Milford Graves
August 20, 1941 — February 12, 2021
Why
Don’t you want to read about this jazz drummer, actor, and painter who pioneered biological music and invented a martial art?
Of course you do!
Who
Milford Graves born in Queens, New York City, on August 20, 1941. By the time he was three, he was already fascinated with music, namely drums. In his teens he had already mastered the conga, the timbales and African hand drumming. His first band, the Milford Graves Latino Quintet, included Pete Yellin on sax, pianist Chick Corea (who also passed away last week), bassist Lisle Atkinson, and conga player Bill Fitch.
In 1962 he heard the John Coltrane quartet and was impressed with Elvin Jones, the drummer. Only five years later, Milford would end up playing at Coltrane’s funeral with Alvin Ayler’s band.
By then, Graves had been playing with the New York Art Quartet, a group that “cut some of the most powerful music in the free jazz underground”, per All About Jazz reviewer Clifford Allen.
Graves continued to develop his craft and play with jazz all-stars over the next decades. In 1977, Graves released two albums under his own name: Bäbi and Meditation Among Us, with a Japanese jazz quartet. He performed with Lou Reed in 2008 and…
