Makaya McCraven
Off The Record
Release Date: Oct 17, 2025
Genre(s): Jazz
Record label: Nonesuch
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Album Review: Off The Record by Makaya McCraven
Excellent, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
A voice (presumably belonging to drummer and bandleader Makaya McCraven) declares this during the brief skit "Yo Yo" that opens PopUp Shop, the fourth and final of the new EPs bundled together on Off The Record whilst the band heat up a roiling free jazz clatter around him: "This is improvised music. Spontaneous composition. " The intro offers an apt description for both this really quite spectacular album and the Chicago-based jazz drummer and bandleader's general MO.
Opinion: Excellent
Makaya McCraven is a very modern jazz musician. The drummer and bandleader has been bending the genre's boundaries since his teens, when he was founding member of a jazz-hop band called Cold Duck Complex, who performed with the likes of Pharcyde and Digable Planets. He's since played with tons of musicians (from Kamasi Washington to Jeff Parker), put together a wonderful reimagining of Gil-Scott Heron's 'I'm New Here' and also released a bunch of solo albums, highlighted by his 2022 stunner 'In These Times'.
'Off The Record'
is available now