Split Decision – Makaya McCraven

The drums of Makaya McCraven do more than keep time on Split Decision: they interrupt it, displace it, and reconstruct it, while Andrew Toombs on piano and Tim Seisser on bass find different ways to inhabit it. Released in 2012, Split Decision marks the debut of McCraven as a bandleader, drawing on the traditional jazz piano trio to explore a rhythmic language shaped by hip-hop, rock, and improvisation.

The music retains the freedom of spontaneous interaction, but also a sense of pulse that reveals, behind every rhythmic shift, the instincts of a drummer accustomed to listening beyond genre boundaries. The title track establishes this relationship from the outset. On “Split Decision,” the three musicians exchange ideas without any one of them imposing a definitive direction: McCraven introduces accents and variations that alter our perception of time, while Toombs shapes his phrases over a foundation that seems to be constantly changing.

The delicacy of “Tasha’s Tune” opens another dimension of the trio. Here, the space between notes becomes as important as the notes themselves, and the energy driving much of the album gives way to a melodic sensitivity that brings the relationship between the instruments into sharper focus. The influence of hip-hop emerges less as a stylistic reference than as a way of organizing movement: repetition, displaced accents, and rhythmic insistence coexist with the elasticity of jazz improvisation.

Split Decision offers an early expression of the musical language Makaya McCraven would develop as a bandleader. The interplay with Andrew Toombs and Tim Seisser reveals an understanding of jazz in which precision does not exclude risk, and individual freedom depends on collective awareness. Across the ten compositions, a question emerges that will continue to accompany the drummer: how many possibilities can a single pulse contain when three musicians allow themselves to interpret it in different ways?