Makaya McCraven calls himself a beat scientist, and with good reason. There’s Makaya behind the kit — hyperkinetic and razor sharp — which has made him an essential fixture of Chicago’s improvised ...

It’s been more than a decade since Blue Note Records released an album by a Chicago artist. The last time anyone based here appeared on the roster of this definitive jazz label, it was vocalists ...

On a rainy evening in August of last year, a barely advertised show by Chicago-based drummer and beatsmith Makaya McCraven jammed an overflow crowd into H0L0, a sparse little basement club in ...

Makaya McCraven is a drummer, producer, and composer who has carved out a unique space in contemporary music as a self-proclaimed “beat scientist." His work blurs the lines between live performance ...

Makaya McCraven is a drummer, producer, and composer who has carved out a unique space in contemporary music as a self-proclaimed "beat scientist." His work blurs the lines between live performance ...

When journalist Studs Terkel wrote his landmark 1974 book “Working,” he described it as “a search for daily meaning as well as for daily bread.” One could describe the music of drummer, producer and ...

In-person tickets for Makaya McCraven at the Vermont Jazz Center are offered on a sliding fee scale from $25 to $45 per person (contact the VJC about educational group discounts); available online at ...

“‘Is jazz dead?’ is a stupid question,” says drummer and bandleader Makaya McCraven over beers at a Lower East Side bar that is, fittingly, playing a selection of 1930s and ’40s-era jazz cuts. “If you ...

Makaya McCraven’s set at New York’s (Le) Poisson Rouge on Sunday touched on a universe of musical styles. Driving funk, hypnotic reggae, loping odd-time vamps, hectic Afrobeat-esque workouts and more ...

Makaya McCraven calls himself a beat scientist, so it's no surprise when you ask about his childhood, you hear he was pretty much surrounded by rhythm. "Rehearsals at our house, banging on drums since ...

Makaya McCraven — a drummer-producer-bandleader-composer who sums up his MO with the evocative term "beat scientist" — has lately been on the hottest of hot streaks. His album Universal Beings was ...