“Makaya McCraven offers up glimmers of hope on In These Times”
“The hybrid jazz drummer and producer’s latest album uses his familiar post-production techniques but feels more deftly orchestrated and rhythmically complex.”
“Born in Paris, raised in the bohemian enclave of Northampton, Massachusetts and based in Chicago, percussionist and composer Makaya McCraven isn’t one for borders or strictures. His fourth or so album of original compositions – his wider discography is busier than that – finds the drummer shrugging off many of the preconceptions that accompany the word “jazz” in favour of something you might call ”
“Beat technician Makaya McCraven is far from simply a virtuous performer with the sticks in his hands. The New Jersey-born, Chicago-raised drummer is also a real maestro behind the desk, a character as comparable to Madlib or Dilla as he is to Art Blakey or Max Roach. 2020’s reworking – nay, reconstruction – of Gil Scott Heron’s final album We’re New Again breathed life eternal into one of the grea”
