Milford Graves

Hey, there's more of pioneering free jazz drummer Milford Graves up on YouTube than there used to be. I think he's my favorite of the early way free guys, and I wish he was on more stuff. You sometimes get the feeling with that music that there's not much going on beyond the massive expending of energy, but there's real music going on with Graves. He's got a special kind of pulse, and melodic sensibility you don't hear in the straight wall-of-sound guys. There's some fairly difficult listening here, but be sure to check out the very last thing, at least.

A nice track from his 1977 record Babi, which I had never heard before:




For years, this solo album was just about the only thing I could find with him on it— well, this, and Paul Bley's Barrage, which I found as a random lucky score. He tends to do a lot of vocalizing as part of his thing:



More after the break:



His first record as leader, a percussion ensemble record on ESP:




Here in concert with till-recently-long-lost bassist Henry Grimes. I can't say I'm wild about what Marshall Allen is up to, but Graves's playing is nice here:




Finally, a bass clarinet and drum duo with David Murray, which is really pleasant listening— I'm buying this record ASAP: