Program Book - Makaya McCraven with special guest Meshell Ndegeocello

N INET Y-THI R D SEASON Friday, January 19, 2024, at 8:00

Jazz Series MAKAYA MCCRAVEN WITH SPECIAL GUEST MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO Makaya McCraven Drums Greg Ward Alto Saxophone Marquis Hill Trumpet Brandee Younger Harp Jeff Parker Guitar Junius Paul Bass Meshell Ndegeocello Bass and Vocals The program will be announced from the stage.

Funding for educational programs during the 2023–24 Season of SCP Jazz has been generously provided by Dan J. Epstein, Judith Guitelman, and the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation. The CSOA thanks the Epstein Family Foundation for ten consecutive years of generous, innovative support for the SCP Jazz Education program.

DownBeat magazine, WDCB, and WBEZ Chicago are media partners for this program.

Makaya McCraven Drums Makaya McCraven is a prolific drummer, composer, and producer. His newest album, In These Times, is the triumphant finale of a project over seven years in the making and a preeminent addition to his acclaimed and extensive discography.

After cutting his teeth in the Western Massachusetts music scene and cofounding the jazz-hip-hop band Cold Duck Complex, which ultimately opened for the Pharcyde, Digable Planets, and Wu-Tang Clan, he moved to Chicago in 2006. Within five years, he established a name for himself, gigging alongside scene stalwarts like Willie Pickens, Marquis Hill, and Jeff Parker.

McCraven continued to hone his live improvisation and sampling with Highly Rare in 2017, as well as Where We Come From and Universal Beings, both released in 2018. His work has featured various esteemed players, including Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings from London, Junius Paul and Tomeka Reid of Chicago, Anna Butterss and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson from Los Angeles, and Brandee Younger and Dezron Douglas from New York.

He recently remixed Gil ScottHeron’s final album, I’m New Here, for 2020’s We’re New Again: A Reimagining

by Makaya McCraven; released Universal Beings E+F Sides (also in 2020); and delved into the venerable Blue Note Records catalog in 2021 for Deciphering the Message, each project P H OTO S @ S U LY I M A N , M I K E L AV E R Y, C H O L L E T T E

also employing new improvisations and sampling, helping to further cement his “beat scientist” moniker.

Greg Ward Alto Saxophone Based in Chicago, Greg Ward has performed and recorded with Prefuse 73, Lupe Fiasco, Tortoise, William Parker, Andrew D’Angelo,

and Mike Reed.

He has collaborated with composer, sound designer, and performer Caleb Willitz, writing the film score for Pinch, which was an official selection of the 2015 San Diego Black Film Festival.

Ward maintains an active international touring schedule and was recently appointed to the Jacobs School of Music faculty at Indiana University as assistant professor of music in jazz studies.

Marquis Hill Trumpet From his beginnings as one of Chicago’s most thrilling young trumpeters to his current status as an internationally renowned musician, composer, and bandleader, Marquis Hill has worked tirelessly to break down the barriers that divide musical genres.

In 2014 Hill won the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Trumpet Competition.

He has released five acclaimed discs— New Gospel, Sounds of the City, The Poet, and Modern Flows and has collaborated with Marcus Miller, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Boney James, Kurt Elling, Joe Lovano, and Hill’s trailblazing peer Makaya McCraven.

Brandee Younger Harp The sonically innovative harpist Brandee Younger is revolutionizing the harp for the digital era, stretching boundaries and limitations for harpists. In 2022 she made history by becoming the first Black woman nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition.

That same year, she was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award.

Younger has worked with icons Common, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, Pharoah Sanders, and Christian McBride, and her original composition “Hortense” was featured in Beyoncé’s Netflix documentary Homecoming.

She is on the faculty at NYU’s Steinhardt School and the New School College of Performing Arts.

Jeff Parker Guitar Jeff Parker is recognized as one of contemporary music’s most versatile and innovative electric guitarists and composers.

He is a member of the indie band Tortoise and a founding member of Isotope 217˚ and Chicago Underground.

Parker’s acclaimed albums as a leader include Like-Coping, The Relatives, The New Breed, Slight Freedom, Suite for Max Brown, Forfolks, and Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy.

An associate member of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians since 1995, Parker was awarded the United States Artists Fellowship in 2022.

Junius Paul Bass Junius Paul is a composer, bandleader, and acoustic and electric bassist, born and raised in the Chicago area and a graduate of St. Xavier University (Chicago).

His debut album, Ism (2019), received four stars in DownBeat magazine, and in 2022, Paul was acknowledged in DownBeat magazine’s Readers’ Poll Rising Stars for double and electric bass.

He is on the faculty of St. Xavier University and serves as musical director and bassist of Rotary Connection 222, the official Charles Stepney legacy ensemble. In addition to teaching and touring internationally, Junius Paul is working on his second full-length album, set to be released in the fall of 2024.

P H OTO S BY E R I N PAT R I C E O ’ B R I E N , L E N N Y G O N Z A L E Z , D U A N E S AVA G E

Meshell Ndegeocello Bass and Vocals Acclaimed Grammywinning multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello makes her Blue Note Records debut with The Omnichord Real Book—a visionary, expansive, and deeply jazz-influenced album that marks the start of a new chapter in her trailblazing career. Following her 2018 covers album Ventriloquism, Ndegeocello returns with a recording of new original material that taps into a broad spectrum of her musical roots. The Omnichord Real Book was produced by Josh Johnson and features a wide range of guest artists, including Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Joel Ross, Jeff Parker,

Brandee Younger, Julius Rodriguez, Mark Guiliana, Cory Henry, Joan As Police Woman, and Thandiswa, among others.

Meshell Ndegeocello first appeared on a Blue Note record a decade ago with her feature on The Consequences of Jealousy from Robert Glasper’s Grammy-winning 2012 album Black Radio. Two years later, she collaborated with Jason Moran on All Rise, a vibrant reimagination of Fats Waller’s music, where Ndegeocello was a featured vocalist and producer. Reflecting upon time spent with her parents’ record collection during her childhood, she recalls, “I loved going through the records and seeing the Blue Note insignia. I stay away from the word jazz; it’s a really heavy word, but I am so moved to be on a label that is about self-expression.”

P H OTO BY C H A R L I E G R O S S

Funding for educational programs during the 2023–24 Season of SCP Jazz has been generously provided by Dan J. Epstein, Judith Guitelman, and the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation.

The CSOA thanks the Epstein Family Foundation for ten consecutive years of generous, innovative support for the SCP Jazz Education program.