Milford Graves
Encyclopedia
Milford Graves is an American
jazz drummer
and percussionist, most noteworthy for his early avant-garde
contributions in the early 1960s with Paul Bley
and the New York Art Quartet
. He is considered to be a free jazz
pioneer, liberating the percussion from its timekeeping role.
Graves has worked as a sideman
and session musician
with a variety of established jazz musicians throughout his career, including Don Pullen
, Eddie Gomez
, Andrew Cyrille
, Rashied Ali
, Kenny Clarke
, Don Moye
, Philly Joe Jones
, John Zorn
and Albert Ayler
. He has invested his time in research within the field of healing through music. Graves accepted a job in 1973 as an instructor at Bennington College
in Bennington, Vermont.
with Giuseppi Logan
with Paul Bley
with New York Art Quartet
with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra
with Miriam Makeba
with Lowell Davidson
with Don Pullen
with Albert Ayler
with Sonny Sharrock
with Andrew Cyrille
with Various Artists
with Sun Ra
with Kenny Clarke/Andrew Cyrille/Milford Graves/Famoudou Don Moye
with David Murray
with John Zorn
with Anthony Braxton
& William Parker
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz drummer
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and percussionist, most noteworthy for his early avant-garde
Avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. Avant-jazz often sounds very similar to free jazz, but differs in that, despite its distinct departure from traditional harmony, it has a predetermined structure over which ...
contributions in the early 1960s with Paul Bley
Paul Bley
Paul Bley, CM is a pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing.-Biography:...
and the New York Art Quartet
New York Art Quartet
The New York Art Quartet was a free jazz ensemble made up of saxophonist John Tchicai, trombonist Roswell Rudd, drummer Milford Graves and bassists Lewis Worrell, Reggie Workman and Finn Von Eyben...
. He is considered to be a free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
pioneer, liberating the percussion from its timekeeping role.
Graves has worked as a sideman
Sideman
A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he or she is not a regular member. They often tour with solo acts as well as bands and jazz ensembles. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit...
and session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
with a variety of established jazz musicians throughout his career, including Don Pullen
Don Pullen
Don Pullen was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed masterworks ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz...
, Eddie Gomez
Eddie Gomez
Edgar "Eddie" Gómez is a Puerto Rican jazz double bassist born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, perhaps most notable for his work done with the Bill Evans trio from 1966 to 1977.-Biography:...
, Andrew Cyrille
Andrew Cyrille
Andrew Charles Cyrille is an avant-garde jazz drummer.Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a family with a mother from Haiti. He began studying science at St...
, Rashied Ali
Rashied Ali
Rashied Ali, born Robert Patterson was an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz drummer best known for playing with John Coltrane in the last years of Coltrane's life.-Biography:...
, Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...
, Don Moye
Don Moye
Famoudou Don Moye, is an American jazz percussionist and drummer. He is most known for his involvement with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and is noted for his mastery of African and Caribbean percussion instruments and rhythmic techniques.- Early life and Detroit Free Jazz :Moye was born in...
, Philly Joe Jones
Philly Joe Jones
Joseph Rudolph Jones was a Philadelphia-born United States jazz drummer, known as the drummer for the Miles Davis Quintet.Philly Joe Jones was often confused with another influential jazz drummer, Jo Jones...
, John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
and Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.Ayler was among the most primal of the free jazz musicians of the 1960s; critic John Litweiler wrote that "never before or since has there been such naked aggression in jazz" He possessed a deep blistering tone—achieved...
. He has invested his time in research within the field of healing through music. Graves accepted a job in 1973 as an instructor at Bennington College
Bennington College
Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont, USA. The college was founded in 1932 as a women's college and became co-educational in 1969.-History:-Early years:...
in Bennington, Vermont.
As leader
- 1965: Percussion Ensemble (ESP Disk)
- 1977: Meditation Among Us (Kitty)
- 1977: Babi (IPS)
- 1998: Grand Unification (TzadikTzadikTzadik/Zadik/Sadiq is a title given to personalities in Jewish tradition considered righteous, such as Biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The root of the word ṣadiq, is ṣ-d-q , which means "justice" or "righteousness", also the root of Tzedakah...
) - 2000: Stories' (TzadikTzadikTzadik/Zadik/Sadiq is a title given to personalities in Jewish tradition considered righteous, such as Biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The root of the word ṣadiq, is ṣ-d-q , which means "justice" or "righteousness", also the root of Tzedakah...
)
As sideman
with Montego Joe- Arriba! (PrestigePrestige RecordsPrestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
) - Wild & Warm (PrestigePrestige RecordsPrestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
)
with Giuseppi Logan
Giuseppi Logan
Giuseppi Logan is a jazz musician originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who taught himself to play piano and drums before switching to reeds at age 12. At the age of 15 he began playing with Earl Bostic and later studied at the New England Conservatory...
- Giuseppi Logan Quartet (ESP Disk)
- More Giuseppi Logan (ESP Disk)
with Paul Bley
Paul Bley
Paul Bley, CM is a pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing.-Biography:...
- Barrage (ESP Disk)
with New York Art Quartet
New York Art Quartet
The New York Art Quartet was a free jazz ensemble made up of saxophonist John Tchicai, trombonist Roswell Rudd, drummer Milford Graves and bassists Lewis Worrell, Reggie Workman and Finn Von Eyben...
- New York Art Quartet (ESP Disk)
- Mohawk (FontanaFontana RecordsFontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
) - 35th Reunion (DIW)
with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra
Jazz Composer's Orchestra
Jazz Composer's Orchestra was an American jazz group founded in 1965, to further avant-garde jazz in New York. Carla Bley and Michael Mantler were important in its organization and style....
- Communication (FontanaFontana RecordsFontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
)
with Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba , nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist....
- Makeba Sings! (RCARCA RecordsRCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
)
with Lowell Davidson
Lowell Davidson
Lowell Davidson was a jazz pianist from Boston, Massachusetts. After studying biochemistry at Harvard University, he moved to New York and played with Ornette Coleman who urged the ESP Disk record label to record and release an album featuring Davidson with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Milford...
- The Lowell Davidson Trio (ESP Disk)
with Don Pullen
Don Pullen
Don Pullen was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed masterworks ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz...
- At Yale University (PG)
- Nommo (SRP)
with Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.Ayler was among the most primal of the free jazz musicians of the 1960s; critic John Litweiler wrote that "never before or since has there been such naked aggression in jazz" He possessed a deep blistering tone—achieved...
- Holy Ghost: Rare & Unissued Recordings (1962–70) (Revenant)
- Love CryLove CryLove Cry is a 1968 album by jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler released on Impulse! Records.-Tracklisting:#Love Cry 3:54#Ghosts 2:45# Omega 3:14# Dancing Flowers 2:19# Bells 3:07# Love Flower 3:30# Love Cry ? 7:13# Zion Hill 4:13...
(Impulse!)
with Sonny Sharrock
Sonny Sharrock
Warren Harding "Sonny" Sharrock was an American jazz guitarist. He was once married to singer Linda Sharrock, with whom he sometimes recorded and performed....
- Black Woman (Vortex)
with Andrew Cyrille
Andrew Cyrille
Andrew Charles Cyrille is an avant-garde jazz drummer.Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a family with a mother from Haiti. He began studying science at St...
- Dialogue Of The Drums (IPS)
with Various Artists
- New American Music Volume 1-New York Section/Composers of the 1970's (Folkways)
with Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
- Untitled Recordings (Transparency)
with Kenny Clarke/Andrew Cyrille/Milford Graves/Famoudou Don Moye
- Pieces of Time (Soul Note)
with David Murray
David Murray (jazz musician)
David Murray is an American jazz musician. Murray plays mainly tenor saxophone and sometimes bass clarinet. He has recorded prolifically for many record labels since the mid-1970s.-Biography:...
- Real DealReal Deal (album)Real Deal is an album by David Murray and Milford Graves released on the Japanese DIW label. It was released in 1994 and features eight duo performances by Murray and Graves.-Reception:The Allmusic review awarded the album 3 stars.-Track listing:...
(DIW)
with John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
- 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 2 (TzadikTzadikTzadik/Zadik/Sadiq is a title given to personalities in Jewish tradition considered righteous, such as Biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The root of the word ṣadiq, is ṣ-d-q , which means "justice" or "righteousness", also the root of Tzedakah...
)
with Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...
& William Parker
William Parker (musician)
William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist, poet and composer.-Biography:Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, though he did study with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware and learned the tradition. Parker is one of few jazz bassists who regularly plays arco...
- Beyond QuantumBeyond QuantumBeyond Quantum is an album by American saxophonist Anthony Braxton, percussionist Milford Graves, and bassist William Parker recorded in 2008 for the Tzadik label.-Reception:...
(Tzadik, 2008)
External links
- Audio Recordings of WCUW Jazz Festivals - Jazz History Database
- http://www.milfordgraves.com
- http://www.mindspring.com/~scala/graves.htm