Makaya McCraven talks through his discography, from In The Moment to In These Times

Makaya McCraven is one of the most innovative improvising musicians to come to prominence amid “jazz” music’s unlikely resurgence of the past decade. His breakout International Anthem albums In The Moment and Universal Beings were nothing short of a revelation. Based on completely improvised recordings of his own bands, but sliced up and remixed by McCraven after the event, his methodology flipped conventional wisdom on its head. Rather than playing over beats – or trying to reproduce Dilla’s electronic lope live, ala Robert Glasper – McCraven’s method is closer to hip-hop sampling. But instead of digging crates, he’s pouring through hours of his own spontaneous compositions looking for the hook.This self-described “beat scientist” was subsequently employed by Richard Russell to “reimagine” (not remix) Gil Scott-Heron’s final album I’m New Here, before Don Was granted him access to the entire Blue Note Records vaults to concoct Deciphering the Message. I had the chance to talk through McCraven’s entire discography, a sonic journey culminating in his most recent album In These Times – an ambitious, composition-driven project with quasi-classical leanings, entirely different in concept to all that he has played before.