Milford Graves

Milford Graves (1941–2021) began on drums at age three and congas at eight, leading Latin and Afro-Cuban dance bands in the early 1960s with musicians including Chick Corea and Pete Yellin. Saxophonist John Tchicai introduced him to trombonist Roswell Rudd, and in 1964 Graves joined the New York Art Quartet, recording its self-titled debut and Mohawk (1965). From 1973 he taught at Bennington College, a position secured for him by Bill Dixon, remaining until his retirement as professor emeritus in 2012. In the mid-1970s he grew fascinated with the heartbeat as a rhythmic source and developed software to record and analyze cardiac arrhythmias, later using a 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship to fund equipment and collaborating with researcher Carlo Ventura on stem-cell studies that led to a patent for preparing non-embryonic stem cells. In the early 1970s he also invented Yara, a martial art drawing on praying-mantis movement and African ritual dance, which he taught from his home for more than thirty years.