Makaya McCraven
@ Islington Assembly Hall
Recipe Used:
My penultimate show of 2022 was part of the EFG London Jazz Festival, which celebrated 30 years this year.
I went to a couple of shows last year (Including Anthony Joseph) for the first time and inevitably wondered how much heat did I miss in the past decades?
The LJF is a pan-city event, which means that it goes down in multiple locales; and it runs throughout the month of November. So as you can imagine, a ton of shows to hit if you’re into Jazz and all the flavours Jazz embraces.
I was only blessed with one this year, but boy was it a check off my list…
Makaya McCraven
McCraven is one of my favourite names in Contemporary Jazz. Labelled as a “Beat Scientist”, McCraven’s style is so smooth and malleable that he can do a completely original work like “In These Times” that dropped this year but can also remix the legends. "Decipering The Message” was one of my favourite albums of '21; revitalising legends with Blue Note Records' blessing.
And you can't get it from the pictures, but he's a hell of a drummer to boot.
It was also my first time in Islington Assembly Hall, which is a quaint little spot. Out of all the places I’ve been to with a balcony, this is probably the smallest.
In hindsight, I wish I was able to lower the ISO a tad. The fuzziness creeps into some of the photos if you look too close. I guess the reason why it works in The Jazz Café for example is because I can get super close and not have the ISO over 3200.
Here, I was a few metres away, so I kind of had no choice. With the shutter speed having to be locked in, it’s probably the best I could’ve gotten within my standards.
With that said, I can’t complain. Some of the lighting sets were too good not to get a picture of. At the end of the day, the show itself was outstanding and you got to see some half decent pics. We all win.
Charlie Taylor
chillicharlie.taylor@gmail.com
Born in Camden, North London.
Bred in Leigh-On-Sea, Essex.
Screenwriter/Podcaster/Photographer/
Hip-Hop Student.