Son of art – his father was a jazz drummer while his mother was a singer and flautist in a Hungarian folk band, Makaya McCraven – which inaugurates the 49th edition of the Rome jazz festival on Saturday 1 November – the drummer and producer Makaya McCraven is a visionary talent who has been able to relaunch in recent years the primary function of jazz, that is, the attitude to contamination. An essential artist, he avoids virtuosity to focus on the essentiality and flow of music, a great master of rhythm. A peculiarity that he also confirms in his most recent recording – Off the record – physical release on October 31st (XL Recordings) – four EPs collected in a double album or on CD. The first Techno Logic features Ben LaMar Gay and Theon Cross and draws inspiration from performances in London (2017), Berlin (2024) and New York (2025). The People’s Mixtape – instead – draws its foundation from a live recording at Public Records in Brooklyn in 2025, where McCraven returns to the improvisational language of In the Moment.
«HIDDEN OUT!» is based on recordings from McCraven’s June 2017 residency at The Hideout in Chicago, where he improvised weekly with a regular cast that included bassist Junius Paul, Tortoise member, composer and guitarist Jeff Parker, and SML co-leader and alto saxophonist Josh Johnson. In the end PopUp Shopborn from McCraven’s Los Angeles debut recordings at Del Monte Speakeasy in 2015, featuring guitarist Jeff Parker, vibraphonist Justefan and bassist Benjamin J. Shepherd. «In an age where we are increasingly connected via phones – explains McCraven – in a virtual world where you can’t really tell what’s real from what’s fake, there’s something special about the moment we come together and share space, there’s something special about the moment we share music and art. I want to create an energy that amplifies the magic of underground moments where we come together and experience something wild, different, improvised, human. What I seek to present is a dreamlike alteration of that energy, which only exists in the realm of recording. But having been there, in real life, is the special thing.”
