Makaya McCraven

Makaya McCraven was born on October 19, 1983, in Paris, France, to jazz drummer Stephen McCraven and Hungarian folk singer Ágnes Zsigmondi. From age three, he grew up in Amherst and Northampton, Massachusetts, in a vibrant creative community. McCraven began performing in his father’s drum ensemble at five years old. As a teenager, he formed the jazz-hip-hop ensemble Cold Duck Complex, which opened for Wu-Tang Clan, Digable Planets, and The Pharcyde. He studied music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, earning DownBeat student awards but leaving before completing his degree.

McCraven relocated to Chicago in 2006 and quickly became an in-demand session drummer. He performed with Bobby Broom, Corey Wilkes, Willie Pickens, and guitarist Jeff Parker. His debut album as leader, Split Decision, appeared in 2012 on Chicago Sessions and reached number six on Blaze Radio’s top 25. The creative breakthrough came in 2015 with In The Moment, released through International Anthem Recording Company. McCraven introduced his signature method of “organic beat music”: capturing free improvisations in live sessions, then editing and recomposing them in the studio using hip-hop production techniques. This album established the approach that would define his subsequent work.

McCraven refined his production method on In The Moment’s foundation. He released Highly Rare in 2017, a lo-fi free jazz mixtape created from a single four-track live recording. Where We Come From followed in 2018, produced from sessions at London’s Total Refreshment Centre. His most ambitious work, the double album Universal Beings, appeared on October 26, 2018. McCraven orchestrated intimate sessions across New York, Chicago, London, and Los Angeles, featuring cellist Tomeka Reid, vibraphonist Joel Ross, saxophonist Nubya Garcia, pianist Ashley Henry, violinist Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, and guitarist Jeff Parker. The album’s 22 tracks earned praise from The New York Times and won recognition from the Jazz Journalists Association Awards in 2019.

McCraven continued expanding his artistic reach with We’re New Again in 2020, a reworking of Gil Scott-Heron’s I’m New Here that added live instrumentation and studio processing. He released Universal Beings E&F Sides that same year, a companion album with 14 unreleased tracks from the original sessions. In DownBeat’s 2020 Critics Poll, McCraven won for best producer and best drummer in the “Rising Star” category. His 2022 album In These Times, released through International Anthem after seven years of development, represented a culmination of his philosophies around jazz as contemporary folk music. McCraven’s approach fuses jazz improvisation with hip-hop sampling and electronic production, positioning him as a key voice in 21st-century beat music and redefining how percussion and production intersect in jazz.