Makaya McCraven

This is such a long overdue thread. Anyway, now there's a place to anticipate In These Times, which is due in September: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/in-these-times

Preview track "Seventh String" sounds p great, though obviously it's not a "single"

I saw him give a master class in Portland, OR a few years ago, and while I wasn't very familiar with his work, I was really knocked out by it. He said, "Pulse is the basis of what we as drummers do." Afterwards I asked him about the pulse in percussionists who didn't play metric time (Sunny Murray, Milford Graves, Rashied Ali). He said, "There's still the same pulse -- they just don't have to overtly state it." I thought that was interesting. He also talked about how he got into non-standard time signatures (say, 5/8 or 7/8) from Hungarian folk music.

Very interesting dude. I interviewed him for The Wire a few years ago. I pre-ordered this new album (which I'm surprised is on IA/Nonesuch, as his last thing was on Blue Note — I guess that was a one-off, or it didn't do the numbers they hoped for).

Instant pre-order for me, really looking forward to this.

I'd also *highly* recommend seeing him live if you can; really psyched he's playing the Jazz Fest here at the end of the month

Excited for this, I was at the Walker gig that was recorded to be used on this

Although this album is “new," the truth it’s something that's been in process for a very long time, since shortly after he released his International Anthem debut In The Moment in 2015. Dedicated followers may note he’s had 6 other releases in the meantime (including 2018’s widely-popular Universal Beings and 2020’s We’re New Again, his rework of Gil Scott-Heron’s final album for XL Recordings); but none of which have been as definitive an expression of his artistic ethos as In These Times.

Universal Beings is pretty perfect, imo, so the bar for this is certainly high.

Shoulda checked email sooner: press release says Sept.23, and

Contributing musicians: Jeff Parker, Junius Paul, Brandee Younger, Lia Kohl, Macie Stewart, Zara Zaharieva, Marta Sofia Honer, Greg Ward, Irvin Pierce, Marquis Hill, Matt Gold, Greg Spero, Joel Ross, De’Sean Jones, and Rob Clearfield.

Feels like the new album is going to be really groovy, I love this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsr7IYLhG1o

He's doing a free show in Central Park. Will have to check it out (hopefully won't be too long of a line to get in).

Yeah, I've also dug how he's a working link between Chicago and London jazz---and in 2020, this made several of my ballots---from blogged comments:

Gil Scott-Heron/Makaya McCraven, We're New Again: A Reimagining By Makaya McCraven---Still haven't heard the original album, or Jamie xx's reworking, but the unmistakable sound and sensibility of classic Gil come through: sharp, reflective glints in the dark, rough-edged and fluid, lyrical and realist, searching and on point, thematic and grooving---jazzwise, yet "blues is a feeling" the overall. Only thing is, some of the originals are really short, like down to 37 seconds: golden kernels of potential and realization---McCraven is def. not showboating, but I wish he extended these--maybe he was required to stick to the original track times? I'd like a bit more---Anyway, it's all good, though faves are mostly because they have longer to make an impression: "New York is Killing Me," "I'll Take Care of You," "Me and the Devil"--yes, Scott-Heron and Robert Johnson and Mr. D. riding the Greyhound, seems natural. Speaking voice is worn but clear, singing voice not that different from 1970s.