About

Makaya McCraven was born in Paris in 1983, the son of jazz drummer Stephen McCraven (Sam Rivers, Archie Shepp) and Hungarian folk singer Agnes Zsigmondi. When he was a child, his family relocated to Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley, an area that Shepp and Yusef Lateef called home. Shepp and Lateef helped his parents mentor the boy by exposing him to a broad range of musical traditions. He began playing drums before he was ten, and in high school he pursued music studies seriously. His Cold Duck Complex cut three albums and toured regionally in the opening slot for hip-hop acts, and was a favorite at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Matriculating there, McCraven furthered his studies and played in the University Jazz Orchestra.

He relocated to Chicago in 2006 and almost instantly became an integral part of its thriving music scene, working with musicians ranging from Ari Brown and Broom to Corey Wilkes and Henry Johnson. He told Chicago Magazine that his reason for relocating to the Windy City was predicated by "a tradition in Chicago that's not stuck in the same trends as a place like New York. Chicago has a tradition of subversive music, and that, to me, is really intriguing, especially today, in times of political resistance. The tradition of a lot of Chicago music is one of resistance or labor or oppression and corruption." The drummer established his bona fides by playing on recordings by Apollo Sunshine and Kris Delmhorst.

McCraven‘s breakthrough debut album In The Moment captured 48 hours of live, improvised performances from McCraven and company. It was recorded at 1 venue over 12 months and 28 shows. The edited, remixed, and final product ended up displaying one of the most important recordings to date in the modern jazz world. The feeling still organic and never too far removed from the source material, the impressive, virtuosic playing reaches Sun Ra levels of hypnotic transmissions that keeps the listener fully engulfed in the spiritual plane. A few months later International Anthem issued In The Moment E & F Sides, a further nine tracks from the original sessions that tells more of the album’s story. Now after the release of the acclaimed Highly Rare and Universal Beings LPs, with both the original In The Moment and the addendum disc in higher demand than ever, International Anthem present the full session together on wax for the first time ever. It Includes the original album on LP 1 & 2, with the E & F sides on LP 3, all housed in a deluxe gatefold jacket with liner notes + obi strip. — via Label

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Label: International Anthem Recording Company
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album
Released: 2015
Genre: Hip Hop, Jazz
Style: Jazzy Hip-Hop

File under: International Anthem Recording Company
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