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Makaya McCraven: Cross Border Traffic
by Chris May
Like his near contemporaries Shabaka Hutchings, Kamasi Washington, Nubya Garcia and Robert Glasper, the Chicago-based drummer, bandleader, producer and self-declared beat scientist Makaya McCraven is routinely described by the more breathless commentators writing about modern music as a “saviour" of jazz. Certainly, McCraven and his peers are enriching jazz by their embrace of other styles, be they hip hop, dub reggae, grime, cumbia or Afrobeat. Yet as McCraven, Hutchings, Washington, Garcia and Glasper are ready to point out, ...
Continue ReadingMakaya McCraven: Universal Beings E&F Sides
by Chris May
Universal Beings E&F Sides is an addendum to drummer and producer Makaya McCraven's paradigm-shifting underground hit Universal Beings (International Anthem, 2018). That album was a double (four sides: A, B, C and D). The new album is a single (two sides: E and F). Geddit? Most, but not all, of the tracks on E&F Sides were recorded at the same sessions as the first album, in London, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Featured musicians include young ...
Continue ReadingJeff Parker & The New Breed: Suite For Max Brown
by Jerome Wilson
Guitarist Jeff Parker spent many years in Chicago involved in the city's fertile jazz and experimental music scene, primarily as a member of the AACM and the band Tortoise. In 2013 he relocated to Los Angeles. Since then, his music as a leader has combined a 70's rhythm and blues vibe with the sampling, electronic manipulation and serial techniques he was involved with in Chicago. This album, dedicated to his mother whose maiden name was Maxine Brown, shows just how ...
Continue ReadingJeremy Cunningham: The Weather Up There
by Jakob Baekgaard
The complex landscape of human emotions is still vastly uncharted, but every true work of art adds a little piece to the puzzle. This can be done in many ways, but it is rare that an album connects emotion with complex layers of memory, interpersonal relations, politics and societal structures. Nevertheless, this is what drummer and composer Jeremy Cunningham's album does. In a statement, Cunningham explains the background: “I wrote The Weather Up There to confront the ...
Continue ReadingGil Scott-Heron / Makaya McCraven: We're New Again
by Karl Ackermann
"All the dreams you show up in are not your own." With those words to an interviewer at The New Yorker, Gil Scott-Heron tried to explain a degree of detachment from I'm New Here (XL Recordings, 2011), his “comeback" and the final studio album before his death that year. The project was initiated by the head of XL and was the first album Scott-Heron released in the sixteen years he struggled with addiction and two drug-related terms in prison. The ...
Continue Reading2020 Winter JazzFest: New Projects and Out-of-Towners - Part I
by Ludovico Granvassu
The 2020 edition of the Winter JazzFest has just begun. This week we feature music by some of the most interesting bands from out of town who will be at the JazzFest, and new or unreleased material that will be on display on the stages of the JazzFest. Of special interest yet-unreleased material by Ted Poor, Kevin Eubanks & Orrin Evans and a unique reimagining of the work of Gil Scott Heron by Makaya McCraven. Happy listening! ...
Continue ReadingAntoine Berjeaut, Jeff Parker, Rita Marcotulli and More New Releases
by Ludovico Granvassu
Mondo Jazz's final stash of new releases of 2019 is the perfect way to end a year that has been generous and full of surprises. During this first hour we'll sample the music of many 'bands without borders' as well as tributes to Mose Allison, Dewey Redman and Bernard Herrmann. Happy listening! Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Daniel Erdmann's Velvet Revolution “La Tigresse" Won't Put No Flag Out ...
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