In the Moment

This collage of various setpieces from McCraven’s yearlong-running stand at Chicago club The Bedford is an odd yet welcome intersection of free jazz exploration and after-the-fact tape manipulation and sample-flipping. Hypnotic grooves that roll like hip-hop beats can abruptly warp into ambush improv soloing (“The Jaunt”), refract upon the riff-on-a-sample-of-a-riff line-blurring of acid jazz and neo-soul production (“Slightest Right”), or sink into a post-rock haze where metronomic lock-tite drumming gives the solos plenty of space to peek into every corner — i.e. guitarist Jeff Parker ambling cheerfully on “Just Stay Right There,” vibes player Justefan rhythmelodic fencing with the hi-hats on “First Thing First,” or the lost-child cry of Marquis Hill’s trumpet in “Time Travel.”