One of the greatest traits for jazz as a musical pursuit is its ability to accommodate many other sounds, approaches, and even genres under its umbrella while renewing itself in the process. You can hear it in Jelly Roll Morton's mutant rumba rhythms, Dizzy Gillespie's Afro-Cuban bop exchanges with Chano Pozo and Machito, and in the experimental, tape-sliced fusion recordings of Miles Davis with producer Teo Macero, on through the funky jazz and hip-hop melds of Guru and Madlib. In These Times, by beatmaker/drummer/mixing ...
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One of the greatest traits for jazz as a musical pursuit is its ability to accommodate many other sounds, approaches, and even genres under its umbrella while renewing itself in the process. You can hear it in Jelly Roll Morton's mutant rumba rhythms, Dizzy Gillespie's Afro-Cuban bop exchanges with Chano Pozo and Machito, and in the experimental, tape-sliced fusion recordings of Miles Davis with producer Teo Macero, on through the funky jazz and hip-hop melds of Guru and Madlib. In These Times, by beatmaker/drummer/mixing desk wizard Makaya McCraven, is an excellent new chapter in this evolution. He is a sound technician whose multidisciplinary approach takes live playing from a carefully curated cast and samples, splices, and sequences it, revamping the audio to satisfy his inner muse and blending the organic and synthetic into holistic compositions. In These Times has been in process since McCraven released 2015's In the Moment. It continued through 2018's Universal Beings and sequels, 2020's Gil Scott-Heron reimagining We're New Again, and 2021's Deciphering the Message, an exploration of Blue Note's vault with a mixing desk and a band. Here he relies on more than a dozen collaborators recorded in five studios and four live performances; McCraven's extensive post-production assemblage happened at home. The title track has an orchestral frame thanks to a string quartet, Joel Ross' marimba, and Brandee Younger's gorgeous harp. It shifts tempo and dynamics, crossing sheeny chamber soul and funk to prog rock as guitars, double-timed drums, and a soaring alto and synth cascade around a baby sitar. The darker, more ominous "The Fours" commences with Junius Paul's bass and rolling kick drums while harp and strings play a circular, pulsing groove. Marquis Hill's flügelhorn adds a contrasting pattern as flute, saxes, guitars, synth, piano, etc. emerge in multi-note progressions amid tightly interlocking beats. "High Fives" comes across as a sublime yet forgotten bit of complexly arranged sound-library funk. "Lullaby" offers spacey, tender reflection thanks to Younger's sweeping harp and plucked strings from the quartet, while synth, bass, and marimba provide slivers of drama. A lilting violin solo adds Eastern-tinged poignancy. "Seventh String" is lush and dreamy. Introduced by a wash of sterling guitar chords and layers of hand percussion, the center is filled by drums, keyboards, and bass as Ross solos under that constant motion. De'Sean Jones' swirling flute is framed by Hill's trumpet. "So Ubuji" combines harp, layered marimbas, handclaps, hand percussion, drums, and strings in a transcendent flow wedding Caribbean, Latin, and Brazilian grooves. While "The Knew Untitled" is a gorgeous fusion track showcasing Matt Gold's sublime guitar playing, closer "The Title" is breezy with gauzy flutes, airy horns, warm strings, and bubbling percussion rolling along without destination, save its feel-good vibe. With its long gestation period, In These Times accumulated an arresting abundance of ideas, sounds, textures, and styles. The album is its own jazz labyrinth, and as such is destined for repeated listening and startling discovery. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi
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