Apr 2, 2024 12:59 PM
Saxophonist, Sonic Explorer Casey Benjamin Dies at 45
Casey Benjamin, the alto saxophonist, vocalist, keyboardist and producer who stamped his distinctive sounds on the…
Makaya McCraven is among the 25 artists DownBeat thinks will help shape jazz in the decades to come.
(Photo: Leslie Kirchhoff)If one were looking for an album to illustrate an aesthetic shared by several musicians who appear on DownBeat’s “25 For The Future” list, an ideal candidate would be drummer and producer Makaya McCraven’s 2018 gem, Universal Beings (International Anthem). Personnel for the sessions included reedists Shabaka Hutchings and Nubya Garcia, bassist Junius Paul, cellist Tomeka Reid and vibraphonist Joel Ross.
After recording live performances with various assemblages of musicians in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and London, McCraven remixed the material in mind-blowing ways—chopping, splicing and thoroughly recontextualizing the music.
On July 31, International Anthem released Universal Beings E&F Sides. The source music was recorded at the same sessions that yielded the 2018 album, but using studio wizardry, the Chicago-based McCraven created 14 new tracks of what he calls “organic beat music.” E&F Sides is used as the soundtrack for Mark Pallman’s documentary about McCraven, also titled Universal Beings.
The Paris-born bandleader spoke to DownBeat in September via videoconference from his mother’s backyard in western Massachusetts, where he had traveled with his wife and two kids. McCraven said, “At my mom’s house, I have some instruments—a piano, a guitar and some old drums and stuff lying around. So, I’m mobile. I’m always working on something. Right now, trying to finish up my next ‘proper’ record.”
During the lockdown, McCraven has done a couple of commissioned remix projects. But he’s not thrilled about the prospect of livestreamed gigs: “For me, if we were going to do a high-level stream, and we’re going to get all these musicians together and we’re gonna get this recording equipment for a performance—well, why don’t we just do a record date? If we’re going to put all this energy into it, then let’s write music and let’s make a record.”
He expressed an eagerness to make art that reflects the state of the world. “I’d like to keep on moving forward,” he said. “The world is a very different place than it was in 2018.” DB
This story originally was published in the November 2020 issue of DownBeat. Subscribe here.
Benjamin possessed a fluid, round sound on the alto saxophone, and he was often most recognizable by the layers of electronic effects that he put onto the instrument.
Apr 2, 2024 12:59 PM
Casey Benjamin, the alto saxophonist, vocalist, keyboardist and producer who stamped his distinctive sounds on the…
“He’s constructing intelligent musical sentences that connect seamlessly, which is the most important part of linear playing,” Charles McPherson said of alto saxophonist Sonny Red.
Feb 27, 2024 1:40 PM
“I might not have felt this way 30 to 40 years ago, but I’ve reached a point where I can hear value in what people…
Albert “Tootie” Heath (1935–2024) followed in the tradition of drummer Kenny Clarke, his idol.
Apr 5, 2024 10:28 AM
Albert “Tootie” Heath, a drummer of impeccable taste and time who was the youngest of three jazz-legend brothers…
“Both of us are quite grounded in the craft, the tradition and the harmonic sense,” Rosenwinkel said of his experience playing with Allen. “Yet I felt we shared something mystical as well.”
Mar 12, 2024 11:42 AM
“There are a few musicians you hear where, as somebody once said, the molecules in the room change. Geri was one of…
Henry Threadgill performs with Zooid at Big Ears in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Apr 9, 2024 11:30 AM
Big Ears, the annual four-day music celebration that first took place in 2009 in Knoxville, Tennessee, could well be…
