Makaya McCraven has been having a minute for about a half decade. The Chicago-based jazz maven is putting together an impressive discography of beat-driven jazz essentials, much of it one the equally impressive International Anthem label.

The full-length Universal Beings caught everyone’s attention in 2018 and called for a follow-up with a 2020 release of alternate cuts from the session. McCraven does what the jazz tradition does best – improvise – but he pulls the pieces together in new ways that honor the tradition without being beholden to it.

Our highlighted track “Inner Flight” could have been synthesized on a breakbeater’s laptop, but all the magic happens through the natural textures of the live instruments. Dig it.

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