Native New Yorker
Miles Griffith is among the male jazz vocalists who started recording in the ‘90s -- a relatively small group that also includes
Kevin Mahogany,
J.D. Walter,
Allan Harris,
Giacomo Gates,
Kurt Elling, and Lou Lanza (among others).
Griffith, who grew up in Brooklyn, will not be mistaken for a member of jazz's subtle, restrained cool school -- the gritty, big-voiced improviser favors a hard-swinging, aggressive, full-bodied vocal style whether he is scatting, interpreting standards, or performing his own songs. But for all his aggression, intensity, and forcefulness,
Griffith is also capable of sensitivity and vulnerability (especially on ballads). The hard bop/post-bop singer has both male and female influences; there are elements of
Jon Hendricks,
Eddie Jefferson,
Bobby McFerrin,
Babs Gonzales, and early
Al Jarreau in
Griffith's phrasing, and he also has been affected by female vocalists like
Ella Fitzgerald and
Betty Carter (although he generally isn't quite as abstract as the challenging
Carter).
While
Griffith was born and raised in the Big Apple, his parents were immigrants from Trinidad.
Griffith's mother and father were interested in gospel as well as Caribbean music, and both of them encouraged their son to start singing as a child. At 11,
Griffith became a member of
the Boys Choir of Harlem, and he went on to study music at Long Island University from 1988-1991 and Queens College from 1993-1995 (eventually earning a Master's degree in vocal performance). Several years before he put out his first album, Spiritual Freedom,
Griffith was building a résumé as a sideman. Around 1994, he joined pianist
James Williams' band ICU, and in 1995, he was featured on
Wynton Marsalis' conceptual
Blood on the Fields album. Other instrumentalists who featured
Griffith on their CDs in the ‘90s included trumpeter
Bill Mobley and guitarist
Mark Elf. It was in 1999 that
Griffith released Spiritual Freedom himself; although most of the album was recorded in 1997 and 1998, a few of the tracks went back to 1994. The early 2000s found
Griffith keeping busy as a featured vocalist for drummer
T.S. Monk (son of the seminal pianist
Thelonious Monk) and
the Masters of Suspense, a post-bop outfit led by trumpeter
Jack Walrath. In 2002,
Griffith recorded
Expanded Interpretations, an album of adventurous vocal duets with female singer
Vered Dekel. ~ Alex Henderson