Makaya McCraven: Off the Record

"Makaya McCraven's music is a process of transmutation: In his hands, improvisation turns into composition and then back again. Like most brilliant ideas, it's simple to explain and devilishly difficult to pull off. McCraven plays live with one of his groups, usually consisting of some of the best musicians of his generation. Then, he meticulously edits recordings of those performances into new songs, bringing a dexterous hip-hop production technique into the world of jazz."

"Off the Record, a collection of four new EPs that have also been released separately, is a useful introduction to McCraven's evolution since his landmark 2015 album In the Moment, when he began his experiment in jazz/hip-hop hybridization. Rather than a chronological narrative of the growth of the artist, the new set presents a composite portrait: Turn from one EP to the other and you see a wholly different facet of McCraven's identity, from deft percussionist to bold beatmaker."

Off the Record compiles four EPs created by gathering and reworking a decade of live jams into new tracks. McCraven records live performances with top contemporary musicians, then painstakingly edits those recordings into composed pieces using hip-hop production techniques. He later re-arranges the edited material for live band development. The collection showcases varied collaborators, from guitarist Jeff Parker to folklorist Ben LaMar Gay, and reveals multiple facets of McCraven's practice: dexterous percussion, bold beatmaking, and the alchemy of deriving hip-hop rhythms and structure from jazz improvisation. The approach traces a lineage to Teo Macero's studio-as-instrument work with Miles Davis while remaining distinct through McCraven's hybridized aesthetic.

Read at Pitchfork