Milford Graves: A Mind-Body Deal

Join Ars Nova Workshop as we celebrate the long-awaited release of Milford Graves: A Mind-Body Deal, a beautiful new catalogue of the museum exhibition commemorating the life and work of the iconoclastic artist Milford Graves.

Renowned multi-instrumentalist and composer Shahzad Ismaily, a longtime collaborator and friend of Graves, will share music and remembrances in a special performance at Solar Myth on Friday, December 23.

“Milford Graves: A Mind-Body Deal is a strikingly beautiful experience of the life, mind, and work of one of the foremost creatives of our time.”
—BOMB Magazine

A Mind-Body Deal

This fully illustrated catalogue includes documentation from the exhibition Milford Graves: A Mind-Body Deal (2020, ICA Philadelphia), including hand-painted album covers and posters, idiosyncratic drum sets, recording ephemera, multimedia sculptures, photographs, costumes, and artifacts from his scientific studies. This first-ever overview of Graves as a creative polymath attempts to unlock his unique habitat by gathering his intricate, multifaceted work and exploring the practices and predilections of this extraordinary jazz mind.

Milford Graves

Milford Graves (1941–2021) was a revelatory force in music beginning in the mid-1960s, liberating the drummer from the role of timekeeper and fully personifying one as an instrumental improviser. A pivotal figure in the free jazz movement, he created groundbreaking work with Albert Ayler, the New York Art Quartet, Min Tanaka, and John Zorn and led the way in artistic self-production. But his kaleidoscopic genius was not bound by music, and it led him to develop an oeuvre unprecedented in its breadth—from healing arts to botany, cardiac research to martial arts.

Fundamental Frequency

Milford Graves: Fundamental Frequency, an expanded traveling exhibition organized in collaboration with Mark Christman and Ars Nova Workshop, opens at ICA LA on February 11, 2023, following an acclaimed 2021 presentation at Artists Space (NYC).