Guiding the undulating, polyrhythmic, genre-ambiguous flow of drummer {|Makaya McCraven|}'s ever-evolving organic beat music, is a strategy not far removed from the one employed by {|Teo Macero|} and {|Miles Davis|} on {|Bitches Brew|} and subsequent... Read more

Guiding the undulating, polyrhythmic, genre-ambiguous flow of drummer {|Makaya McCraven|}'s ever-evolving organic beat music, is a strategy not far removed from the one employed by {|Teo Macero|} and {|Miles Davis|} on {|Bitches Brew|} and subsequent dates: Here, moments from continuous improvised performances are digitally looped, cut, spliced, and edited into entirely new compositions. {|McCraven|} has been developing the approach for some time, though it came to fruition on 2015's brilliant {|In the Moment|}, culled from nearly 48 hours of live improvised performance at a single venue over a year, then processed and remixed into 19 individual pieces. {|McCraven|} takes a leap further out on the double-length {|Universal Beings|}. The set was recorded in four cities (New York, Chicago, London, and Los Angeles) with four ensembles. The players on these include bassist and fellow Chicagoan {|Junius Paul|}, cellist and former Chicagoan {|Tomeka Reid|}, U.K.-based saxophonists {|Nubya Garcia|} and {|Shabaka Hutchings|}, L.A. violist/arranger {|Miguel Atwood-Ferguson|}, percussionist {|Carlos Nino|}, and Chicago ex-pat and current Angeleno guitarist {|Jeff Parker|}, to name a few. As indicated by the drummer's genre term, the root of this utterly holistic music lies in wholly improvised sessions. All are different in feel. The New York session revolves around a gradually ratcheting spiritual dimension due in large part to {|Reid|}'s canny interaction with transcendent harpist {|Brandee Younger|}. The rhythm section -- vibraphonist {|Joel Ross|}, bassist {|Dezron Douglas|}, and {|McCraven|} -- offer hypnotic hip-hop shuffles, riff-like feints, and drones in an incantatory pace across a suite of six pieces ranging in duration from 33 seconds to five-and-a-half minutes. The spirit and inspiration of {|Alice Coltrane|} permeates the music's flow in rhapsodic whole tones. The Chicago side commencing with Pharaoh's Intro stars {|Hutchings|} and {|Paul|} communicating in post-bop cadences carried by {|McCraven|}'s frenetic drumming. It follows to Atlantic Black with fiery, Nigerian funk rhythms colored by cello and bassline pulses and saxophone loops over a spacy electric piano and a spiky {|Reid|} solo pushing the tune outward. It's brought back inside by the Afro-beat rhythms and dubwise basslines undergirding Inner Flight. The London side skates between trippy, soulful, syncopated jazz-funk and modal jazz courtesy of {|Garcia|}'s illustrious horn and {|Ashley Henry|}'s Rhodes piano as the interplay between {|McCraven|} and bassist {|Daniel Casimir|} balances both ends of the spectrum; they create emphasis, tension, and release. The Los Angeles side contains virtually everything that previously transpired but goes somewhere new. Between frontline players -- guitarist {|Parker|}, alto saxophonist {|Josh Johnson|}, and {|Atwood-Ferguson|} -- harmonic ideas are introduced, exchanged, embellished, then repurposed to suit the polyrhythmic flow generated by {|McCraven|}, {|Nino|}, and bassist {|Anna Butterss|}. The seductive, groove-laden, post-midnight jazz in Fifth Monk is a stellar example. At the end of the recording, {|McCraven|} says You guys got all that? then laughs. Given all that's here, one wonders who he was speaking to, the engineers or the listeners? {|Universal Beings|} is unique from any other jazz recording in 2018: It marries virtuoso musicianship, technological savvy, a keen editor's ear for creative inspiration, and a plethora of almighty grooves. ~ Thom Jurek Less