• Black Editions 2022

• 2xLP

• Deluxe gatefold jacket

By 2002 Milford Graves was four decades into developing & refining his radical approach to drumming. Graves’ unique & unbounded creativity across multiple mediums is only recently entering the early stages of wider discovery & appreciation. -Historic Music Past Tense Future- is the first in a series of records on Black Editions Archive that will feature Milford Graves. Through previously unheard recordings & freshly engaged scholarship, Black Editions Archive aims to significantly enlarge Graves’ body of available recorded work & create new opportunities & contexts to experience his maverick genius.

The music here comes from a moment of relative high visibility for the Free Jazz continuum. Brötzmann & Parker, among others, were taking it to the people through relentless touring. DIY presenters & labels were endeavoring heroically to stand-in for the lack of support from more established entities. The post-CD era that would decimate this little environment was still some years away. Cheaper production methods & more accessible recording technology meant some musicians & bands of this time were rather heavily “documented”, as we used to say. This is no such band. This is a stand-alone recording of three of the greatest to ever do it, seen & heard together for the last time, until the end of time, on this night. —Michael Ehlers

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