Label: Blue Note Records, 2021
Personnel - Makaya McCraven: drums; De’Sean Jones: tenor saxophone, flute; Greg Ward: alto saxophone; Marquis Hill: trumpet; Joel Ross: vibraphone: Jeff Parker: guitar; Matt Gold: guitar; Junius Paul: bass.
There’s a trademark sense of groove and rhythm to French-born drummer/composer/beatmaker Makaya McCraven, who reached a distinguished place in the modern jazz sphere as a result of his own merit.
His debut on the Blue Note Records is no less than stunning, fusing past and present by expertly providing new outfits to sampled jazz classics. It's a beautiful tribute to the golden era of Blue Note (50s and 60s) and the Birdland jazz club - here represented by the voice of his former master of celebrations Pee Wee Marquette. In order to create a patchwork of elegant hard-bop/hip-hop hybridity, he enlists some serious peers who rise to the challenge with aplomb, helping him lacquering lovely jazz tunes with an updated rhythmic sheen.
Introduced by Marquette’s effusive announcement, “A Slice of the Top” opens the record with levitating powers, featuring the original horns of Hank Mobley and Lee Morgan (fetched from Art Blakey’s album A Night at Birdland vol.1) crossing over a gorgeously simpatico drum-and-bass rhythm that goes into your skin.
Kenny Dorham’s “Sunset” adapts the familiar hard-bop luxury to the new groovy era defined by McCraven and his accomplices - vibraphonist Joel Ross, guitarist Jeff Parker and bassist Junius Paul. The standard “When Your Lover Has Gone” is transformed into a bright and breezy concoction of jazz, soul and funk. Horace Silver’s “Ecaroh” comes infused with prismatic, liquid patterns and a vibing happiness (with Ross at his coolest). And “Autumn in New York” suggests the theme without following it completely, relying on the melodies of trumpeter Marquis Hill and saxophonist/flutist De’Sean Jones.
Irrefutable highlights are: Wayne Shorter’s “Mr. Jin”, whose immensity of sound is so liberating that you well might think it’s possible to fly on the wings of its harmonic splendor, and Bobby Hutcherson’s “Tranquility”, presented here as a collage of the harmonic relaxation that stems from the original and the skittish new rhythm pulled off by McCraven.
The variety of textures and moods is on display, and you can easily find the differences between the sly bopper “Coppin’ the Haven”, written by pianist Kenny Drew and taken from saxophonist Dexter Gordon’s 1965 album One Flight Up, and “Frank’s Tune”, which agilely riffs on funk while featuring alternate statements by Parker (operating in a smooth George Benson mode) and Jones on flute. The record comes to an end with the Eddie Gale-penned “Black Rhythm Happening”, a funk-infused piece with celebratory chants and reverb-drenched saxophone coils.
McCraven’s artfulness is to be taken seriously, and Deciphering the Message can be heard as a continuous suite of splendorous narratives and vignettes that bridge two different eras with two fantastic group sounds. It’s a gem with a special eclectic vibe.
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Favorite Tracks:
01 - A Slice of the Top ► 03 - When Your Lover Has Gone ► 11 - Mr. Jin