American Standard Time
Risk-averse Chicago drummer/producer’s rhy thmically deep reimagining of Blue Note material. By Andy Cowan.
“Come in here and swing”: Makaya McCraven updates Blue Note.
Makaya McCraven
★★★★
Deciphering The Message
BLUE NOTE. CD/DL/LP
EVER SINCE he added hip-hop chops to the traditional jazz trio format on 2012 debut Split Decision, Paris-born, Chicagobased drummer Makaya McCraven has devoted his energies to blurring the lines between live performance and digital production. The self-styled beat scientist’s follow-ups In The Moment (2015) and Universal Beings (2018) shifted the rules of creation further, layering and splicing together long improvised jams with a clutch of worldly new jazz arrivistes (including Brandee Younger, Tomeka Reid, Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia) into carefully structured pieces, while We’re New Again (2020) – his refiguring of Gil Scott-Heron’s final album I’m New Here – returned the late revolutionary poet to his soul jazz roots.