Biography
Since the early 2000s, progressive jazz pianist and composer Cameron Graves has anchored the Los Angeles scene through his work as ensemble member, sideman, and bandleader. His father Carl Graves landed a Top 20 R&B single in 1974 with “Baby, Hang Up the Phone” before becoming a member of Oingo Boingo, the group that supplied Cameron’s earliest recording credit when he sang background vocals—alongside brother and future collaborator Taylor—on the 1994 album Boingo. A pivotal chapter unfolded at Locke High School, where the pianist encountered saxophonist Kamasi Washington, trombonist Ryan Porter, drummer Ronald Bruner, Jr., and bassist Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner. Under Billy Higgins’s guidance, the four teenagers issued a self-titled album in 2004 as the Young Jazz Giants, a unit that later expanded into the Next Step and backed Washington on the saxophonist’s 2005 self-released double CD-R Live at 5th Street Dick’s.
Graves’s activities during the following decade branched across multiple projects. He performed with the metal band Wicked Wisdom, fronted by Jada Pinkett-Smith, and with the Score, contributed to Leon Ware’s Moon Ride, recorded and toured as half of the Graves Brothers, and composed for film and television. Recognition also arrived collectively when he and his longtime Los Angeles associates formed the core of the West Coast Get Down, the ensemble that powered Washington’s 2015 breakthrough The Epic. Early in 2017 Graves appeared on WCGD bassist Miles Mosley’s debut Uprising. That February he issued his own first leader date, Planetary Prince, on Mack Avenue. Drawing partial inspiration from the philosophical text The Urantia Book, the exploratory yet focused album featured his Young Jazz Giants colleagues plus trumpeter Philip Dizack and bassist Hadrien Féraud.
Graves remained active in the studio and on the road for the rest of the year, joining sessions for Miles Mosley’s Uprising, Kamasi Washington’s Harmony of Difference, and Ryan Porter’s Spangle Lang-Lane. In 2018 he toured with his own trio before entering the Stanley Clarke Quartet for The Message and its worldwide itinerary that extended well into 2019. He next surfaced on Washington’s original score for Becoming, Netflix’s 2020 documentary on Michelle Obama. February 2021 brought Graves’s second Mack Avenue release, Seven, comprising ten originals performed by his quartet of bassist Max Gerl, drummer Mike Mitchell, and guitarist Colin Cook. Washington guested on the title track and “Paradise Trinity,” while an eleventh original, “Fairytales,” appeared as a solo piano piece.
Graves’s activities during the following decade branched across multiple projects. He performed with the metal band Wicked Wisdom, fronted by Jada Pinkett-Smith, and with the Score, contributed to Leon Ware’s Moon Ride, recorded and toured as half of the Graves Brothers, and composed for film and television. Recognition also arrived collectively when he and his longtime Los Angeles associates formed the core of the West Coast Get Down, the ensemble that powered Washington’s 2015 breakthrough The Epic. Early in 2017 Graves appeared on WCGD bassist Miles Mosley’s debut Uprising. That February he issued his own first leader date, Planetary Prince, on Mack Avenue. Drawing partial inspiration from the philosophical text The Urantia Book, the exploratory yet focused album featured his Young Jazz Giants colleagues plus trumpeter Philip Dizack and bassist Hadrien Féraud.
Graves remained active in the studio and on the road for the rest of the year, joining sessions for Miles Mosley’s Uprising, Kamasi Washington’s Harmony of Difference, and Ryan Porter’s Spangle Lang-Lane. In 2018 he toured with his own trio before entering the Stanley Clarke Quartet for The Message and its worldwide itinerary that extended well into 2019. He next surfaced on Washington’s original score for Becoming, Netflix’s 2020 documentary on Michelle Obama. February 2021 brought Graves’s second Mack Avenue release, Seven, comprising ten originals performed by his quartet of bassist Max Gerl, drummer Mike Mitchell, and guitarist Colin Cook. Washington guested on the title track and “Paradise Trinity,” while an eleventh original, “Fairytales,” appeared as a solo piano piece.