Arts for Art / Vision Festival Free Jazz News

2/22/2021

March On_Line Salons

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Beginning in March, AFA will be charging a minimum donation to watch On_Line Salon live stream performances. You can find the full schedule for March performances below and on our On_Line Salon page. Also on our On_Line Salon page, find the link to register to watch through Eventbrite, where you will receive a private viewing link.

Each performance will be followed by Patricia Nicholson's ongoing discussions with the artists.

View the AFA On_Line Salon Webpage

Tuesday March 2, 8pm

jaimie branch - trumpet
Luke Stewart - bass
Mike Pride - drums
Theo Darst - video

Thursday March 4, 8pm

Ava Mendoza - guitar
Luke Stewart - bass
Ches Smith - drums
Keegan Monaghan - super-8 films

Tuesday March 9, 8pm

Ken Filiano - bass
Michaël Attias - alto saxophone
Michael TA Thompson - drums
William Mazza - video art

Thursday March 11, 8pm

Darius Jones - alto saxophone
Cooper-Moore - piano
Gerald Cleaver - drums
Shara Lunon - poetry

Tuesday March 16, 8pm

William Parker - bass
Rob Brown - alto saxophone
AnnMarie Sandy - mezzo-soprano
Eri Yamamoto - piano
Miriam Parker - film montage, movement

Thursday March 18, 8pm

Devin Brahja Waldman - alto saxophone
James Brandon Lewis - tenor saxophone
Gerald Cleaver - drums
Ala Dehghan - live painting

Thursday March 25, 8pm

Newman Taylor Baker - washboard
Matthew Shipp - piano
Stomu Takeishi - bass
Trashina Conner - dance

Tuesday March 30, 8pm

Matt Lavelle - trumpet, alto clarinet, bass clarinet
Larry Roland - bass, poetry
Ryan Sawyer - drums

2/12/2021

Milford Graves 1941-2021

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Photo of Milford Graves on Seventh Ave in Harlem by Valerie Wilmer featured on the reprint cover of As Serious as Your Life.

Milford lived every moment of his life using all of his god-given abilities and instincts; searching and discovering his purpose in life. Then, living inside that purpose: music healing, singing a song inspired by the elders from Africa to South Carolina to Jamaica, Queens. A grandfather’s song. In this last period he didn’t stop exploring — he never gave up. Baba Milford Graves was something else; as anyone who met him could attest to. His creative spirit was unstoppable. An extraordinary human being who in his last period moved into visual art which was always there if you checked out the house and the colorful hieroglyphics on his drum set. We knew a little, but there so much we didn’t know about him that was just being revealed. - William Parker

Milford Graves has left this world on February 12. Yet we remember what Professor Graves, Drummer Graves, Healer Graves, Scientist Graves taught us, how he taught, and how he lived. He never stopped until his physical heart insisted on the afternoon of February 12th that it was done beating. But he didn't leave us until he could go on no more. Every time he played the drums he played until it was done, until the healing music was done, for that day. He lived his whole life in Jamaica, Queens. He met and married his high school sweetheart and raised 5 children. He made his home into an art installation. He kept a garden, planting and harvesting healing herbs that he made into tinctures. As long as his heart was beating, he pursued science to heal. He was a trained and practiced acupuncturist. He created his own form of martial arts that he taught to young people in his neighborhood, until they were no longer young. He played the drums inspiring and healing those whose ears and hearts were open.

Milford Graves Paintings by musicWitness® Jeff Schlanger

Milford Graves will never leave our hearts. Milford Graves's music, art, science and movement was based on the understanding that the Heart must always be the center of the music. His Life example is of one who always is reaching to go further, to do more, to learn, to keep growing, to not be confined or constrained but to pursue knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. He showed us that our healthy hearts not only have a regular beat, each one of our hearts has its own unique, multi-rhythmic dance. In the end his - as does everyone's physical heart – has stopped beating. But the echoes of its rhythms, in his drumming and his science and his healing energy and ideas will be with us as long as our hearts are beating.

Milford Graves & Andrew Cyrille | AFA Vision Festival 24

Milford Graves and Andrew Cyrille recount stories on how they first met, and the two drummers continue a decades long collaboration with a duet at Cyrille’s Lifetime Achievement celebration at the Vision Festival..More

Milford Graves was the featured performer for the First Annual Vision Festival in 1996. He was a core Vision Artist who performed at almost every Vision Festival. On June 12, 2013 he received the LifeTime Achievement Award. In 2018, Jake Meginsky's “Milford Graves Full Mantis” biopic came out to rave reviews. His scientific work on stem cells with doctors in Italy continues to move forward. His life work that brought together art, science and drumming is being showcased in art museums.

March On_Line Salons

Milford Graves 1941-2021

Milford Graves Paintings by musicWitness® Jeff Schlanger

Milford Graves & Andrew Cyrille | AFA Vision Festival 24

Celebrating Milford Graves' Lifetime of Achievement at Vision 18

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