Tag: Cameron Graves

Cameron Graves, Hampton Hawes, Paul Brown & More: The Week in Jazz

The Week in Jazz is your roundup of new and noteworthy stories from the jazz…

Arooj Aftab, Cameron Graves, Trombone Shorty & More: New Release Cheat Sheet

If you’re looking for some great new music to discover this weekend, look no further…

10 Albums You Need to Know: April 2022

An artful reimagining of American standards from the 1920s through the 1950s; a Brazilian jazz…

Piano Paradigms: How Mack Avenue Keyboardists Are Changing the Face of Jazz

This article features new albums from Mack Avenue Records. To order Aaron Diehl’s latest release,…

Cameron Graves: ‘Seven’ (Mack Avenue/Artistry Music)

Pianist Cameron Graves, who gained notoriety as a central member of Kamasi Washington’s West Coast…

JAZZIZ Editors’ Choice Top 10: Week of February 22, 2021

Guitar icons Larry Coryell (right) and Philip Catherine have a long history and a close…

Dave Weckl Band, Michael Lington, Cameron Graves and More: New Release Cheat Sheet

If you’re looking for some great new music to discover this weekend, look no further…

10 Albums You Need to Know: February 2021

A highly-anticipated live album debut; an astronomical thrash-jazz showcase; a 63-piece orchestra jazz fusion epic.…

Cameron Graves, Ella Fitzgerald, Marquis Hill & More: The Week in Jazz

The Week in Jazz is your roundup of new and noteworthy stories from the jazz…

JAZZIZ Editors’ Choice Playlist: Week of November 9, 2020

The editors of JAZZIZ have the good fortune of being able to listen to new…

Miles Monday: Cameron Graves

Cameron Graves is a keyboardist, composer and founding member of The West Coast Get Down.…

5 Reasons To Check Out the Detroit Jazz Festival

In jazz, few Labor Day traditions are anticipated with such eagerness and enthusiasm than the…

Cameron Graves – Planetary Prince

Cameron Graves – Planetary Prince (Mack Avenue) If Cameron Graves played electric guitar instead of…

Cameron Graves - Planetary Prince (Mack Avenue)

If Cameron Graves played electric guitar instead of piano, his debut solo album, Planetary Prince, would be a heavy-metal record. Graves’ playing style is most notable for its relentlessness, and his supporting musicians prove equal to his ferocity. Drummer Ronald Bruner Jr. and alternating bassists Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner and Hadrien Feraud animate this scorching collection of funk, rock, and hip-hop grooves, demonstrating the ability to sustain unhinged momentum without ever sounding forced or redundant. Although it was released in February, Planetary Prince was recorded in a single 11-hour session during the same studio residency that produced tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington’s 2015 magnum opus, The Epic. As members of the Los Angeles-based jazz collective The West Coast Get Down, Graves and his sidemen — some of whom he’s been playing with since high school — all contributed to Washington’s record. But despite the overlap in personnel, Graves has no difficulty in establishing an independent identity. In fact, the pianist’s compositional voice is so distinctive and narrow that many tracks risk sounding nearly identical at first. “Satania Our Solar System,” “The Lucifer Rebellion,” “The End of Corporatism,” “El Diablo,” and the title track are all built on knotty, off-kilter chordal vamps with urgent, often odd-metered rhythms that sound like tremors from some massive, pent-up source of energy. Fortunately, variety in form keeps the music fresh. Some pieces open with florid piano improvisations that resemble romantic-era cadenzas — likely a product of the bandleader’s classical training — while others launch into the beat like an alarm clock. Trombonist Ryan Porter, trumpeter Philip Dizack and, naturally, Kamasi Washington lend a soulful grandeur to tracks including “Adam and Eve” and “Isle of Love.” Thrilling technicality, earnest passion and an acute sense of style justify even the record’s over-the-top moments. Some listeners might grow exhausted by the ceaseless intensity with which Graves realizes his cosmic aspirations, but the band members most certainly do not. Planetary Prince is an 80-minute explosion of musical ideas that reflects the musicians’ decades of prior collaboration. — Asher Wolf For more information, go to https://www.camerongravesmusic.com/ and https://www.mackavenue.com/