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Makaya McCraven

Makaya McCraven is a beat scientist. The cutting edge drummer, producer, and sonic collagist is a multi-talented force whose inventive process & intuitive style of performance defy categorization.

Called “a sound visionary” (jazzinchicago.org) who is “not your everyday jazz drummer” (thewordisbond.com), McCraven brilliantly moves between genres and pushes the boundaries of jazz and rhythm to create forms of his own.

“You are listening to one incredible musician. His style and sound is unique, a heady, skillful, sophisticated and boldly uncompromising mix of jazz and hip hop…” (UK Vibe)

His breakthrough album In the Moment was released with International Anthem Recording Co. (IARC) in January of 2015 and quickly named “Album of the Week” on BBC 6 Radio by influential DJ Gilles Peterson. By the end of the year it was a “Best of 2015” selection for Los Angeles Times, Pop Matters, NPR Music’s Jazz Critics Poll, and Apple Music. In 2016, In The Moment was hailed by Turntable Lab as “one of the most important recordings to date in the modern Jazz world.” In The Moment was a dramatic statement by McCraven, where he debuted a unique brand of “organic beat music” that quickly launched him into the vanguard of not only Internationally-known jazz artists, but also a niche genre of next-wave composer-producers blurring the boundaries of jazz & electronic music.

“While Teo Macero’s work with Miles [Davis] might seem the obvious reference point, In The Moment is closer in spirit to Madlib and J Dilla.” (WIRE Magazine)

French-born but raised in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts by expatriate musician parents, McCraven went on to develop his chops in Chicago and now represents a rising generation of globally-minded, genre-bending music makers as an artist as well as band leader. Through his unique, rarified performances and collaborations he unapologetically affirms our right to re-think and re-write the rules, any rules, and affirms other artists in their own exploratory evolutions.

“No longer are we seeing jazz musicians experimenting with a new genre (hip hop) that they find interesting (or vice versa). Now what we’re seeing are jazz musicians who were heavily influenced by hip hop in their most formative years, just as much as they were influenced by jazz or any other genre. This creates a different kind of music. These cats aren’t ‘blending’ jazz and hip hop; for them, these genres are inseparable. They can’t play one without playing the other.” (thewordisbond.com)

Born in Paris, France in 1983 to jazz drummer Stephen McCraven (Sam Rivers, Archie Shepp) and Hungarian singer Agnes Zsigmondi, McCraven was exposed to broad ranges of influences from a young age. At age 3, in 1986 his family moved to the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachussetts, a time and place that afforded him the mentorship of his parents’ community of friends and collaborators, which included jazz luminaries Marion Brown, Archie Shepp and Yusef Lateef.

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15
Live Review

Makaya McCraven At Barbican Centre

Read "Makaya McCraven At Barbican Centre" reviewed by Chris May


Makaya McCraven with London Contemporary Orchestra Barbican Centre, Main Hall In These Times London November 11, 2023 Jazz, said Whitney Balliett in 1958, is the sound of surprise. The New Yorker critic, who passed in 2007 but remains one of jazz literature's most felicitous writers, was describing jazz in a broad generic sense. Yet the aphorism applies equally well to the London concert premiere of Makaya McCraven's In These Times (International Anthem, ...

6
Catching Up With

Makaya McCraven: In The Moment to In These Times

Read "Makaya McCraven: In The Moment to In These Times" reviewed by Rob Garratt


Makaya McCraven needs a coffee--fast. It's 4pm and he's crashing. It will be his third of the day. His first caffeine hit, consumed on stage six hours earlier, was a chemical necessity; McCraven was drinking at a nearby Irish pub until the early hours and nearly missed his early morning panel talk appearance alongside fellow percussion luminaries Antonio Sanchez and Nate Smith. Something tells me it won't be his last cup before bedtime--at 10:30 tonight the multi-hyphenate musician will present ...

6
Album Review

Brandee Younger: Brand New Life

Read "Brand New Life" reviewed by La-Faithia White


American harpist and composer Brandee Younger fuses hip hop, classical, funk and jazz on Brand New Life. Younger became a Grammy award nominee for her label debut. Brand New Life features new works inspired by her hero, harpist Dorothy Ashby. “You're A Girl For One Man Only" written by Younger and Ashby, has reinterpretations of Dorothy Ashby; a beautiful, meditative love song and nice collaboration with the vibraphone; a smooth introduction with Younger and drum snares. “Brand New ...

1
Album Review

Makaya McCraven: Deciphering the Message

Read "Deciphering the Message" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Il debutto in casa Blue Note di Makaya McCraven è un omaggio alla storia musicale dell'etichetta, espresso ovviamente in prospettiva personale. Come ha fatto nei suoi dischi recenti—e in particolare nell'omaggio a Gil Scott-Heron (We're New Again, XL Recordings 2020)-il batterista e produttore di Chicago usa creativamente la tecnologia sperimentata dai DJ e produttori di hip-hop e club culture, in prospettiva nuova. Il classico repertorio Blue Note degli anni cinquanta e sessanta suscita l'attenzione delle subculture giovanili ...

5
Live Review

Rinascita a Chicago: le gemme dell’etichetta International Anthem

Read "Rinascita a Chicago: le gemme dell’etichetta International Anthem" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Non è casuale che l'etichetta indipendente più innovativa nell'attuale panorama jazzistico (e non solo) sia nata e operi a Chicago. È noto infatti che la metropoli dell'Illinois è una delle capitali del jazz, avendo svolto un ruolo centrale in tutta la storia musicale afro-americana, talvolta paritetico con quello di New York. Nel 2014 a quasi cinquant'anni esatti dalla nascita dell'AACM (peraltro ancora vitale) grazie all'International Anthem Chicago torna a catalizzare l'attenzione del pubblico del jazz. Ovviamente non ...

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La vita e la musica di Makaya McCraven

Read "La vita e la musica di Makaya McCraven" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Un ritratto di Makaya McCraven deve necessariamente considerare la mutazione antropologica che è avvenuta nell'ultima generazione di musicisti afroamericani che si spingono oltre la tradizionale sintesi tra jazz e generi popolari, usando creativamente la tecnologia sperimentata nell'ultimo trentennio dai DJ e produttori dell'hip-hop e della club culture. Le musiche di questo tumultuoso torrente si presentano con sempre nuove combinazioni in un caleidoscopio di suoni acustici ed elettronici, laceranti improvvisazioni su basi iterative, tecniche di campionamento e remixaggi ...

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Interview

Makaya McCraven: Cross Border Traffic

Read "Makaya McCraven: Cross Border Traffic" reviewed by Chris May


Like his near contemporaries Shabaka Hutchings, Kamasi Washington, Nubya Garcia and Robert Glasper, the Chicago-based drummer, bandleader, producer and self-declared beat scientist Makaya McCraven is routinely described by the more breathless commentators writing about modern music as a “saviour" of jazz. Certainly, McCraven and his peers are enriching jazz by their embrace of other styles, be they hip hop, dub reggae, grime, cumbia or Afrobeat. Yet as McCraven, Hutchings, Washington, Garcia and Glasper are ready to point out, ...

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"Makaya McCraven has established himself as one of Chicago's most versatile and in-demand drummers" - Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

"one of the hardest drummers on the live music circuit" - Boyuan Gao, Revivalist.okayplayer.com

"the easy versatility of his work was unmistakable. Whether projecting a light touch and lithe technique in his "Zsiga" or unleashing an onslaught of sound elsewhere in the set, McCraven projected unassailable authority." - Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

Gabriel Bey
trumpet
Swart Waling Koolhaas
band / ensemble / orchestra
Spencer Alexander
guitar, electric

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Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Brand New Life

Verve Music Group
2023

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In These Times

International Anthem Recording Company
2022

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Deciphering the...

Blue Note Records
2021

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We're New Again

XL Recordings
2020

buy

The Weather Up There

Northern Spy Records
2020

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Suite For Max Brown

International Anthem Recording Company
2020

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