Jazz Articles about Milford Graves

Milford Graves: Percussion Ensemble

by Lyn Horton
July 24, 2008

Fulfilling Bernard Stollman's prescient request to record for his label, Milford Graves decided to enlist Sunny Morgan as a drumming partner for Percussion Ensemble. Graves did so purposefully; the duo percussionists were making more than music. They were calling up their heritage at a time when Black Americans were teetering on the fulcrum of American cultural consciousness.

The music defies stereotyping. It is not concerned with keeping time or playing riffs. Rather, the two players are just talking in “drum" ...

A Fireside Chat with Milford Graves

by AAJ Staff
April 16, 2003

If you like the 'free jazz' or 'avant-garde' or 'loft' or 'downtown' or whatever other bullshit name they give this music, you are a fan of Milford Graves. You may not know it, but you are. Much like Henry Grimes, Graves is one of those musicians that those in the know, know and those in the, well, not know, don't. Albert Ayler's Love Cry, that's Graves. The killing ESP sessions, New York Art Quartet, Barrage, Giuseppi Logan Quartet, and Lowell ...