Makaya McCraven: Deciphering the Message — ambiguous moods

The Blue Note label’s luxurious jazz back catalogue has been sampled, reworked and repackaged for decades. Hip-hop royalty from Public Enemy to Kanye West dipped in and sampled snippets, and in 1992 Blue Note legitimised the practice by letting London’s Us3 ferret about in its files. The result of that search, “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)”, was an upbeat US top 10 hit.

In contrast to the somewhat chirpy tones of those early sampling days, drummer and producer Makaya McCraven’s 13 Blue Note remixes in Deciphering the Message are opaque and darker in tone. The samples he uses are rarely obvious and contributions by contemporary musicians like vibraphonist Joel Ross, trumpeter Marquis Hill and bassist Junius Paul have been sampled, doctored and layered in.

Here, McCraven develops the underground sonics of his acclaimed 2018 album Universal Beings. Overdubbed drums add contemporary beats, sampled sections of solos hint at improvisation’s freshness and there is a jazz club vibe; the voice of legendary 1950s modern jazz MC Pee Wee Marquette welcomes customers to a Blue Note recording session.

But the studio is the main instrument here, muddying the clarity of the original sound with scratches, multiple layers and beefed-up bass. With rarely resolving harmonies and ambiguous and blue-hued moods, McCraven’s remixes reflect our times.

The set begins with the funky bits of Hank Mobley’s “Slice of the Top” extended and spliced — the jazz bridge now comes at the end of the piece. “Sunset” follows, originally recorded by trumpeter Kenny Dorham, but now made edgy by added bass and Jeff Parker’s guitar. Later Clifford Brown’s seductive Afro-Cuban “Wail Bait” gains extra percussion and wraiths of sound.

Most tracks let the original recording set the scene: a loop of Horace Silver’s piano on “Ecaroh”, a roll of Art Blakey’s drums on “Mr Jin”. But “Frank’s Tune” laces Blakey’s spoken words with echo and “Coppin’ the Haven”, originally a swinger from Dexter Gordon, now starts with funky drums. But whatever the start, McCraven determines what comes next.

★★★★☆

‘Deciphering the Message’ is released by Blue Note