Fusing bebop with hip-hop sampling, the Chicago-based drummer is finding new ways on his Blue Note debut to expand the boundaries of jazz
![‘Evolution is part of tradition’: musician Makaya McCraven on the future of jazz](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/49a84d61bdefb24f10aa358ad06a293abf359594/0_360_5400_3242/master/5400.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=3000f34d1f597a6bcdc35730cde9687f)
Each day we have so many choices to make and we are constantly improvising them, just like playing jazz,” says the drummer-composer Makaya McCraven. “Even when we try to organise and sanitise the world so that we can function – that’s us improvising in different frameworks. It’s all an expression of life.”
Wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “Listen more” – as if signposting to his interviewer – the 38-year-old McCraven is fizzing with energy while speaking from his basement home studio in
Chicago. As he philosophically explores his unique style of composition – improvising while playing live and then chopping up the subsequent recordings to create a patchwork of samples – his wife calls out from upstairs that she’s got his lunch.