In drummer, composer and producer Makaya “beat scientist” McCraven’s eclectic jazz laboratory, jazz-funk, post-bop, avant-garde and fusion with hip-hop, rock and rhythms from all over the world come together.
McCraven’s sixth album In These Times, featuring harpist Brandee Younger among others, was widely praised when it was released in 2022. Dagens Nyheter wrote: “A jazz record that manages to sound stylish, cool and crisp at the same time.”
McCraven was born in Paris in 1983, the son of jazz drummer Stephen McCraven and Hungarian singer Ágnes Zsigmondi. The family moved to Massachusetts and at the age of five, Makaya played in his father’s drum ensemble. In middle school he formed a band that accompanied his mother’s folk songs. Makaya studied music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, became part of the university’s jazz orchestra and received several DownBeats Student Music Awards.
Six albums later, Makaya McCraven unites several creative musical genres in pursuit of new musical directions and has a unique ability to loosen boundaries and mix past, present and future in arrangements of contemporary folk music with roots in jazz.
“McCraven has quietly become one of the best arguments for jazz’s vitality”. New York Times.
Now Makaya McCraven and his band are coming back to Fasching and you shouldn’t miss it!
