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Cameron Graves

The release of Kamasi Washington's The Epic last year marked a seismic shift in the jazz landscape and the game-changing arrival of the genre-blurring Los Angeles collective West Coast Get Down. That evolution continues with the release of Planetary Prince, the debut album by visionary pianist, keyboardist, composer and WCGD founding member Cameron Graves.

Upon signing with Mack Avenue Records, Graves’ nearly released four song EP of the same name was expanded to an eight track full length album, all packed with the same mind-expanding invention that marked all of the work previously generated by the WCGD – including Kamasi Washington’s universally acclaimed debut The Epic (which prominently featured Graves throughout its three discs). These releases have marked a seismic shift in the jazz landscape and the game-changing arrival of the genre-blurring Los Angeles collective West Coast Get Down blending elements of Jazz, Classical, Rock and Hip-Hop.

Planetary Prince continues that evolution, with the scope and ambition of Graves’ vision only more evident on this release. “Cameron Graves’ music is vigorous and refreshing. There is an infectious raw energy on Planetary Prince that is coupled with these terrific melodies and blistering solo work, the whole album is energizing,” reflects Mack Avenue Records’ President Denny Stilwell, speaking on the new signing. In its full realization, the album only furthers that pulse-quickening, consciousness-broadening energy and maintains it over the course of nearly 80 illuminating minutes.

The core of the band is made up of fellow West Coast Get Down members, whose musical and personal relationships with Graves stretch back to their high school days: tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington, trombonist Ryan Porter, bassist Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner, and drummer Ronald Bruner Jr. To their ranks are added trumpeter Philip Dizack and bassist Hadrien Feraud, both key members of the groundbreaking modern L.A. jazz scene.

............ "Cameron Graves is a musical genius. He has an innovative approach to the piano that is completely unique. Cameron's new album 'Planetary Prince' is an amazing and almost unbelievable combination of modal jazz, romantic era European classical music, and mathematical death metal. A style so cool that it deserves it's own genre. Cameron's music has been inspiring me since I was thirteen years old and it still does today! I'm so glad he's sharing it with the world!" - Kamasi Washington ............

The title of Planetary Prince, which also serves as Graves’ pseudonym, comes from The Urantia Book, a spiritual tome that emerged from Chicago in the first half of the 20th century and that purports to reveal the truth of humanity through a combination of spiritual and cosmological ideas, including radical retellings of familiar stories from the Bible.

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Radio & Podcasts

New music from Shob, Commodore, and Cameron Graves

Read "New music from Shob, Commodore, and Cameron Graves" reviewed by Len Davis


Music from Brazil with Neural Code, Cuca Teixira and Igor Wicox. Helmet of Gnats, Allan Holdsworth, Cameron Graves and from Spain, Iceberg with some prog rock.Playlist Neural Code “Equqcao do Tempo" from Neural Code (Self Produced) 00:00 Cuca Teixira “Tunta" from Groove Reunion (Self Produced) 06:58 Commodore “Cuatro jefes-en Vivo" from Commodore en Vivo (Brabacam) 13:58 Helmet of Gnats “Surging Valente" from Travelogue (Ambient) 21:01 Allan Holdsworth “Texas-Live" from Jarasum Jazz Festival 2014 (Manifesto) 28:14 Igor Wilcox “Message ...

2
Radio & Podcasts

New music from Cameron Graves, Timothee Robert, Andy Timmons and David Binney

Read "New music from Cameron Graves, Timothee Robert, Andy Timmons and David Binney" reviewed by Len Davis


New music from pianist Cameron Graves with his new release Live From Seven Spheres. French Bassist Timothee Robert, and guitarist Andy Timmons, plus Jane Getter, Adam Holzman, Alex Skolnick and David Binney.Playlist Cameron Graves"Red" from Live From Seven Spheres (Mack Avenue) 00:00 Timothee Robert"Le Chemin du peril" from Quark (La Pluie Chante) 05:41 Andy Timmons “EWF" from Electric Truth (Timstone) 11:21 Jane Getter"Queen Of Spies" from Anomalia (Esoteric Antenna) 16:58 Adam Holzman"Good Luck With Your Music" from The ...

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Album Review

Cameron Graves: Live From the Seven Spheres

Read "Live From the Seven Spheres" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Since bursting on to the scene full-birthed as part of the West Coast Get Down collective spotlighted on Kamasi Washington's truly epic debut, The Epic (Brainfeeder, 2015), fire-balling pianist Cameron Graves, even when entertaining his inner Chopin, comes at the listener with a force and fury that blows the doors in, windows out, senses to smithereens. Live From the Seven Spheres continues the onslaught Graves ignited on his flame-throwing debut, Planetary Prince (Mack Avenue, 2017) and the equally ...

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Interview

Cameron Graves: Inventing Thrash-Jazz

Read "Cameron Graves: Inventing Thrash-Jazz" reviewed by Scott Krane


Pianist and composer, Cameron Graves, arrived on the scene in his late teens and early twenties, possessing a proclivity for classical music, an unquenchable passion for heavy metal, and a jazz sensibility and lexicon of musicality. According to the website of Mack Avenue Records, the label that signed Graves and put out his debut solo release, 2017's Planetary Prince, Graves tags his sound as “thrash-jazz," especially the music heard on his follow-up release for Mack Avenue Records, Seven, released earlier ...

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Album Review

Cameron Graves: Planetary Prince

Read "Planetary Prince" reviewed by Christopher Hoard


Cameron Graves' debut recording, Planetary Prince (Mack Avenue) is an original and refreshing “piano jazz" outing. It's horn sextet dynamics provide familiar entry points and references into the musical sphere Graves inhabits as composer, arranger, and performer, but the extreme energy levels and sophisticated ensemble dynamics confidently echo the great bands of the jazz-rock era; perhaps it's no coincidence Graves has been touring with Stanley Clarke's band for the past two years, and has also been an integral presence touring, ...

Album Review

Cameron Graves: Planetary Prince

Read "Planetary Prince" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


Si chiama Cameron Graves ed è il pianista dell'ensemble di Kamasi Washington, controversa figura della musica afroamericana capace con la pubblicazione di Epic di far nascere tra i commentatori e gli addetti ai lavori di mezzo mondo una querelle da tifo calcistico. L'album a suo nome si intitola Planetary Prince è stato registrato in una session maratona di undici ore e vede sostanzialmente all'opera una versione ridotta del collettivo denominato West Coast Get Down, interprete del già ricordato triplo album. ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Live From the Seven...

Mack Avenue Records
2022

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Planetary Prince

Mack Avenue Records
2017

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Planetary Prince

Self Produced
2016

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