We're new again : a reimagining by Makaya McCraven

"Best New Music" - "The Chicago drummer and producer transforms Gil-Scott Heron's final album into a masterpiece of dirty blues, spiritual jazz, and deep yearning ... Working with his regular circle of collaborators, many of whom have made highly regarded albums of their own in recent years (Jeff Parker on guitar, Brandee Younger on harp, Junius Paul on bass, Ben Lamar Gay on instruments and percussion), McCraven brings Scott-Heron's work down to earth and situates it in a milieu the elder artist would have recognized. With arrangements that move between dirty blues, angelic spiritual jazz, and free-form drumming, McCraven has created a kind of survey of 20th-century black music that doesn't draw undue attention to itself, one in which every piece fits together".

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"We're New Again is aptly titled. It's the work of a master musician/producer paying wonderful tribute to Scott-Heron for sure, but it's also a fully realized McCraven album, chock-full of his instrumental, arrangement, and production prowess. If you didn't know better, you'd swear this was a collaborative date. It adds immeasurably to Scott-Heron's canon, celebrating his influence by revealing the full power, pain, and streetwise wisdom of the artist in the present and the future".

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"Album of the week" - "A decade after I'm New Here, legendary poet and songwriter Gill Scott-Heron's final album, Chicago-based jazz artist Makaya McCraven has released a full-length reworking of the material. Though Jamie xx had previously tried his hand at remixing this record, McCraven provides, for the first time, a more sympathetic, radical musical context for Scott-Heron's poetry on We're New Again".

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"Spirituel jazz, rumlende blues og frit driblende trommer - alt sammen meget tro mod Gil Scott-Herons vildt kreative univers. Temaer om dødelighed og ubetinget kærlighed suser forbi, og vi får en masse små billeder på nethinden af en mand, som altid jagtede ferske input og nye historier. Musikken på 'We're New Again' er akustisk, men lyder så mystisk elektrificerende og frisk".

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