Planetary Prince, the debut album from West Coast Get Down
founding member and cosmic pianist Cameron Graves, is to be released as a 2-LP
120-gram vinyl set on May 26 via Mack Avenue Records. The album, originally
released via CD and online formats on February 24, received widespread critical
acclaim from the media including The New York Times, LA Weekly, Rolling Stone,
Pitchfork, VICE Noisey, and many others.
Upon signing with Mack Avenue Records at the end of 2016,
Graves' nearly released four-song EP of the same name was expanded to an eight
track full length album, all packed with the same mind-expanding invention that
marked all of the work previously generated by the WCGD -- including Kamasi
Washington's universally acclaimed debut The Epic (which prominently featured
Graves throughout its three discs). These releases have marked a seismic shift
in the jazz landscape and the game-changing arrival of the genre-blurring Los
Angeles collective West Coast Get Down blending elements of Jazz, Classical, Rock
and Hip-Hop.
Planetary Prince continues that evolution, with the scope
and ambition of Graves' vision only more evident on this release. "Cameron
Graves' music is vigorous and refreshing. There is an infectious raw energy on
Planetary Prince that is coupled with these terrific melodies and blistering
solo work, the whole album is energizing," reflects Mack Avenue Records'
President Denny Stilwell, speaking on the new signing. In its full realization,
the album only furthers that pulse-quickening, consciousness-broadening energy
and maintains it over the course of nearly 80 illuminating minutes.
The core of the band is made up of fellow West Coast Get
Down members, whose musical and personal relationships with Graves stretch back
to their high school days: tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington, trombonist Ryan
Porter, bassist Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner, and drummer Ronald
Bruner Jr. To their ranks are added trumpeter Philip Dizack and bassist Hadrien
Feraud, both key members of the groundbreaking modern L.A. jazz scene.
The title of Planetary Prince, which also serves as Graves'
pseudonym, comes from The Urantia Book, a spiritual tome that emerged from
Chicago in the first half of the 20th century and that purports to reveal the
truth of humanity through a combination of spiritual and cosmological ideas,
including radical retellings of familiar stories from the Bible. "That's a
really deep book," says Graves. "A lot of people might think it's
sacrilegious, but it makes so much sense about the breakdown of the universe
and deities and Earth and man."
While those heady concepts are key to the sprawling
imagination of Graves' tunes, they aren't responsible for the fervent,
impassioned playing of Graves and his ensemble. That comes from the members'
nearly two decades of musical history together. "I don't communicate the
Urantia ideas to the band," Graves says. "They just know that my song
titles are kind of weird but the music is really cool. I like to write a lot in
odd rhythms, especially in 7, which takes the music somewhere else and lets the
cats build off of that."
Graves has also carved out a notable career apart from the
WCGD. With his brother Taylor he formed the R&B/fusion duo The Graves
Brothers, releasing their debut, Look to the Stars, in 2013. That project grew
out of a British/American pop group called The Score with which the brothers
found enormous success in England. Graves was also a key member of actress and
musician Jada Pinkett Smith's nu-metal band Wicked Wisdom, providing entrée
into the world of film and television scoring through the Pinkett
Smith-directed film The Human Contract and TV series Hawthorne. Through his
soundtrack work Graves connected with legendary bassist and fellow Mack Avenue
Records recording artist Stanley Clarke, and is now a member of his latest
band, touring internationally.
Upcoming Cameron Graves Appearances
(w/ Miles Mosley and the West Coast Get Down):
May 17 / 7th Street Entry / Minneapolis, MN
May 18 / The Back Room / Milwaukee, WI
May 19 / The Frequency / Madison, WI
May 20 / Schubas / Chicago, IL
May 22 / Adelaide Hall / Toronto, ON
May 25 / Great Scott / Boston, MA
May 26 / Rough Trade / Brooklyn, NY
May 27 / Songbyrd / Washington, DC
May 28 / World Cafe Live / Philadelphia, PA
June 11 / Playboy Jazz Fest / Los Angeles, CA
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