Makaya McCraven is an American jazz drummer, producer, and bandleader, born in Paris in 1983 and raised in Massachusetts, who edits live improvisation into beat-driven compositions after the fact. Universal Beings (2018) and In These Times (2022) show why he has reshaped how contemporary jazz gets made. Find Makaya McCraven vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Makaya McCraven was born in Paris, France on October 23, 1983 to drummer Stephen McCraven and Hungarian singer Ágnes Zsigmondi. He was raised in Massachusetts and based himself in Chicago in the 2000s. His distinctive approach - recording extended improvisational sessions and then editing the material into composed beat-driven pieces using post-production sampling techniques - has been widely cited as a defining contemporary approach to jazz production. His 2018 quadruple album Universal Beings (recorded in Chicago, London, New York, and Los Angeles with different ensembles) was widely cited as one of the most important contemporary jazz albums. His 2021 album Deciphering the Message remixed classic Blue Note Records jazz recordings, with Blue Note becoming his subsequent label home.
Makaya McCraven's sound combines jazz, contemporary jazz, jazz fusion, spiritual jazz, post-bop, hip hop jazz, and electronic jazz with his distinctive drumming approach, extensive post-production sampling and editing techniques, and arrangements drawing on Chicago jazz traditions, broader jazz history, and contemporary hip hop and electronic music reference points.
International Anthem, XL Recordings, and Blue Note pressings of the Makaya McCraven catalog have been issued in multiple color variant editions and limited deluxe pressings, with collector demand.
Listeners new to Makaya McCraven typically start with In These Times (2022) or Universal Beings (2018).
