# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/milford-graves
# Generated: 2026-08-14T11:20:08.867Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/milford-graves"
name: "Milford Graves"
slug: "milford-graves"
description: "Milford Graves was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, Professor Emeritus of Music, researcher/inventor, visual artist/sculptor, gardener/herbalist, and martial artist. Graves was noteworthy for his early avant-garde contributions in the 1960s with Paul Bley, Albert Ayler, and the New York Art Quartet, and is considered to be a free jazz pioneer, liberating percussion from its timekeeping role. The composer and saxophonist John Zorn referred to Graves as \"basically a 20th-century shaman.\""
tagline: "American jazz drummer and percussionist (1941-2021)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Milford_Graves_close_crop.jpeg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Musicians"
  slug: "musicians"
profileType:
  name: "Singer / Musician"
  slug: "singer"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q177220"
birthDate: "1941-08-20"
deathDate: "2021-02-12"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           46.22
  momentum:             0
  historical:           11.232976
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     70
  profileCompleteness:  80
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1589584/"
    handle:    "nm1589584"
  - platform:  "WEBSITE"
    url:       "https://www.milfordgraves.com/"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.discogs.com/artist/341514"
    title: "Discogs"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%81%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%AF_%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A7%DA%A4%D9%8A%D8%B3"
    title: "ميلفورد جراڤيس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford_Graves"
    title: "Milford Graves"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford_Graves"
    title: "Milford Graves"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford_Graves"
    title: "Milford Graves"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford_Graves"
    title: "Milford Graves"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford_Graves"
    title: "Milford Graves"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford_Graves"
    title: "Milford Graves"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford_Graves"
    title: "Milford Graves"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9F%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A9%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AC%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B4%E3%82%B9"
    title: "ミルフォード・グレイヴス"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford_Graves"
    title: "Milford Graves"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford_Graves"
    title: "Milford Graves"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://musicbrainz.org/artist/55385932-ecee-48e7-9f91-f46846fa6e09"
    title: "MusicBrainz"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q366233"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1292678"
    title: "Milford Graves"
    type:  "DATABASE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump