Makaya McCraven on our podcast and LIVE in NYC this weekend
Makaya McCraven
on the International Anthem Podcast
In the latest episode of our podcast, host Ayana Contreras visits Makaya McCraven at his home in Rogers Park, Chicago, just a few months after the release of his critically-acclaimed 2022 album In These Times. Makaya reflects on the reception of In These Times while revisiting the concepts, intentions, growth, and changes the work encompassed along his 10-year journey of creating it.
This episode is supported in part by Strictly Discs, an independent record store located in Madison, Wisconsin.
Makaya McCraven LIVE at Knockdown Center, New York,
Saturday May 13th 2023
New York, this Saturday May 13th, Makaya co-headlines Outline at Knockdown Center (52-19 Flushing Ave, Maspeth, NY 11378, USA) as part of an absolutely unmissable lineup, alongside Standing On The Corner, Laraaji, and Liv.e. Outline festival's wide-ranging curation has always celebrated the singular and inimitable, and this show is no exception. Makaya's quartet for the night includes Junius Paul, Joel Ross, and Marquis Hill, as the concert opens the venue's outdoor stage, the Ruins, for its summer season.
Makaya McCraven
on tour
Makaya's busy as ever this year... a true universal being! Catch him in your city, or somebody else's city (are we the only ones feeling tempted to head to the South Pacific for that Jakarta hit?)!!! Full list of dates plus ticket links below >>>
May 13th - Queens, New York - Knockdown Center
June 4th - Jakarta, Indonesia - Java Jazz Festival
June 15th - Bloomington, Indiana - Switchyard Park
June 18th - Manchester, Tennessee - Bonnaroo
June 24th - Los Angeles, California - The Getty
July 12th - Williamstown, Massachusetts - The Clark Art Institute
July 20th - Milan, Italy - Giardini della Triennale
July 21st - Rome, Italy - Casa del Jazz
July 22nd - Fiesole, Italy - Antico Teatro Romano
July 23rd - Bassano del Grappa, Italy - Titto Gobbi
August 9th - Locorotondo, Italy - Piazza Aldo Moro
August 11th - Wimborne St Giles, UK - We Out Here Festival
August 12th - Oslo, Norway - Øya Festival
October 11th - Madison, Wisconsin - Wisconsin Union Theater
October 13th - Detroit, Michigan - Detroit Symphony Orchestra
An incredibly historic happening in Chicago, August 2nd, 2022...
...it was the very first show at a new large venue - The Salt Shed - and the folks there had the good sense to pull together this epic bill. Heading into the gig... Makaya McCraven had just announced the forthcoming release of In These Times (his first proper, personal record since 2018's Universal Beings, not to mention his first release via the three-label tri-fecta of IARC, Nonesuch, and XL Recordings), Sons of Kemet had just announced that this tour would be the band's last (at least in its current iteration, but maybe forever?), and Nubya Garcia was still smoking from a recent run of shows opening for Khruangbin (including Radio City Music Hall in New York, with Chicago's own Jahari Stampley on keys).
Since their first meetings and collaborations in much smaller clubs between Chicago and London in 2017, all of these artists have grown to be larger-than-life beacons of the increasingly popular “new wave of jazz” (to steal a phrase from Impulse)... The mere fact that these perpetually busy musicians were able to be in the same city on the same night was reason enough for pause… let alone the fact that the city was Chicago, and the moment was such a particularly special point in all their individual trajectories as artists. We felt the occasion justified extensive photographic documentation, and called up the man with the cam, Sulyiman Stokes.
Please enjoy this collection of photos from that special night...
...originally published in the physical edition of our label's first zine, Tracing The Lines, now available online for the first time.
Makaya McCraven - In These Times
co-release with Nonesuch & XL Recordings
LP/CD/Digital out now
In These Times is the new album by Chicago-based percussionist, composer, producer, and pillar of our label family, Makaya McCraven.
Although this album is “new," the truth it’s something that's been in process for a very long time, since shortly after he released his International Anthem debut In The Moment in 2015. Dedicated followers may note he’s had 6 other releases in the meantime (including 2018’s widely-popular Universal Beings and 2020’s We’re New Again, his rework of Gil Scott-Heron’s final album for XL Recordings); but none of which have been as definitive an expression of his artistic ethos as In These Times. This is the album McCraven’s been trying to make since he started making records. And his patience, ambition, and persistence have yielded an appropriately career-defining body of work.
As epic and expansive as it is impressively potent and concise, the 11 song suite was created over 7+ years, as McCraven strived to design a highly personal but broadly communicable fusion of odd-meter original compositions from his working songbook with orchestral, large ensemble arrangements and the edit-heavy “organic beat music” that he’s honed over a growing body of production-craft.
With contributions from over a dozen musicians and creative partners from his tight-knit circle of collaborators – including Jeff Parker, Junius Paul, Brandee Younger, Joel Ross, and Marquis Hill – the music was recorded in 5 different studios and 4 live performance spaces while McCraven engaged in extensive post-production work from home. The pure fact that he was able to so eloquently condense and articulate the immense human scale of the work into 41 fleeting minutes of emotive and engaging sound is a monumental achievement. It’s an evolution and a milestone for McCraven, the producer; but moreover it’s the strongest and clearest statement we’ve yet to hear from McCraven, the composer.
In These Times is an almost unfathomable new peak for an already-soaring innovator who has been called "one of the best arguments for jazz's vitality" by The New York Times, and recently, perhaps more aptly, a "cultural synthesizer." While challenging and pushing himself into uncharted territory, McCraven quintessentially expresses his unique gifts for collapsing space and transcending borders – blending past, present, and future into elegant, poly-textural arrangements of jazz-rooted, post-genre 21st century folk music.
*Deluxe Vinyl Package*
In These Times in vinyl form is a 33rpm 160 gram LP (pressed by Smashed Plastic in Chicago) in a heavyweight reverse-board jacket, with insert sheet, IARC obi strip and dome patterned inner sleeve.
International Anthem x Nonesuch Records
North & South American distribution
In These Times is marketed & distributed in North & South America via our partnership with Nonesuch Records.
As Nonesuch is part of the Warner Music Group, In These Times will be distributed in North & South America by WEA. Stores, retailers, folks interested in wholesale purchases: please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions about where/how to stock these releases.
XL Recordings for Europe, UK, Japan, Australia, and ROW
In These Times is licensed, marketed and distributed by our friends at XL Recordings in Europe, UK, Japan, Australia, Asia, and everywhere else in the world outside of North & South America.
Retailers looking to purchase wholesale for all the above territories, let us know if we can help get you in touch.
((( photo by Nate Schuls )))
