Makaya McCraven doesn’t fit cleanly into any one category — and that’s exactly the point. The Chicago-based drummer and producer has spent the better part of a decade building something genuinely new: a method he calls “organic beat music,” where live jazz improvisation meets the layered, textured world of hip-hop production.
His process is distinctive. McCraven records live sessions — sometimes intimate, sometimes sprawling — then reedits and rearranges the raw material into cohesive compositions. The result sounds both spontaneous and deliberate, full of the human grain you’d expect from a live performance but structured with a producer’s ear for feel and flow.
His catalog bears this out. Universal Beings (2018) documented a series of sessions recorded across four cities — Chicago, New York, London, and Tokyo — each featuring local collaborators. The album became one of the most critically celebrated jazz records of that year. In These Times (2022) pushed the scope further, incorporating strings and a larger ensemble while keeping his signature rhythmic intelligence at the center.
McCraven has been called one of the most important jazz musicians of his generation — a claim that doesn’t feel like hyperbole when you hear his work. This show at Higher Ground brings that music to South Burlington in an intimate setting well-suited for it. He’s not a background musician, and this isn’t background music.
Doors open at 7:00 PM. Show starts at 8:00 PM. Tickets are on sale now.