APEX OF ORGANIC BEAT MUSIC POST PRODUCED FROM FOUR IMPROVISATION SESSIONS CAPTURED IN THE NEW JAZZ HUBS OF NEW YORK, CHICAGO, LONDON AND LOS ANGELES

Chicago-based drummer, composer, edit guru, and jazz adventurist Makaya McCraven recorded this splice-and-dice 22-song opus live in four different cities with a cast including saxophonists Shabaka Hutchings and Nubya Garcia, harpist Brandee Younger, cellist Tomeka Reid, and vibraphonist Joel Ross.

Working in “pop up” studios in New York, London, Chicago, and Los Angeles, McCraven then cut the collective improvisations to match his considerable vision. As he did with his prior records and mixtapes, McCraven post-produced, edited, and arranged the music into four suites. Like precedents from Bitches Brew to DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing….., the results speak to the mixer’s re-contextualization skills as much as any musician’s standard technique. Does it stand up? Is this spiritual jazz for remote control mavens? McCraven’s deft, sensitive drumming dots the lengthy recording (the double vinyl LP divides the music up by giving a side to each city it was recorded in) as he crisscrosses Afrobeat, cosmic exploration, hip-hop, Brazilian, and a smidgen of straight-ahead.

You could needle-drop anywhere within Universal Beings to experience a moment, but the hour-plus suite is like a circular journey across a desert, a city, and a sea: Fortify yourself, cast off expectation, and ride the undulating serpent of sound. Beauty awaits in the blazing pulse of “Prosperity’s Fear,” the hypnotic spinning wheel of “Flipped Out,” the heaving Rhodes sunspots of “Voila,” the free-jazz-meets-drum-and-bass caterwaul of “The Count Off.” Hype abounds as London’s insurgent world-jazz scene clashes with Kamasi Washington’s West Coast jazz-hop challenging New York’s old guard. Universal Beings is the first album to bring it all together in one cosmic, groove-heavy collage.

Ken Micallef/Jazz times