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Milford Graves

Milford Graves was into his own version of World Music long before there was the term. His individualistic approach to the rudiments of drumming and its rhythmic pulses were light years ahead of most musicians. Yet he found musical colleagues and an audience for his forays into the deep end of free jazz.

A native New Yorker, and exposed to Latin rhythms, he started out as a child on congas, then became a teenage timbales player in a Latin band from 1959 through the early ‘60’s, Graves switched to a trap set after seeing Elvin Jones with Coltrane. From 1964 he was an essential member of the New Thing movement in New York City, and backing up Amiri Baraka's Harlem poetry readings.

Graves became a devout student of percussion on an international level, and went on to study not only its African roots and development, but expanded his studies on the Indian tablas with acknowledged master Wasantha Singh.

He had quite an extensive resume in the 1960’s playing with Hugh Masakela and Miriam Makeba, Giuseppi Logan, was a member of the Jazz Composers’ Orchestra Association, and collaborated with avante-garde pianist Paul Bley.

Graves recorded with pianist Don Pullen in 1966,(Graves Pullen Duo) and worked recurrently with Albert Ayler in 1967 and 1968, performing at the 1967 Newport Festival. He went on to form a duo with drummer Andrew Cyrille, and they also did drumming seminars with Rashied Ali.

By the 1973 Graves moved into education and taught at Bennington College. He recorded “Meditation Among Us,” in 1977, representing his foray into Japanese infused free jazz. He continued to perform and tour into the ‘80’s where he participated in percussion ensembles with such luminary drummers as Kenny Clarke, Don Moye, Philly Joe Jones, and of course Andrew Cyrille.

By the turn of the new century, Graves was a member of the New York Arts Quartet, went on to record and perform with sax man David Murray, and started an association with alto player John Zorn doing sessions for Zorn’s Tzadik label as: “Grand Unification,” (1998) and “Stories,” (2000) which is an aural journey into a personalized percussion performance. Highly recommended! He collaborated with Zorn in 2004 for “50th Birthday Celebration, Live.”

Milford Graves a drumming visionary who is in tune with the universal pulse of life, and has provided a glimpse into our potential. Source: James Nadal

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Album Review

New York Art Quartet: New York Art Quartet Revisited

Read "New York Art Quartet Revisited" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Questa preziosa (ancora una volta) riedizione di oltre un'ora e un quarto di musica riunisce i primi due album di uno dei gruppi più leggendari della stagione free, il primo intitolato semplicemente col suo nome e pubblicato dall'altrettanto leggendaria ESP fondata nel 1963 da Bernard Stollman (incisione del 16 novembre 1964), il secondo, Mohawk, di pochi mesi successivo (17 luglio 1965), edito su Fontana. Il gruppo è per tre quarti identico in entrambe le occasioni, allineando figure nodali di quella ...

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Album Review

Albert Ayler: More Lost Performances Revisited

Read "More Lost Performances Revisited" reviewed by Chris May


A state-of-the-art sonic restoration of obscure but historically important Albert Ayler material by Switzerland's ezz-thetics label, which with its parent label, Hat Hut, has been creating an audiophile archive of Ayler recordings with the support of his estate since 1978. All too often, “more" in an album title means “Beware: barrel scraping in progress." Not in this case. More Lost Performances Revisited is primetime Ayler. The disc draws from three sources over a five-year timespan. The earliest ...

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Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith with Milford Graves and Bill Laswell: Sacred Ceremonies

Read "Sacred Ceremonies" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


As he approached his eightieth birthday, Wadada Leo Smith could have been content to sit out the year of nothingness that Covid-19 brought in 2020 and beyond. With his 2013 Pulitzer Prize nomination, a 2016 Doris Duke Award, and nearly one-hundred recording credits, the trumpeter & multi-instrumentalist has landed at the top of countless polls throughout his distinguished career. But, stepping away from the music, if only for a brief respite, is not part of the improviser's plan so, in ...

Live Review

Milford Graves al Centro di Ricerca Musicale di Bologna

Read "Milford Graves al Centro di Ricerca Musicale di Bologna" reviewed by Libero Farnè


Milford Graves -"Cell Melodies" Centro di Ricerca Musicale Bologna 07-09.11.2016 Un evento unico. Un incontro fra musica e scienza nel segno di più generali connessioni universali dai risvolti quasi mistici. Una full immersion di tre giorni per presentare e verificare esperimenti sulle diverse risposte delle cellule staminali a differenti stimoli musicali. Si è trattato di “Cell Melodies," presentato da VID art/science in coproduzione con Angelica -Centro di Ricerca Musicale e il Conservatorio G.B. Martini di ...

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Profile

Milford Graves: Time Piece

Read "Milford Graves: Time Piece" reviewed by Marc Medwin


"Don't tell me how many years you've been doing something." Milford Graves's delivery is surprisingly restrained given the directness of his statement. “I want to know how completely you're filling that time, how you're spending each nanosecond." The statement defines the energy and vitality that this extraordinary musician brings to every aspect of his artistic life. To label Graves as one of the pioneers of free jazz is to define his work in far too narrow a scope. ...

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Album Review

Milford Graves: Percussion Ensemble

Read "Percussion Ensemble" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff


Tra i tanti meriti storici della ESP c'è quello di aver portato alla ribalta il nome di Milford Graves. In poco più di un anno, dall'ottobre del 1964 al novembre del 1965, furono addirittura cinque le session patrocinate da Stollman alle quali prese parte il batterista, per un totale di sei pubblicazioni inserite in catalogo dall'etichetta newyorchese: i due album firmati da Giuseppi Logan (Quartet e More Giuseppi Logan), Barrage di Paul Bley, l'omonimo esordio del New York Art Quartet, ...

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Album Review

Anthony Braxton / Milford Graves / William Parker: Beyond Quantum

Read "Beyond Quantum" reviewed by Troy Collins


An unprecedented free jazz summit meeting of the highest order, Beyond Quantum features composer/multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton, percussionist Milford Graves and bassist William Parker in an impromptu blowing session recorded at Bill Laswell's studio.

Anthony Braxton has been enjoying a well-deserved resurgence in popularity, courtesy of a growing discography that features collaborations with former students turned rising stars including Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone. William Parker has been a galvanizing force in the international scene as ...

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Education

Music Education Monday: A master class with percussionist Milford Graves

Music Education Monday: A master class with percussionist Milford Graves

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

The week for “Music Education Monday," we've got a different kind of master class for drummers. While most drum workshops are full of talk of exercises, licks and rudiments, Milford Graves deals with concepts and philosophy as much as technique, as befits his status as one of the elder statesmen of free jazz drumming. First coming to prominence in the 1960s, Graves played with the New York Art Quartet, Jazz Composers' Orchestra Association, Albert Ayler, Don Pullen, and others important ...

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