Makaya McCraven
As one reviewer correctly noted, we’re witnessing the emergence of a new generation of musicians who, rather than combine jazz with hip hop, treat the two as a single element. The drummer and producer Makaya McCraven is one of the most brilliant representatives of that cohort. As he carries on his family tradition (his father, Stephen McCraven, drummed for Sam Rivers and Achie Shepp, while his mother, Ágnes Zsigmondi, is a celebrated vocalist), Makaya blazes new trails, following the beat and wending his way across genres, trends, and traditions. He broke out of the jazz scene with the album We’re New Again: A Reimagining by Makaya McCraven, on which he breathes new life into the Gil-Scott Heron classic, while the LP Deciphering the Message witnesses the Chicago-based artist arranging new and fantastic edifices out of elements mined from the vast archives of Blue Note Records.
