Highly accomplished Detroit-born drummer Gerald Cleaver, who has been a staple among the New York jazz scene performing in forward-thinking groups with artists like Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Michael Formanek, Chris Lightcap, Joshua Abrams, Craig Taborn, Steve Swell and many others, returns with an experimental new album, titled Griots, that explores the depths of electronic music.

Expanding on last year’s electronic music debut Signs, this superb seven-track album blurs the lines between jazz and electronics with a mixture of muted drum machine rhythms, cosmic atmospheric tones, and glitchy lo-fi beats that go back-and-forth between gentle moments to, at times, sporadic unpredictable shapes.

With track titles like “Geri Allen”, “Virelles”, “Victor Lewis”, “Buena Vista”, “Cooper Moore” and “Galaxy Faruq”, the recording also helps pay homage to those musicians that have been personally influential and/or had a deep impact on the project itself. In Cleaver’s words, “It is very important to me to stress the importance of Tribe. Community is everything.”

Overall, this is an incredibly fascinating and original sounding album that challenges the listener in thrilling and engaging ways. It’s the time of recording that you’ll keep wanting to come back to, with new textures and layers in the music revealing themselves. Gerald Cleaver is proving that he’s not just one of the greatest drummers of his generation, but a highly innovative electronic music producer as well. The satellites are definitely spinning …

Gerald Cleaver — ‘Griots’
(Meakusma / Positive Elevation)

1. Cooper Moore
2. Galaxy Faruq (For Faruq Z. Bey)
3. Virelles (Featuring David Virelles)
4. Bond
5. Victor Lewis
6. Geri Allen
7. Buena Vista

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• Cosmic
• ELECTRONIC MUSIC