Gerald Cleaver

Gerald Cleaver (2014)
Photo: Hreinn Gudlaugsson

Gerald W. Cleaver (* 4. May 1963 in Detroit ) is an American jazz - drummer and bandleader of the Creative jazz and improvised music .

Live and act

At the beginning of his musical career, Cleaver worked in the Detroit jazz scene with Ali Muhammad Jackson , Marcus Belgrave , Donald Walden and Rodney Whitaker , among others . He received a scholarship and graduated from the University of Michigan jazz faculty around 1995 . During his studies he played in the band of Craig Taborn ; in the 1990s he then worked with Ralph Alessi , Franck Amsallem , Charles Gayle , Chris Lightcap , Joe Morris , Mat Maneri , Roscoe Mitchell , Mario Pavone , Wadada Leo Smith , David Torn , Gebhard Ullmanns Projekt Basement Research and Miroslav Vitouš, among others .

In the early 2000s he worked in Matthew Shipp's band , in 2005 with Lotte Anker and in the quartet of Daniel Guggenheim , and in 2006 with Liberty Ellman . In 2007 he worked on Sylvie Courvoisier's album Lonelyville (Intact). He also worked with Raphaël Imbert .

With his sextet Veil of Names Gerald Cleaver recorded the album Adjust , which was released in 2001 on the Fresh Sounds New Talent label and on which u. a. Mat Maneri, Ben Monder , Andrew Bishop, Craig Taborn and Reid Anderson contributed. He also works with the formations Uncle June, Violet Hour , NiMbNl and in the trio of Yaron Herman . In 2008 he released the album Gerald Cleaver's Detroit ; In 2009 the live album Farmers by Nature followed on the label AUM Fidelity , on which William Parker and Taborn participated. In 2011 the trio album Book Of Three with Taylor Ho Bynum and John Hébert was created . Cleaver played on July 1, 2012 at the JazzBaltica Festival as the sideman of the Tomasz Stańko Quartet. With the band Black Host (with Darius Jones , Pascal Niggenkemper , Brandon Seabrook , Cooper-Moore ) he released the album Life in the Sugar Candle Mines in 2013 . In 2016 he worked on Tomas Fujiwara's album Triple Double .

In 2013, he won the Down Beat polls as a drummer in the “Rising Star” category .

Gerald Cleaver at the Unterfahrt jazz club (Munich 2009)

Live in the Sugar Candle Mines (2013), with Cooper-Moore, Brandon Seabroock, Darius Jones, Pascal Niggenkemper
Larry Ochs & Gerald Cleaver: Songs of the Wild Cave ( RogueArt , 2018)
Live at Firehouse 12 (2019)
Signs (2020) solo

Bielefeld catalog. 1988 & 2002.
Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-141-02327-9 .

Commons : Gerald Cleaver - Album with pictures, videos and audio files