10. Milford Graves / Don PullenNOMMO

Milford Graves / Don Pullen – NOMMO

Milford is amazing; blessed be. The way in which he cultivated this way of thinking and this way of living, that was so different to how others do. And that became fully integrated in every aspect of his life and his work. It’s physically relational to the human. The way that it moves and the way that it beats. He is someone who I always had such great respect for. And the intensity in which these things were put out into the world. His whole body of work: his ephemeral work, his plastic work, body work, everything. You feel it in the musical work that he does, every bit of it. Nommo is such a great exploration between those two, in the way of advanced music. The work is mind blowing. The energy is mind blowing. It’s all in. yeah.

His final performance, a duo with Andrew Cyrille, is really moving. He’s quite frail, but once he gets behind the drums, wow!

I think a lot of that is muscle memory. It’s history, personal history brimming up and extended through every appendage, you know? He was a prime example of that, even in his later years. He’s someone I never got to meet. Which, you know, is unfortunate. I really wish that I had.