MAKAYA MCCRAVEN “JAZZ CONVERSATION” W/ ASHLEY KAHN

2022 BIAMP PDX JAZZ FESTIVAL
MAKAYA MCCRAVEN “JAZZ CONVERSATION” W/ ASHLEY KAHN

P5 ARTBAR  | 3.00 PM – 4.00 PM
FREE Community Event

Makaya McCraven the beat scientist, the bleeding edge drummer, producer, and sonic collagist is one of Chicago’s savviest cultural players and a multi-talented force whose inventive process & intuitive, cinematic style defy categorization.
Across numerous albums and mixtapes, McCraven has proven his mastery of the loop akin to hip-hop’s most celebrated beatmakers like J Dilla and Madlib, both of whom also found inspiration in the Blue Note catalog and his new Deciphering the Message reimagining album on Blue Note . With acclaimed releases like In The Moment (2015) and Universal Beings (2018), McCraven created his own lane in jazz by sampling his band playing improvised sessions throughout the world, then molding the audio several times to pull contrasting moods from it. For his most recent project McCraven remixed Gil Scott-Heron’s final album I’m New Here into the equally emotive LP We’re New Again (2020).

Ashley Kahn is a GRAMMY® winning music historian, author and producer, a wearer of hats, is wary of autocrats, loves jazz but is allergic to cats. He co-wrote Carlos Santana’s autobiography The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story To Light, and has written titles on legendary recordings Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, and a record label: The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records. His most recent book, George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters was published in August 2020. He teaches at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music.

Ashley has been our esteemed guest interviewer since 2020 in conversations with Archie Shepp, Brian Jackson, Stanley Jordan, Harold López Nussa, Judith Hill, director John Scheinfeld and more.