Makaya McCraven
Off the Record
Album · Jazz · 2026 · International Anthem/Nonesuch · Just dropped! Listen now
Drummer/bandleader Makaya McCraven’s jazz-funk-hip-hop fusion is one of the more casually progressive sounds in modern jazz, as appealing to jazz tradition as to alternatively minded listeners looking for something well-constructed and slightly outside the mainstream to chill with.
Compiling four EPs—each recorded with different collaborators, including guitarist Jeff Parker, cornetist/vocalist Ben LaMar Gay, and modular synthesist Jeremiah Chiu—Off the Record functions like a set of experiments for the various permutations of McCraven’s style, from the dusty, Madlib-style loops of “Battleships” to the electronic dissonance of “Technology” and the cool, vibraphone-led nocturne “Lake Shore Drive Five.” The lack of a unifying through line is the appeal—more than any single album, Off the Record is where you get to McCraven’s creative mind, unbridled.
Compiling four EPs—each recorded with different collaborators, including guitarist Jeff Parker, cornetist/vocalist Ben LaMar Gay, and modular synthesist Jeremiah Chiu—Off the Record functions like a set of experiments for the various permutations of McCraven’s style, from the dusty, Madlib-style loops of “Battleships” to the electronic dissonance of “Technology” and the cool, vibraphone-led nocturne “Lake Shore Drive Five.” The lack of a unifying through line is the appeal—more than any single album, Off the Record is where you get to McCraven’s creative mind, unbridled.
Off the Record
Makaya McCraven
Drummer/bandleader Makaya McCraven’s jazz-funk-hip-hop fusion is one of the more casually progressive sounds in modern jazz, as appealing to jazz tradition as to alternatively minded listeners looking for something well-constructed and slightly outside the mainstream to chill with.
Compiling four EPs—each recorded with different collaborators, including guitarist Jeff Parker, cornetist/vocalist Ben LaMar Gay, and modular synthesist Jeremiah Chiu—Off the Record functions like a set of experiments for the various permutations of McCraven’s style, from the dusty, Madlib-style loops of “Battleships” to the electronic dissonance of “Technology” and the cool, vibraphone-led nocturne “Lake Shore Drive Five.” The lack of a unifying through line is the appeal—more than any single album, Off the Record is where you get to McCraven’s creative mind, unbridled.
Compiling four EPs—each recorded with different collaborators, including guitarist Jeff Parker, cornetist/vocalist Ben LaMar Gay, and modular synthesist Jeremiah Chiu—Off the Record functions like a set of experiments for the various permutations of McCraven’s style, from the dusty, Madlib-style loops of “Battleships” to the electronic dissonance of “Technology” and the cool, vibraphone-led nocturne “Lake Shore Drive Five.” The lack of a unifying through line is the appeal—more than any single album, Off the Record is where you get to McCraven’s creative mind, unbridled.
