Milford Graves!

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Wow - what a shock to see an article on Milford Graves on the Metro Section front page (B1) - big photo too! Yeah, so not so much about his jazz playing, but still!

Mike

Finding Healing Music in the Heart

November 9, 2004

By COREY KILGANNON

Around the South Jamaica housing projects in Queens, young

men with pit bulls guard street corners and rap music

blares from car stereos. But one house, on 110th Avenue,

seems to openly defy its gritty surroundings.

Its owner, Milford Graves, has covered it with an ornate

mosaic of stones, reflective metal and hunks of discarded

marble, arranged in cheery patterns. The yard is a lush

garden, dense with citrus trees, herbs and exotic plants.

Mr. Graves, 63, a jazz drummer who made his mark in the

1960's with avant-garde musicians like Albert Ayler, Paul

Bley and Sonny Sharrock, performs only occasionally now. He

spends about half his week teaching music healing and jazz

improvisation classes at Bennington College in Vermont,

where he has been a professor for 31 years. He spends much

of the rest of his week in his basement researching the

relationship between music and the human heart.

After descending the psychedelic-painted stairway into his

laboratory, visitors are faced with a collection of drums

from around the world, surrounding a network of computers.

Wooden African idols spiked with nails rub up against

medical anatomical models. Amid a vast inventory of herbs,

roots and plant extracts sits an old wooden recliner

equipped with four electronic stethoscopes connected to

computers displaying intricate electrocardiogram readouts.

In 1967, Mr. Graves was honored in a Down Beat magazine

critics poll as the year's bright new talent. He had offers

of lucrative gigs from artists like Miles Davis and the

South African singer Miriam Makeba.

But after years of hard living as a jazzman, Mr. Graves

began studying holistic healing, and then teaching it. He

became fascinated with the effect of music on physiological

functions.

"People with ailments would attend my performances and tell

me they felt better afterward," he said.

Curious about the heartbeat as a primary source of rhythm,

he bought an electronic stethoscope and began recording his

and other musicians' heartbeats.

"I wanted to see what kind of music my heart was making,"

he said.

In his basement, he converted the heartbeats to a higher

register and dissected them. Behind the basic binary

thum-THUMP beat, he heard other rhythms - more spontaneous

and complex patterns in less-regular time intervals - akin

to a drummer using his four limbs independently.

"A lot of it was like free jazz," Mr. Graves said one day

last week in his basement. "There were rhythms I had only

heard in Cuban and Nigerian music." He demonstrated by

thumping a steady bum-BUM rhythm on a conga with his right

hand, while delivering with his left a series of

unconnected rhythms on an hourglass-shaped talking drum.

Mr. Graves created computer programs to analyze the heart's

rhythms and pitches, which are caused by muscle and valve

movement. The pitches correspond to actual notes on the

Western musical scale. Raised several octaves, the cardiac

sounds became rather melodic.

"When I hooked up to the four chambers of the heart, it

sounded like four-part harmony," Mr. Graves said.

He began composing with the sounds - both by transcribing

heartbeat melodies and by using recorded fragments. He also

realized he could help detect heart problems, maybe even

cure them.

"A healthy heart has strong, supple walls, so the sound

usually has a nice flow," he said. "You hear it and say,

'Ah, now that's hip.' But an unhealthy heart has stiff and

brittle muscles. There's less compliance, and sounds can

come out up to three octaves higher than normal.

"You can pinpoint things by the melody. You can hear

something and say, 'Ah, sounds like a problem in the right

atrium.' "

In 2000, Mr. Graves received a grant from the John Simon

Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which he said gave him

money to buy essential equipment.

Dr. Baruch Krauss, who teaches pediatrics at Harvard

Medical School and is an emergency physician at Boston

Children's Hospital, said the medical establishment has

only recently begun to appreciate the rhythmic and tonal

complexities of the heartbeat and speak about it in terms

of syncopation and polyrhythms.

"This is what a Renaissance man looks like today," said Dr.

Krauss, who studied acupuncture with Mr. Graves and follows

his research. "To see this guy tinkering with stuff in a

basement in Queens, you wonder how it could be legitimate.

But Milford is right on the cutting edge of this stuff. He

brings to it what doctors can't, because he approaches it

as a musician."

Dr. Ram Jadonath, director of electrophysiology at North

Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., said Mr.

Graves's theories sounded plausible but should not replace

a standard medical assessment from a doctor.

"The heartbeat is a form of musical rhythm, and if you have

a musical ear, you can hear heart problems a lot easier,"

he said. "Many heart rhythm disturbances are

stress-related, and you have cells misfiring. It is

possible to redirect or retrain them with musical therapy.

They do respond to suggestion. That's the area where his

biofeedback could correct those type of problems."

Mr. Graves said he brings unusual strengths to his medical

work.

"To hear if a melody sounds right or not, you've got to

look at it as an artist, not a doctor," he said. "If you're

trying to listen to a musical sound with no musical

ability, you're not feeling it, man."

Mr. Graves claims he can help a flawed heartbeat through

biofeedback. He creates what he calls a "corrected

heartbeat" using an algorhythmic formula, or by

old-fashioned composing, and then feeds it back to the

patient, whose heart is then trained to adopt the healthy

beat. The patient can listen to a recording of the

corrected heartbeat, or it can be imparted directly through

a speaker that vibrates a needle stuck into acupuncture

points.

"If they don't want that," he added, "I can give them a

CD."

Last week, Dennis Thomas, 49, visited Mr. Graves in his

basement complaining of severe chest congestion. Mr. Thomas

said his doctor had diagnosed bronchial asthma and given

him medication that had not been effective.

Mr. Graves said the problem might be related to Mr.

Thomas's heart and recorded his heartbeat. With the help of

a computer program, Mr. Graves tinkered with the rhythm and

amplitude and then attempted to stimulate Mr. Thomas's

heart by playing the "corrected" beat both through a

speaker and through a wire stuck into an acupuncture point

in his wrist.

"I gave him a double shot," Mr. Graves explained. After 10

minutes of treatment, Mr. Thomas's heart rate had risen

about 10 beats per minute, according to a monitor.

Mr. Thomas, a city bus driver from Jamaica who used to

study martial arts with Mr. Graves, said that he felt

improvement afterward.

"I started breathing easier and felt more relaxed," he

said.

In addition to his medical work, Mr. Graves analyzes the

heartbeats of his music students, hoping to help them play

deeper and more personal music. The idea, he said, is to

find their most prevalent rhythms and pitches and

incorporate them into their playing.

The composer and saxophonist John Zorn called Mr. Graves

"basically a 20th-century shaman."

"He's taken traditional drum technique so far that there's

no further place to go, so he's going to the source, his

heart," Mr. Zorn said.

"This culture is not equipped to appreciate someone like

Milford," he said. "In Korea, he'd be a national treasure.

Here, he's just some weird guy who lives in Queens."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/09/nyregion...a5bfe2b6296bb6c

[JSngry]

Milford Graves, a musician and holistic healer, in his basement laboratory in Queens. He uses electronic stethoscopes and computer monitors to analyze heartbeat rhythms and pitches.

[7/4]

nice article!

[7/4]

http://www.furious.com/perfect/milfordgraves.html

[Late]

Thanks for posting! Just in time to spin this:

... other recommended albums with Graves?

[.:.impossible]

In my opinion, THE Milford Graves album (as of 11/9/04)

Thanks for posting the article.

Edited November 10, 2004 by .:.impossible

[Enterprise Server]

Very nice article about Milford. I have no idea how valid or medically verifiable his methodology is with his heart rhythms, but anything is possible. I don't know. But it was a very interesting article. I was wondering what this master of percussions was doing these days. Love the ESP New York Quartet recording.

[Enterprise Server]

A Fireside Chat with Milford Graves

By Fred Jung

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 Davidson Trio, that’s Graves. And Sonny Sharrock’s Black Woman, you get the picture. I was honored to speak with Graves, a musician I have long admired and never lived long enough in New York to see live. Folks, Milford Graves, unedited and in his own words.

FRED JUNG: Let’s start from the beginning.

MILFORD GRAVES: I had no special reason. From a talk with my parents, I was probably around two or three years old when I started hitting a drum. The drums were in the house and I tried to figure it out over the years, why did I enter music and why did I play the instrument that I play and I really can’t come up with anything that would give me a definite reason why, other than that’s what I was put on the planet to do.

FJ: Every child, at some point or another, plays drum hands, but only a very diminutive minority take up the art.

MG: I was in junior high school and I was playing for the assembly programs. I was asked to play for the special events that we had at our school. I formed a drum group and we had some dancers. We called it interpretive dancing at the time, but they were actually trying to do African dance. I realized that there was something happening when I would be playing before a bunch of my friends in an auditorium and that is when I started realizing it and started to get serious.

FJ: When did you begin studying the tabla?

MG: I started learning tabla in 1965 and I studied with Wasantha Singh.

FJ: Apart from aesthetics, what are the differences between a tabla and a conga?

MG: First of all, it is the make of the drum itself. The tabla is a much smaller instrument compared to the conga. The tabla is also played with each individual finger. You can do that with the congas too, but the congas really play with all the fingers really hitting at the same time. With tabla, the fingers are hitting at individual, different times. It is a sequence you do with each finger. The way that the tabla is made allows you to manipulate the skin to get these different kind of tonal properties out. That is really the big difference. I have a certain kind of personality when I play tabla and a certain kind of personality when I play conga.

FJ: Talk to me about your collaborations with the New York Art Quartet.

MG: That group started before me. I met that group in 1964. They had already had a group and J.C. Moses was the drummer before I was in that group. I met Roswell (Rudd) and John Tchicai through Guiseppi Logan and Guiseppi Logan asked me if I would like to a rehearsal of the New York Art Quartet, that he had met one of these guys and they invited him to a rehearsal and he told me to come along. The rehearsal was at a loft that was owned by Michael Snow, who is a Canadian artist. We went there and they played and asked Guiseppi if he wanted to sit in because he brought his alto saxophone. So he played and then he asked Roswell and John if I could play and then I played. J.C. Moses had left and they listened to the tape because they recorded the whole session and said that they liked what I was doing and if I would like to be the new drummer and that was it. John Tchicai is no longer a member of that band. At the present time, John Zorn is playing with the band. John Tchicai decided it was time for him to leave the band.

FJ: Guiseppi Logan is a free jazz urban legend. Is Logan dead or alive?

MG: Well, the reports that I’ve received is that he is still alive. He was spotted up in Harlem, New York. That’s what people say. I don’t know. I was approached to go up to Harlem to seek him out. Somebody spotted him in a hotel on 125th Street and I haven’t had the opportunity to do that. Someone said they saw him, but I don’t know. I wouldn’t say that he is still alive. That was the latest on him. I last saw Guiseppi Logan in the Seventies and he wasn’t in good shape. He was in the streets. He is a question mark whether he is still alive. Hopefully, he is. I was the one who told Bernard Stollman (founder of ESP) about Guiseppi Logan. I met Bernard Stollman through the New York Art Quartet. He wanted to record me and in turn, I told Guiseppi that I have some time because I’m a young guy and instead of me taking this record date and being the leader, I gave him the record date and so he took the record date. It was 1965 when we did that together.

FJ: And your work with Albert Ayler, who has in death become an underground superhero.

“I have a certain kind of personality when I play tabla and a certain kind of personality when I play conga.”

MG: Unfortunately, some people are afraid to talk about somebody when they are dead. I have no problem with that because I think it is important to educate people about mistakes that people made so they won’t make those mistakes. I thought the positive things in him was that he was dedicated to what he did. I think that is one of the big positive things. He didn’t talk so much. He hummed a lot. He was constantly humming. His playing, the way he played was quite different from him as a person. His playing was more aggressive in volume. He, as a person, was not like that. I think his spiritual side didn’t allow him to be aggressive enough when it came to taking a certain kind of business stance. The reports that I’ve had, knowing a little bit about Albert, I think he kind of regretted some of the things that he allowed himself to get involved with, his last entries with Impulse! Records. When he was told what kind of band he should have and what kind of music he should do. He didn’t survive a lot of his errors. It really affected him. I actually saw the official coroner’s report. The rumors that he had been murdered and he had been shot in the head, well, as far as the New York City coroner’s report, there was no indication of that.

FJ: He simply drowned.

MG: Yeah, that is what the report read.

FJ: Do you believe that report to be true?

MG: I think so.

FJ: Why have you not recorded more?

MG: I think I would record more if people would understand that I have a telephone and that I have a mailing address. If they understood that, then maybe we could talk a little bit. When you record, people have to realize that serious musicians make a great sacrifice and you are going to give up your art sometimes. You have to help support us a little bit. Some artists are fortunate, they get what they ask for.

FJ: What is a typical Milford Graves day?

MG: I spend my time at Bennington College doing research on sound and holistic healing and how the body functions and circulatory system is involved with our basic internal music structure. That is primarily what I do.

FJ: Is there a direct correlation between what a person listens to and his or her health?

MG: Oh, I think so and hopefully, I’ll have a very good book or report on that very soon. I will tell you what is very interesting. I always tell people that being a musician is extremely important and if you are going to be a musician, you have to be responsible because people come to listen to you. You go to a restaurant to get some food and you depend on that chef or that cook to prepare some food that is not only going to taste good, but also be healthy to you. People come to see musicians with their ears. They are using their ears and asking you to put something in their ears. You have to know what you are putting in their ears. In traditional times, a musician was required not only to know the instrument, but they were also doctors, healers. You never separated those two because you are dealing with people. You are dealing with the mind. You are dealing with bodies. You are dealing with the soul. When you try and separate those things, it is no good. Other than the physical thing, you have to have some internal content. You have to have some mind stuff. The only way you are going to get mind stuff is to know about people. You have to know how people live. You have to know about culture, not only your own culture, but the whole multicultural concept because you are dealing with a multiplicity of people. Therefore, I tell them the importance of what a drummer is. Those guys over there, especially the Griots, they are the storytellers. So the more stories you know and the more you know about life, the more you can articulate on that instrument, especially if you know the relationship between the word and the drum. What I impart to them is to not only be some musician, who just blows through an instrument, pluck, or hit on a drum skin, you have to be a good person and what being a human is about. Tell your story on an instrument.

FJ: Sixty plus years on this earth, it’s a good bet you have stories aplenty.

MG: I have a bunch of them.

FJ: Are kids these days missing out being as musically dogmatic as they are?

MG: I know. I had this discussion the other day at the college. Today, people come from all parts of the world and you can’t impose just the way you have been taught, this so-called American way you have been taught, whether you want to call it Anglo or a white man’s way of doing something. You have to understand that other people have something to contribute.

FJ: What is the most unique instrument you own?

MG: The human voice. You can’t beat it. For me to do a drum solo, my voice has to be in there.

FJ: Who do I need to have a sit down with to get you to LA?

MG: I have never played in California. Business wise, I look to be treated with respect. As I get older, I am really adamant on that. When I play, I go all out. I expend a lot of energy. If the band doesn’t get a certain amount, I just don’t bother. That is why I don’t function a lot because I won’t be treated a certain way and a lot of musicians don’t want to be treated that way, but then they allow themselves to be treated like that. If you don’t like something, don’t do it. I am not going on the bandstand angry because a promoter is not paying me enough because the people suffer. You are not playing what you could play.

[maren]

Very nice article about Milford. I have no idea how valid or medically verifiable his methodology is with his heart rhythms, but anything is possible. I don't know. But it was a very interesting article.

Check out the link 7/4 posted above: http://www.furious.com/perfect/milfordgraves.html

And here are a couple of links to one of MG's scientific proteges (chem professor at Purdue who got his BA at Bennington and lists Milford Graves and Bill Dixon as his undergrad mentors):

http://www.chem.purdue.edu/bendor/groupmem/Dor/dor.htm

http://www.chem.purdue.edu/bendor/research...esearchsyn.html

[maren]

And this story from New York magazine, 11/12/01: The Jazz Scientist