CD: In These Times

Makaya McCraven describes himself as a "beat scientist." That is, even more than a drummer and bandleader, the 38-year-old considers himself an arranger, a producer and someone who brings things together in an independent way.

McCraven's album "In The Moment" was also created in this way in 2015. On it, the American with French roots had extracted a coherent collection of 19 songs with organic beat music from 48 hours of improvised live material recorded over a period of twelve months at 28 shows.

"In These Times" refers to this approach again, but as the title suggests the scope is different for Makaya McCraven anno 2022. Basically, the Chicago man has been working on the album in the background for over seven years. With more than a dozen collaborators, including Jeff Parker, Brandee Younger and many more, McCraven has since recorded music in various studio and live locations. Only to edit it on the computer afterwards, finish producing it, and reassemble it over and over again.

It's just that everything is one size bigger on "In These Times": the number of musicians, the size of the arrangements and the amount of source material. In addition, Makaya McCraven has been repeatedly "distracted" in recent years by prestigious projects, such as new interpretations of Gil Scott-Heron ("We're New Again") or the classics of the Blue Note label ("Deciphering The Message").

But now his personal milestone is finally finished and contains as much of Makaya McCraven as none of his previous projects.