Makaya McCraven

Makaya McCraven is a prolific drummer, composer, and producer known for blending jazz, folk, and global traditions into innovative, post-genre compositions. His latest album, In These Times, is the culmination of a seven-year project, reflecting his deep exploration of cultural struggles and personal experiences within a multicultural, working-class musician community. Born in Paris to a Hungarian mother and African-American father, McCraven was raised in a creative environment in Northampton, Massachusetts, where his exposure to jazz and folk music shaped his philosophy of jazz as folk music. He seamlessly integrates hip-hop, jazz, and folk elements into his work, often incorporating live improvisation and sampling. McCraven's breakthrough album “_In The Moment_” (2015) established him as a voice for a younger audience, and subsequent works like Universal Beings (2018) solidified his reputation for creating borderless, genre-defying music. He has collaborated with a diverse range of artists and has been profiled in major outlets like Vice, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian. McCraven’s music continues to evolve, drawing on both the past and present to push the boundaries of Black improvised music, which he views as an ongoing conversation about its next evolution.