#4223: With Makaya McCraven from Big Ears 2019
Chicago-based drummer, composer, and producer Makaya McCraven manipulates audio to create new music. He’s an ‘organic beat scientist’ who combines spontaneous composition and studio techniques to make natural-sounding songs that he then performs with a band. John Schaefer caught up with McCraven at the 2019 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN, for this interview.
Makaya McCraven has a knack for capturing those magical moments when folks making music together in live performance just click. He finds the riff, er - the thematic material- that they come upon, and draws it out or tightens it up, as the music dictates. Sometimes from these spontaneous composition sessions, where folks have been improvising within a set of concepts, McCraven will completely rearrange or turn around notes to create a new chord progression here, or maybe even a new time signature or feel there, which somehow in the finished version, still sounds serendipitously natural. He’s inspired by the DJ, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and rapper MadLib, as he goes about these re-compositions which can be part groove, pop, grime, jazz, and a little bit systems music.
McCraven’s household was an extremely musical one, where there were jazz greats along with Gnawan trance music, Senegalese music and Hungarian folk music, and lots of encouragement to pursue music. He grew up playing drums as part of a live hip hop group who mixed in jazz with rap and beats.
His record, In the Moment, is one that showcases his method of capturing live performances, returning to his solitary lair to pull out the highlights, and then re-assembling them as a producer. As he toured more and more, he began to find players both in Chicago and in London, where he just connected. The record, Where We Come From (CHICAGOxLONDON Mixtape), saw collaborations with tuba player Theon Cross (Sons of Kemet), and sax players Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings, among other London-based musicians.
To make his latest, Universal Beings, he again reached out to communities of players, because of the kinship between London, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. He is looking constantly to connect with people, and sees “music as a vehicle to our humanity,” as he goes about his beat-making and gathering players together. McCraven’s sense of magic, and marveling at the unknown in music-making is omnipresent in all that he touches. Listen to music from Universal Beings, along with Where We Come From, featuring a cast of many players – including harpist Brandee Younger, cellist Tomeka Reid, keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, and bass player Dezron Douglas.
Also, hear music by Tim Story, in a similar vein – recorded live at an installation that was also at Big Ears 2019. From a collaboration with Cluster and Harmonia cofounder Hans-Joachim Roedelius where Story sliced, edited, warped, and layered hours of improvisations by Roedelius into a new song cycle of piano and electronics, called The Roedelius Cells, hear a new cell written for Ashley Capps (of the Big Ears Festival) – “cell ten”. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4223: With Makaya McCraven, at Big Ears 2019 (First aired 4/09/2019)
ARTIST: Makaya McCraven
WORK: First Thing First [4:00]
RECORDING: In the Moment
SOURCE: International Anthem
INFO: intlanthem.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Makaya McCraven, feat. Nubya Garcia
WORK: Suite Haus [5:08]
RECORDING: Universal Beings
SOURCE: International Anthem
INFO: intlanthem.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Makaya McCraven, feat. Brandee Younger
WORK: Young Genius [5:32]
RECORDING: Universal Beings
SOURCE: International Anthem
INFO: intlanthem.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Makaya McCraven, ft. Soweto Kinch - saxophone, voice; Theon Cross - tuba; Joe Armon-Jones - Rhodes piano; Nubya Garcia - saxophone; Kamaal Williams - keys.
WORK: Halls [3:49]
RECORDING: Where We Come From (CHICAGOxLONDON Mixtape)
SOURCE: International Anthem
INFO: intlanthem.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Makaya McCraven, feat. Shabaka Hutchings - tenor saxophone; Tomeka Reid - cello; Junius Paul - double bass
WORK: Inner Flight [3:02]
RECORDING: Universal Beings
SOURCE: International Anthem
INFO: intlanthem.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Makaya McCraven, feat. Dezron Douglas - double bass; Tomeka Reid - cello;
WORK: Black Lion [2:58]
RECORDING: Universal Beings
SOURCE: International Anthem
INFO: intlanthem.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Tim Story & Hans-Joachim Roedelius
WORK: Roedelius cells: Cell 10 [5:38]
RECORDING: Big Ears, 2019
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: bigearsfestival.org
ARTIST: Tim Story & Hans-Joachim Roedelius
WORK: Roedelius cells: cell seven [1:11]
RECORDING: The Roedelius Cells
SOURCE: Seventh Chance Recordings
INFO: store.cdbaby.com/cd/timstory
