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As a group member, session musician, and leader, progressive jazz pianist and composer
Cameron Graves has been a central figure in the Los Angeles jazz scene since the early 2000s. His father is
Carl Graves, who in 1974 scored a Top 20 R&B hit with "Baby, Hang Up the Phone," and later joined
Oingo Boingo. That band is responsible for
Cameron's first credit, as one of the backing vocalists -- along with his brother and future recording partner
Taylor -- on the 1994 album
Boingo. A greater development for the pianist occurred later at L.A.'s Locke High School, where he crossed paths with saxophonist
Kamasi Washington, trombonist
Ryan Porter, drummer
Ronald Bruner, Jr., and bassist
Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner. The four teenaged musicians, mentored by
Billy Higgins, recorded a self-titled album as the Young Jazz Giants in 2004. Young Jazz Giants developed into a larger group, the Next Step, who accompanied
Washington for 2005's Live at 5th Street Dick's, a double CD-R self-released by the saxophonist.
Graves released his leader debut
Planetary Prince for Mack Avenue in 2017 and followed it four years later with
Seven.
Graves subsequent efforts went in many directions. During a period of roughly a decade, he was in the groups
Wicked Wisdom (a metal outfit fronted by
Jada Pinkett-Smith) and the Score, appeared on
Leon Ware's
Moon Ride, recorded and performed as one-half of the Graves Brothers, and scored music for film and television. Moreover,
Graves and his longtime L.A. associates gained greater recognition as a collective, dubbed the West Coast Get Down, who formed the core of
Washington's creative and commercial breakthrough,
The Epic, in 2015. In early 2017,
Graves appeared on
Uprising, the debut album from WCGD bassist
Miles Mosley. That February,
Graves released his own first set. Inspired in part by the philosophical/spiritual text The Urantia Book, the exploratory but tightly reined
Planetary Prince featured support from all of his Young Jazz Giants mates, as well as trumpeter
Philip Dizack and additional bassist
Hadrien Féraud. It was released on the Mack Avenue label.
Graves spent the remainder of the year working in the studio and on tour with several artists. He appeared on Miles Mosely's
Uprising,
Kamasi Washington's Harmony of Difference, and
Ryan Porter's
Spangle Lang-Lane. In 2018
Graves worked the road with his trio, and then joined the Stanley Clarke Quartet for The Message and its subsequent global tour that lasted well into the following year. In 2020,
Graves appeared on
Washington's original score for
Becoming, Netflix's Michelle Obama biopic. In February 2021,
Graves issued his sophomore Mack Avenue long-player as a leader. Entitled
Seven, it included ten originals performed by his quartet -- Max Gerl on bass; Mike Mitchell on drums, and Colin Cook on guitar).
Washington appeared on the title cut and "Paradise Trinity." An eleventh original, "Fairytales," was performed solo by
Graves. ~ Andy Kellman