Results for "Milford Graves"

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

Dave Liebman: Placing Free Jazz and the Avant Garde in Musical and Historical Perspective

By VICTOR L. SCHERMER

Like free jazz, this interview arose spontaneously from an informal “how are you doin'" telephone conversation between saxophonist Dave Liebman and All About Jazz contributor Vic Schermer. Schermer phoned Liebman to compliment him on his new e-book The Art of Skill: Establishing the Mindset for Unleashing the Music Inside You published by Michael Lake, and how ...

Juozas Milašius / Tomas Kutavičius / Dalius Naujokaitis and Lithuanian Young Composers Orchestra: Live at Willisau, 1993

By VITALIJUS GAILIUS

Juozas Milašius, Dalius Naujokaitis-Naujo and Tomas Kutavičius were the most provocative figures on the Lithuanian scene in the 1990s. Playing bebop or following the Ganelin Trio tradition was not the their thing back then (and it is not in 2021 either). They played passionately and intensely and beyond genre boundaries. Stories about destroyed pianos and audiences ...

Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker

By MARK CORROTO

Universal Tonality: The Life And Music Of William Parker Cisco Bradley 384 Pages ISBN: # 978147801014 Duke University Press 2021 Who is William Parker? He is a jazz bassist, yes. But he is also a band leader, composer, writer & poet, community organizer, peace activist, and cultural anthropologist. Cisco ...

Andrew Cyrille Quartet at Village Vanguard

By MARK SULLIVAN

Andrew Cyrille Quartet Village Vanguard New York, NY August 21, 2020 Drummer/composer/bandleader Andrew Cyrille opened this livestream from the venerable Village Vanguard jazz club speaking about the oddness of playing to an empty room, noting the absence of applause at the end of numbers. Or booing: “I've been booed, too" he ...

Whit Dickey: Tao Quartets: Peace Planet & Box of Light

By GIUSEPPE SEGALA

Possiamo dire che l'assioma secondo il quale tutti i jazzisti sono sottovalutati, non sia poi così paradossale. Parliamo naturalmente dei musicisti che mettono al primo posto del loro operato il fare artistico e non la realizzazione di un prodotto solo ben accetto sul mercato. Spesso ci troviamo di fronte a musicisti che subiscono tale disattenzione in ...

Bill Dixon e Cecil Taylor: iniziò a Verona

By ANGELO LEONARDI

La pubblicazione di quest'inedita incisione in studio documenta un momento storico: il magistrale e fugace confronto artistico tra Bill Dixon e Cecil Taylor dell'estate 1992. I due protagonisti del free dettero il 25 giugno di quell'anno un concerto a Verona Jazz, nei giorni seguenti s'esibirono a Vienne (Francia) e subito dopo entrarono in studio ...

Vision Festival 2019

By LUCIANO ROSSETTI

Photos from Vision Jazz Festival 2019 held in New York from June 11 to 16. This year's festival was dedicated to Andrew Cyrille and featured Milford Graves, Kidd Jordan, Wadada Leo Smith, Peter Brotzmann, Marc Ribot, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Yoshiko Chuma, Melvin Gibbs, Jemeel Moondoc, Marty Ehrlich, Matthew Shipp, Rob Brown, Steve Swell, Kris Davis, ...

John Dikeman And The Origin Of The Species

By MARK CORROTO

If we were to go searching for saxophonist John Dikeman's spirit animal, we might have to bypass beast for sapien. Let's just say his spirit animal is the father of punk, Iggy Pop. Like early music by The Stooges, Dikeman's sound makes reference to the music of both Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders. It's a shame ...

New York's 24th Annual Vision Festival

By FRANK RUBOLINO

Although Europe has a plethora of creative improvised music festivals throughout the year, drawing on a large audience base of appreciative fans, one festival in the USA stands out as the beacon of hope and encouragement for this music in its native land. Now in its 24th year, New York's Vision Festival, presented by Arts for ...