Makaya McCraven brings new life to Gil Scott-Heron’s final recording
XL Recordings celebrates the 10 year anniversary of the late great Gil Scott-Heron’s final studio recording I’m New Here, prior to his passing in May of 2011, with a re-worked version of the album by visionary Chicago-based composer, producer, and drummer Makaya McCraven, titled We’re New Again.
Where the original 2010 album heavily featured Scott-Heron’s deep baritone vocals and poetry, combined with minimal electronic beats by producer Richard Russell, these new renditions have much more of an analog jazz feel, incorporating McCraven’s signature production style of blending together newly recorded instrumental backing grooves with spliced up samples, and re-working it all together in post-production. McCraven even mixes in some old recordings by both his father, drummer Stephen McCraven, and mother, Ágnes Zsigmondi who plays the flute on “Where Did the Night Go.” The young up-and-coming harpist Brandee Younger is also featured on the hypnotic “I’m New Here.”
The album flows nicely from track-to-track, similar to a mixtape with plenty of well thought out short interludes that help bridge one moment to the next. There is certainly much more of a jazz sound to the overall recording, however there are also moments of hip-hop inspired broken-beat grooves that work extremely well under the spoken word poetry from who many consider as “the godfather of rap.”
Overall, this is a brilliant and forward-looking fresh take on Gil Scott’s final recording, bringing worthy attention to the late great legend and his powerful words, as well as highlighting McCraven as a groundbreaking producer that continues to push the envelope in everything he creates.
With this album, old is certainly new again …
Gil Scott-Heron — ‘We’re New Again: A Re-imagining by Makaya McCraven’
(XL Recordings/ International Anthem)
1. Special Tribute (Broken Home pt.1)
2. I’m New Here
3. Running
4. Blessed Parents
5. New York is Killing Me
6. The Patch (Broken Home pt.2)
7. People of The Light
8. Being Blessed
9. Where Did the Night Go
10. Lily Scott (Broken Home pt.3)
11. I’ll Take Care of You
12. I’ve Been Me
13. This Can’t Be Real
14. Piano Player
15. The Crutch
16. Guided (Broken Home pt.4)
17. Certain Bad Things
18. Me and the Devil
