Makaya McCraven

Drummer, composer, and producer Makaya McCraven returns as part of the 2025-26 group of SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Directors with four nights of expansive, exhilarating music that will vary in concept and expression from performance to performance. 

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Paris-born, Chicago-based McCraven has powerful grooves and a passion for deep-water musical exploration in his blood. The son of free jazz luminary Stephen McCraven (Yusef Lateef, Sam Rivers, Archie Shepp), Makaya McCraven has assimilated the seemingly disparate, yet inextricably tied, influences of post-Coltrane jazz and hip-hop’s most experimental fringes into a unique multi-dimensional approach – a sonic signature that marries live performances with electronic manipulation and looping into a gritty, uncompromising, and seamless whole.  

His critically lauded 2015 International Anthem debut In the Moment made Top 10 lists in DownBeat and PopMatters, setting the stage for a remarkable career path that continually embraces both discovery and legacy. 

McCraven’s newest releases are four interconnected EPs entitled Techno Logic, The People’s Mixtape, Hidden Out!, and PopUp Shop — collectively called Off the Record — featuring performances by Ben LaMar Gay, Theon Cross, Junius Paul, Marquis Hill, Joel Ross, Jeremiah Chiu, Jeff Parker, Josh Johnson, Justefan, and Benjamin J. Shepherd. 

Aptly described as a “beat scientist” more than a drummer, Makaya McCraven is a maverick musician and composer helping define what jazz means now.