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Makaya McCraven's four-city 2018 breakthrough in the IA11 Deluxe Edition: 2LP on 140g vinyl with a 16-page booklet and obi strip.
International Anthem's IA11 Deluxe Edition adds a 16-page, 11x11 booklet of unseen photos and new conversations with the players. Universal Beings hit No. 3 on Billboard's Jazz Albums chart and landed on NPR's and Spin's best-of-2018 lists. Pitchfork gave it an 8.1.
Call it the most productive jazz road trip of the decade. Between August 2017 and January 2018, Chicago drummer and self-described "beat scientist" Makaya McCraven set up four sessions in four cities: a club in Queens with Brandee Younger's harp and Joel Ross's vibes, a Bridgeport art space with Shabaka Hutchings and Tomeka Reid, a London studio with Nubya Garcia and Ashley Henry, and Jeff Parker's living room in Altadena with Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Carlos Niño. Then he took the tapes home and did what he does best, chopping and looping the improvisations into something that grooves like a hip hop record and breathes like a live one.
International Anthem put the double album out in October 2018, and it quietly became one of the records of the year: Metacritic's critics scored it 86, NPR ranked it No. 30 on its 50 best albums of 2018, Spin put it at No. 38, and it climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard jazz chart. Its 22 tracks also work as a snapshot of the new jazz scenes in New York, Chicago, London and L.A. just as they were about to break wide open. If you came to McCraven through In These Times or Deciphering the Message, this is where the whole idea really clicked, and it rewards a full four-side listen every time.
On International Anthem, a deluxe reissue of the 2018 album.
