Makaya McCraven

Amazed at how active and dynamic McCraven's drumming is, yet never anything close to overpowering or showy. If anything I was hoping to see him let loose -- don't believe he took a solo all night.

Saw McCraven last night at big Strathmore Hall in a Washington DC suburb. Band included Brandee Younger on harp, Deshawn Jones, Graham Ward, Marquis Hill, Julius Paul, a cellist whose name I didn't get and 3 women violinists whose names I sadly also missed. Mostly In these times songs, but also an encore -the title track from his Gil Scott-Heron album, with some sampled Scott-Heron vocals, then the bassist took over on vocals. Lots of harp and subtle McCraven drumming on that.

A guy I know who had seen McCraven at Big Ears, said this show seemed more sedate than that one. This was my first time seeing McCraven. One cut got noisy , and McCraven was hiphop meets James Brown funky on others, but some cuts were sublime and kinda Curtis Mayfield meets old school Miles Davis ethereal with the violins, flute, and harp taking prominence and I liked that (more than my buddy). Giovanni Russonello, NY Times jazz critic who's working on a book about Scott-Heron, did a powerpoint with video presentation about McCraven in a smaller room there beforehand. Gio posted quotes from an interview he had done with McCraven the day before, added in video clips of Ahmad Jamal, Pete Rock, mentions of J Dilla, and quotes from musicologists and others I didn't know. Was reiterating the message about how McCraven likes to re-do projects live and not keep things static, and how he likes to include human error.

That sounds like a great show! Quick tip for anybody: his "Highly Rare" and "Where We Come From" LPs are half-priced ($12) on Bandcamp through this weekend.

FYI the cellist in McCraven's group is Lia Kohl--a fantastic composer in her own right who is based in Chicago. I reissued her first album on my label last year:

https://florabelle.bandcamp.com/album/too-small-to-be-a-plain

Oh thanks

FUCK, I never pay enough attention to the Strathmore calendar.

Quick tip for anybody: his "Highly Rare" and "Where We Come From" LPs are half-priced ($12) on Bandcamp through this weekend.

― daily growing, Saturday, February 24, 2024 1:54 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Wow thanks for the heads up! I have not heard either. What are they like?

Highly Rare is a chopped-up beat tape made from a four-track live recording of McCraven with Nick Mazzarella on alto sax, Ben Lamar Gay on cornet and diddley-bow, and Junius Paul on electric bass. It's good, and/but very raw — deliberately so.

Where We Come From is also live, and a little less primitively recorded; it's from London and features Soweto Kinch and Nubya Garcia on saxes, Theon Cross on tuba, Joe Armon-Jones on Fender Rhodes and Kamaal Williams on keyboards. Then some other people overdubbed additional instruments later. It's really good, one of my favorite of his albums in fact.

Thank you!

Those two might be my favorite Makaya records. Highly recommend both.

In These Times vinyl sale:

https://www.turntablelab.com/products/makaya-mccraven-in-these-times-indie-exclusive-colored-vinyl-vinyl-lp

Been listening to the B side of that a bunch recently

Great record. I listened to that so much when it came out. Thanks for the reminder to pull it out.