went to him, he was, like, listen, you sure you wanna do this? I was, like, yeah. So he gave me 'Donna Lee,' which is, like, one of the hardest tunes in the be-bop idiom to play.

And I learned it in two weeks, and he was just, like, so shocked he was like, I guess you wanna do it. But after that, I went to, like, jazz boot camp with him. And then I was like, I don't wanna play the trumpet no more. (laughs) Yeah, it was an interesting time, man.

Tavis: Is it just me or is, like, the trumpet, like, the sexiest, coolest instrument ever made?

Scott: See, and this is the funny thing, all right? Now, the trumpet is not, like, this is one of the reasons I got, to get that airy tone, I wanted to first try to emulate my mother's voice. And I had always been trying to figure out a way to do that, and I talked to some older guys. I sat down to rap with Clark Terry. And he was telling me that guys like Clifford Brown would use warm air when they played.

And he sort of showed me, like, how to do it. I couldn't figure it out, but after a couple of years of working with it, with the warm air, you get the airy sound. So for me, I think it's got sort of this hint of this sexuality in it. But most trumpets are, like, kind of loud and blaring, and could be kind of a turn-off. So, but I guess it work. It depends on who's playing.

Tavis: I would think the good news about picking up the trumpet is that it is, to our conversation now, a really cool instrument. The downside, I would think, to playing the trumpet, which is true of most instruments, but this one in a different sort of way, because so many hip, soulful cats have played this instrument, you really are...

Scott: Right, it's hard to make your mark.

Tavis: There you go. You said it for me.

Scott: Hard to make your mark.

Tavis: Say that again?

Scott: Yeah, it's hard to make your mark.

Tavis: So why do that, then? I know you ain't stuck on stupid.

Scott: You know what? The thing is...

Tavis: So why do you wanna do something like that?

Scott: I don't know, ever since I was really small, I wanted to be really good at something. I decided that I wanted to pick something to do and really cultivate that as much as possible. And I'm like an Aries, and I like challenges. Like, I grew up fighting a lot. That's, like, my personality type. (laughs) So, I guess the trumpet was a natural instrument. And where I'm from in New Orleans, it's like, and this happened I guess a bit later.

But you know how, like, in other states, the captain of the football team is the coolest guy at the school? Where I'm from, it's like the section leader on trumpet is, like, the most happening cat in the school.

Tavis: That's New Orleans. Yeah.

Scott: So I was, like, hey, man, I'm gonna get a trumpet.

Tavis: (laughs) Now the real story comes out.

Scott: Yeah, that was (unintelligible).

Tavis: Yeah, he didn't really just wanna be good at something.

Scott: No, no, no.

Tavis: He wanted to be the most popular guy.

Scott: There we go.

Tavis: And the best dressed guy, so that all the girls would come his way.

Scott: There we go.

Tavis: You learned something from your uncle, didn't you?

Scott: Yes, I did.

Tavis: Yeah. (laughs)

Scott: Yes, sir.

Tavis: Let me close our conversation with this. I was on the phone with a friend of mine earlier today, a guy named Eddie. And Eddie shared with me a quote from Nietzsche that I had never heard. But it was so powerful, and it speaks, I think, poignantly to what you just said about deciding as a young person that there's something you wanted to really, really be good at. So Nietzsche says, form an image of yourself, and make the future conform to it.

Scott: Around the image. Yeah.

Tavis: Isn't that powerful?

Scott: Mm hmm, (unintelligible).

Tavis: Form an image of yourself, and make the future conform to it. And you've done that, and done it well.

Scott: Thank you so much.

Tavis: It's a pleasure to meet you, Christian. Christian Scott, remember the name. If you're in the southern California area, he will open the famed Playboy Jazz Festival this weekend. The new CD is 'Rewind That' by Christian Scott. Up next, a special performance from Christian Scott. 'Katrina's Eyes,' he calls it. Stay with us.

As we say good night, here is Christian Scott, performing 'Katrina's Eyes.' Enjoy. Good night from Los Angeles, and keep the faith.

(music)

(applause)