Drummer/composer/producer Makaya McCraven brings his “organic beat music” to Gateway City Arts in Holyoke on Tuesday, June 4, at 8 p.m. Opening the show is The Mtali Banda Oneness Project.
McCraven was born in Paris, raised in the Valley and has been living and creating in Chicago since 2007. His latest album is last year’s sprawling double LP “Universal Beings,” another critically acclaimed example of his unique style of post-composing: he takes the recordings of his group’s improvisatory live performances (for this album, the shows happened in New York, London, Chicago and Los Angeles) and then he edits, loops, layers and arranges the live material to create new tracks. (One of his descriptors is “beat scientist.”)
The resulting music (which has been compared to the work of Madlib and J Dilla, as well as Teo Macero’s projects with Miles Davis in his early electric period) is trance-inducing, funky and soul-kicking, built around the deep and bright pulse of McCraven’s rhythms, where he often snaps the side of his drumstick against the snare for a crisp heartbeat.
“Atlantic Black” uses skittering samples as a basis for a nine-minute suite that gets combative and chaotic before dissolving into an eerie calm. “Voila” surrounds an upright bass solo with a head-nodding groove while the other instruments create sunset colors for the ears.
Expect a night of “deep spiritual jazz meditations, pulsing post-bop grooves, and straight-ahead boom-bap.” The show is presented by Genuine Culture LLC and Signature Sounds.
Moody Los Angeles duo Chasms (their sound has some 4AD atmosphere), Devon Church and locals The Jake Klar Band appear at the Root Cellar in Greenfield on Friday, May 31, at 8 p.m.
The Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra, “the Valley’s finest avant-garde community music ensemble,” performs music by James Brown, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Bela Bartok, Heitor Villa-Lobos, surf guitar classics (“Pipeline”) and more at two shows at 33 Hawley St. in Northampton, on Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1, at 8 p.m.
Global Groove Fest features local “global soul fusion” group TapRoots, Boston roots-reggae-rockers Los Sugar Kings, and Valley stylistic smorgasbord band Dave Noonan’s Green Island, at Gateway City Arts on Friday, May 31, at 8 p.m. The mini-festival will celebrate the music and culture of the Caribbean and beyond and also feature live painting and vendors.
Reggae vocalist Freddie McGregor (who was recording for Jamaica’s famed Studio One label when he was only seven years old) plays Hawks and Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield on Friday, May 31, at 9 p.m. Opening the show is reggae/funk/hip hop band Rhythm Incorporated.
The piano and vocal duo of Ran Blake (a Springfield native) and Dominique Eade appears at the Community Music School of Springfield on Saturday, June 1, at 7:30 p.m. It’s the latest show in the Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares concert series.
Tokyo indie trio The Molice make a rare New England appearance, headlining a bill that also includes Shana Falana (experimental dream-pop duo from Kingston, New York) and local prog-punk band Bunnies at the Root Cellar on Saturday, June 1, at 8 p.m.
Legendary jazz vocalist and teacher Sheila Jordan (left) celebrates her 90th year with a special concert at the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro on Saturday, June 1, at 8 p.m. She’ll be joined by VJC director Eugene Uman on piano, Genevieve Rose on bass and Clarence Penn on drums.
Jazz bassist Christian McBride (right) and his band Tip City play the Iron Horse in Northampton on Thursday, June 6, at 7 p.m.
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Joan Shelley hails from Louisville, Kentucky, and her current tour takes her to The Parlor Room in Northampton on Thursday, June 6, at 7 p.m. Boston guitarist/songwriter Sam Moss opens.