Makaya McCraven – Off The Record

Description

Internationally acclaimed drummer, producer, and sonic collagist Makaya McCraven releases four distinct yet interconnected EPsTechno Logic, The Peoples Mixtape, Hidden Out!, and PopUp Shop, compiled on a 2xLP physical release titled Off the Record, released via International Anthem / Nonesuch / XL Recordings.

Together they mark McCravens first recorded offerings since 2022s In These Times (McCravens most ambitious set of music GRAMMY.com) and a deep return to the signature organic beat music approach that Makaya first debuted on his 2015 album In The Moment and further developed across subsequent releases Highly Rare (2017), Where We Come From (2018), and Universal Beings (2018). Built from live recordings, the music is later reshaped by McCraven via extensive editing, overdubs, and post-production at his home studio in Chicago.

The source material from each EP is drawn from moments of pure improvisation, recorded live in performance, shaped as much by the room and audience as by the musicians themselves.

Techno Logic features Ben LaMar Gay and Theon Cross, and draws from performances in London (2017), Berlin (2024), and New York (2025), showcasing nearly eight years of developing rapport between the three musicians, starting with their very first session at Worldwide FMs former North London studio.

The Peoples Mixtape has its foundation in a live recording from Brooklyns Public Records in January of 2025, where McCraven celebrated the 10 year anniversary of In The Moment with an intentional return to the improvisational language he developed over that albums sessions. For the occasion, McCraven played with bassist Junius Paul and trumpeter Marquis Hill (two musicians who are majorly present on In The Moment), as well as vibraphonist Joel Ross (who has been a regular collaborator of McCravens since the 2017 sessions for Universal Beings), and synthesist Jeremiah Chiu (marking the first occasion for McCraven to play with the SML co-leader and International Anthem labelmate).

Hidden Out! is built off recordings from McCravens June 2017 residency at The Hideout in Chicago, where he improvised weekly with a revolving cast including bassist Junius Paul; Tortoise member, International Anthem label mate, composer, and guitarist Jeff Parker; and SML co-leader, GRAMMY Awardwinning producer and alto saxophonist Josh Johnson.

PopUp Shop was created from recordings of McCravens Los Angeles debut at Del Monte Speakeasy in 2015, where McCraven took part in the King Hippo and Grown Kids Radio produced event RAWS:LA, and improvised with guitarist Jeff Parker, vibraphonist Justefan, and bassist Benjamin J. Shepherd.

The Off the Record vinyl LP and CD compilation is not just a collection of these recordings, but a tactile document celebrating creative, communal, IRL moments of musical gathering.

Speaking on the record, McCraven says: In a time where were increasingly connected through phones, in a virtual world where you cant really tell whats real or whats fake, theres something special where we come together and share space, there is something special where we are sharing music, art. I want to create an energy that amplifies the magic in the underground moments where we come together and we experience something wild, different, off the cuff, human. What Im trying to present is a dreamlike alteration of that energy, which only exists in the recorded realm. But to actually have been there, in real life, is the special thing.

Makaya McCraven, who has been aptly called a cultural synthesizer and beat scientist, has a unique gift for collapsing space, destroying borders and blending past, present, and future into poly-textural arrangements of post-genre, jazz-rooted 21st-century folk music. Profiled in the New York Times, Vice, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, the Guardian, and NPR, among other publications, Makaya and the music he makes today is what Passion of Weiss says is part of a necessary conversation about the next evolution of the Black improvised music known colloquially as jazz. Hes found the threads connecting the past with the present, and is either wrapping them with new colors and textures, or hes plucking them gleefully like the strings of a grand instrument.

Born in Paris in 1983 to Hungarian singer and flutist Agnes Zsigmondi and African-American expat jazz drummer Stephen McCraven, Makaya was raised in a vibrant, creative community in the Northampton, Massachusetts, area, where his father worked with artists like saxophonist and ethnomusicologist Marion Brown, multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef, and saxophonist Archie Shepp. In 2006, McCraven moved to Chicago, where he is still based today. (via Label)

Gathering and reworking a decades worth of blistering live jams, this compilation of four dynamic new EPs captures the recombinant spirit of the jazz drummer, bandleader, and beatmaker.

Makaya McCravens music is a process of transmutation: In his hands, improvisation turns into composition and then back again. Like most brilliant ideas, its simple to explain and devilishly difficult to pull off. McCraven plays live with one of his groups, usually consisting of some of the best musicians of his generation. Then, he meticulously edits recordings of those performances into new songs, bringing a dexterous hip-hop production technique into the world of jazz. When he tours, McCraven arranges that material for the band to develop further. None of the constituent parts of this model are particularly novelTeo Macero pioneered the studio-as-jazz-instrument in the 1960s, with Miles Davisbut its only possible with McCravens inimitable combination of a jazz drummers soul and a hip-hop producers mind.

Off the Record, a collection of four new EPs that have also been released separately, is a useful introduction to McCravens evolution since his landmark 2015 album In the Moment, when he began his experiment in jazz/hip-hop hybridization. Rather than a chronological narrative of the growth of the artist, the new set presents a composite portrait: Turn from one EP to the other and you see a wholly different facet of McCravens identity, from deft percussionist to bold beatmaker. Much of the variety comes from his choice of collaborators, who range from veteran guitarist Jeff Parker to eclectic folklorist Ben LaMar Gay. The shared characteristic that unites all four releases, though, is McCravens uncanny ability to alchemize hip-hop from jazz, structure from freedom, a collective effort into a singular vision. (via Pitchfork)

Label: International Anthem Recording Company, XL Recordings
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Released: 2025
Genre: Jazz
Style: Modern / Future Jazz

File under: Jazz // Modern/Future Jazz