The infectious energy and bombastic grooves of jazz/soul drummer/band leader Makaya McCraven are channelled into the most focused and cohesive overall recording of his career so far on Universal Beings. That the sound quality is more pristine than previous releases certainly helps — it’s no easy feat to get this kind of clarity on a live recording — but it’s the songs themselves that feel the most honed.
While the music is clearly rooted in jazz, the influences on this ensemble’s sound are vast and worldly, if not measurably universal. With “Black Lion,” McCraven and company tap into the deep pocket and simple repetitive hooks of hip-hop, while allowing room for jazzy flourishes filled with subtle nuance to sub in for the absent vocals. Elsewhere, surprisingly baroque violin…
Tag Archive: Makaya McCraven
When Chicago drummer Makaya McCraven released his album In the Moment a decade ago few could have foreseen its prescience, not just as a grand statement representing the aesthetic tendencies of International Anthem, the influential label that released it, but as a sonic blueprint for the leader. That album was famously culled from 48 hours of recordings made during a weekly residency at a club in Chicago in 2013, with the drummer subsequently building compositions in the studio from groove-oriented live improvisations played by an ever-changing cast of local heavies, including guitarist Jeff Parker, trumpeter Marquis Hill, and bassist Junius Paul, all of whom remain frequent collaborators. Although McCraven’s last studio album—the orchestrally sumptuous…