Releases
Gil Scott-Heron - We're New Again - A reimagining by Makaya McCraven LP / CD in stores Feb 7
In February 2010, the late, legendary musician, poet and author Gil Scott-Heron released his thirteenth,
and last, studio album. First conceptualised in 2005, and ultimately produced by XL Recordings head
Richard Russell during New York recording sessions that commenced in January 2008, I’m New Here
was Scott-Heron’s first album in thirteen years and found him sounding as vital and insightful as ever
before. It was, and still is, a record that reveals something unexpected at every turn; one that found
Scott-Heron pushing, probing and testing the limits just as he always had; always looking forward, still
challenging conventions and expectations.
To mark the tenth anniversary of I’m New Here’s release, XL Recordings will release a unique
reimagining of the album by the acclaimed Chicago-based musician Makaya McCraven, whose work
Russell first discovered after hearing McCraven’s “Above & Beyond,” from 2017’s Highly Rare album.
Equally renowned and revered as a musician, drummer, sampler, beat-maker and producer, McCraven
is widely regarded as one of the most exciting and original voices in modern jazz via a run of records that
were at once genre-defying and redefining such as Universal Beings, Highly Rare and Where We Come
From (CHICAGOxLONDON mixtape) for the highly influential Chicago label International Anthem. As the
New York Times states: “Makaya McCraven has quietly become one of the best arguments for jazz’s
vitality.”
On We’re New Again – recorded and produced in the main at his Chicago home studio with a host of
close-knit musicians – McCraven fuses the kind of killer, improvised live musicianship and electronic,
sample-based approach to recording he’s renowned for with that vocal – the deep, stop-you-inyour–
tracks, worldly-wise voice of Gil Scott-Heron – to enormously powerful effect.
The resulting record is a sonically rich, totally original yet deeply respectful accompanying piece to
Scott-Heron and Russell’s original work and is the latest stage in the evolution of a record that was
previously remixed by Jamie xx in 2011 for the ground-breaking collaborative album, We’re New Here.
“Mr. McCraven, a Chicago-based drummer, producer, and beat maker, has quietly become one of the
best arguments for jazz’s vitality.” – New York Times
Makaya McCraven tour:
January 10th
NYC Winter Jazzfest Marathon, Webster Hall, New York, NY, USA Makaya McCraven “In These Times”
January 11th
NYC Winter Jazzfest Marathon, Webster Hall, New York, NY, USA Makaya McCraven “We’re New Again,
A Tribute To Gil Scott Heron”
January 15th New Morning, Paris, France
January 16th l’Aeronef, Lille, France
January 17th Brussels Jazz Festival, Brussels, Belgium
January 18th We Jazz, Helsinki, Finland
It all began, of course, with Gil Scott-Heron’s birth in Chicago in 1949. A new 2020 chapter is also rooted
in that city, with drummer, beat scientist and multi-instrumentalist Makaya McCraven and We’re New
Again, McCraven’s bold, reimagining of I’m New Here.
Richard Russell is the curator and constant throughout the whole process, pulling out threads and ideas
that shine a light back on Gil’s music. Makaya McCraven appeared on Russell’s always on-point radar in
2017 with the release of Highly Rare, an album made in McCraven’s signature style of sampling his own
live improvisations and remaking the music through Ableton.
Hearing McCraven’s music ahead of the imminent 10th anniversary of I’m New Here gave Russell an
idea: to approach the drummer about remaking the record in his own style. “I would never have gone out
and looked for someone to do this record. If it wasn’t Makaya, it wasn’t going to be anyone,” he says.
Selections:
Special Tribute (Broken Home
pt.1)
I’m New Here
Running
Blessed Parents
New York is Killing Me
The Patch (Broken Home pt.2)
People of The Light
Being Blessed
Where Did the Night Go
Lily Scott (Broken Home pt.3)
I’ll Take Care of You
I’ve Been Me
This Can’t Be Real
Piano Player
The Crutch
Guided (Broken Home pt.4)
Certain Bad Things
Me and the Devil
