Waiting on Arrival (Flipped by Taylor McFerrin)

A jazz composition, then Taylor McFerrin’s ‘flip’

Robert Glasper built *Code Derivation* around a deliberate two-part idea: first, his band plays a composition live in the studio; then a chosen producer reworks that performance as a ‘flip’. ‘Waiting on Arrival (Flipped by Taylor McFerrin)’ is the second form, not simply another take by Glasper’s band. McFerrin’s version also brings him into the track as a featured collaborator. The arrangement sits within Glasper’s long-running conversation between jazz improvisation and hip-hop production, a relationship he has described as a shared musical lineage rather than two unrelated genres. The album’s track list places the original ‘Waiting On Arrival’ directly before McFerrin’s reworking, making the comparison part of the project’s design.

The short lyric text attached to this entry works almost like an invitation or mantra: trust intuition, allow things to arrive, and be open to self-acceptance. That spare language leaves considerable space for the production to do its own interpretive work. Rather than treating McFerrin’s flip as an attempt to preserve every detail of the original, the album’s format asks what happens when another musician samples, reshapes and reframes the band’s material. The title’s sense of waiting becomes apt for a track that turns a composed performance into something newly suspended between beat-making and jazz ensemble.

The album first appeared as an Apple Music exclusive in 2024, then received a wider release through Loma Vista in August 2025. Concord’s release announcement explains the two-version concept and names McFerrin among the invited producers; the project was also nominated for the 2025 Grammy for Best Alternative Jazz Album. That is an album-level recognition, not a track-specific award or chart result, and no reliable separate chart peak for this flip is established. The critical interest is therefore best located in Glasper’s larger experiment: using one composition as shared raw material, and letting a producer’s transformation reveal how jazz phrasing can generate new rhythmic and textural possibilities.