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 7 February 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.
The first piece of music has been released 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.”
Preorder We’re New Again here.
