GIL SCOTT-HERON We’re New Again A Reimagining By Makaya McCraven Released Friday 7th Feb 2020 First single ‘Where Did The Night Go’ released today

In December 2019, XL Recordings announced that the acclaimed, Chicago-based jazz musician Makaya McCraven is to release a unique reimagining of I’m New Here, the final album by the late, legendary musician, poet and author Gil Scott-Heron. Titled We’re New Again, the album will be released on February 7th and marks the tenth anniversary of I’m New Here. It’s the second full-length interpretation of the album, following Jamie xx’s 2011 We’re New Here album.

First conceptualised in 2005, and ultimately produced, by Richard Russell during New York recording sessions commencing in January 2008, I’m New Here was Gil Scott-Heron’s first album in thirteen years and found him sounding as vital and insightful as ever before, as Russell wrapped a minimal and electronic sonic world around Scott-Heron’s raw vocals.

On We’re New Again, those original sessions now have a complete new context, using samples collected from McCraven’s improvised live sessions with new wave Chicago jazz musicians and vintage samples taken from McCraven’s musician parents’ recordings. It’s a musical situation that reconnects Scott-Heron with his hometown of Chicago, and a lineage of jazz and the blues that perfectly compliments his voice.

Today sees the release of the first piece of music from the album: McCraven’s reimagining of ‘Where Did The Night Go’. It’s a perfect example of McCraven’s approach to the record and features a sample from the Stephen McCraven Quartet’s ‘Silhouette of Eric’.

Makaya McCraven, whose work Richard Russell first discovered after hearing McCraven’s 2017’s Highly Rare album, is widely regarded as one of the most exciting and original voices in modern jazz. Equally renowned and revered as a musician, drummer, beat-maker and producer, McCraven has released a run of records that are at once genre-defying and redefining such as Universal Beings, Highly Rare and Where We Come From (Chicago x London 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”