Milford Graves Full Mantis (2018) - full transcript

[meditative, soft gong
and drum music]

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[vocalizing drum sounds]

[vocalizing along with drumbeat]

MILFORD GRAVES:
One, two, three, four, five.

One, two, three,
four, five.

One, two, three, four, five.

One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven. One, two, three,



four, five, six, seven. One,
two, three, four, five, six...

One, two, three.
One, two, three.

One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine.

[fast drum music]

[vocalizing drum sounds]

[fast drum music]

-[grunts]
-[cymbal crash]

[vocalizing drum sounds]

[drum music]

[vocalizing drum sounds]

[drum music]

[vocalizing drum sounds]

[drum music]

[vocalizing drum sounds]



[high-energy
avant-garde jazz playing]

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[audience applauding]

[audience clapping rhythmically]

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[train whistle blowing]

[passing car honks horn]

[birds singing]

GRAVES:
Oh, this is a family house.

This house has been here
probably from the early 1900s,

before 1920. [chuckles]

I grew up down the block.

In the South Jamaica Houses,
the 40 Projects.

My grandfather, uh, had, um...

really cultivated the grounds,

so it was already
pretty good fertile ground

by the time I...

Well, my grandma died in 1970.

We moved in,
but I've been here all my life.

So that... so that metal
over there, that-that metal...

particular display that I have,
or p-piece of sculpture...

[chuckles]

That's Ogun.

Iron man, you know.

So that's ancient-- that was all
my grandfather's stuff,

so I didn't want
to throw it away, and-and, uh...

So I said,
"Now, that's history man,"

and I couldn't keep it in a box,
it wasn't doing no good,

so I said, "Hey, Ogun,
just hang it right up, man."

[chuckles]

[siren wailing nearby]

Got to have the spirits, man.

So, when I look at that, it just
reminds me of the fact that...

that those tools belonged
to my grandfather,

and all those tools was done
to do work-- self-reliance work.

So, every time I look at that,
I say, "You know what?

That's the way
they used to do it."

People grabbed a tool.

And they had all these
different tools.

And there...
'cause there's an array

of tools in there, you know.

And I said, "Wow, you know,
that's the way it was done."

So I put it up.

And you allow 'em to get rusty.
So they're allowed to get rusty.

I said, "You know what,
because that's age."

That means it's back years
and years and years ago,

so the rust just represents
a lot of age to me

and wear and tear.

[cars passing by]

[airplane flies overhead]

[sirens blaring nearby]

[insects buzzing]

I have a global garden.

My garden's not like people.

You got all these people
different ethnicities, man.

They live in their own
community.

This don't work like that.

They all hang out together,
right?

[laughs]

I put them like that, man,
just to watch, you know.

I say, hmm, watching them
so it don't look like a farm.

Just put them together,
you know what I mean?

One group.
One culture here,

another culture there,
another culture there.

Spread them out, man, you know?

[cars passing by]

Plants is constantly picking up
cosmic energy.

Just beyond photosynthesis, man.

'Cause they got senses in there
that can pick up...

They may not have the machines
to detect everything.

To me,
it's just like humans, man.

You know, we're constantly
breathing in air.

[chuckles]

Constantly breathing in air.

We're breathing in air.

We're breathing in
all kind of, uh...

We're breathing all kind
of elements as... of nature.

So, what makes us think plants
is any different?

Like I say, your senses...

the greatest senses
that you have

or receptors that you have
is taste buds.

You're feeling.

You should be able
to taste it and feel it.

Some people can't feel
the subtleties in their body.

So they won't know
the difference.

They can take a leaf, man,

that be sitting around
for five weeks.

They don't... they may not know
the difference.

"Oh, I'm just putting
the plant...

I'm chewing it, eating."

Oh, you eat straight
from a plant, man,

you're just getting
all the cosmic energy

that's, uh,
circulating around in there.

You can take this guy,
just like this leaf right here.

Water spinach,
and you just grab it.

And that's water spinach.

Want to try this one?

[percussive music playing]

♪

♪

I met guys, man,
who were studying in Chinatown.

And they had a complaint, man.

They were really
complaining, man.

Uh, and their-their complaint
was that, uh,

if you weren't Chinese,

you wouldn't get
into the inner core, man.

So that started to hit me.
I said, "Wow, man."

So, if these guys have been
studying that for a long time

and they were on the...
the outskirts of things,

I said, "So, uh...
I can't depend on,

"you know, anybody
that's very protective,

culturally or ethnic-wise,
of what they do."

I said, "I think I'm going
to have to evaluate

"this whole situation of...
in this... in this sense,

"what is martial arts?
What's kung fu?

Where-where did it
come from, man?"

Well, I started reading books
on Chinese martial arts,

the history of this art
and the history of that art.

There was many times, man,
when I was reading about

this so-called grand master--

he'd be up in the mountains
meditating,

and he saw this
and he saw that.

I said, "Wow, I could do
the same thing, man.

I'll just go out in nature."

'Cause that's where
they got it from.

And I remember one guy,
he was doing this, uh,

praying mantis in Chinatown,
and he got upset

because, uh,
he approached his teacher,

and his teacher said
that he wasn't allowed

to teach certain things
to non-Chinese.

And I said... I said,
"This is no good."

And it was praying mantis,

and he came and tried
to show me some praying mantis.

I said, "I'm going right
to the praying mantis."

That's the boss,
not some human.

So that's when I-I looked
in the, uh, magazines--

this, uh, plant magazine--
and I saw a place

where I could get these, uh...

these praying mantis from,
and I ordered them.

I ordered them. I said,
"I'm gonna let them go."

And I watched them.

And I watched all their moves. [laughs]

So I went to the best teacher.

I went to
the praying mantis himself.

And that was better than what
any human can teach me,

'cause, see, if you go to...
if you go to another human,

he may have a limitation.

Maybe he can't move
a certain way, right?

If he can't move a certain way,

then that means I'm not
going to get full mantis.

I'm gonna get only a little bit of the mantis.

But if I go to see all these
different mantises,

I'm getting the whole mantis,
you know what I mean?

I'm getting the...

I'm getting the whole
mantis, man, so...

And then you turn it in.

Then I converted it into
how my joints could move.

Maybe I couldn't move
this certain way,

but I'll get close
to where the mantis...

Then I would try to make it
very practical

by sparring a lot.

Say, "Hmm, this works
pretty good if I do this here.

Lock up this way
and twist around."

I say, "That's pretty good."

So that's how... [clears throat]
that's how my stuff came.

It came from going
right to the source.

[percussive music playing]

When human folks
want to shut you out

because they don't like
the way you look,

they don't like
the way you talk,

or else they're very culturally or ethnically

locked into their own set,
then I'm going to say,

"Well, what's the origin
of what they do?"

So I say, "Wow, it all goes
back to this here."

It goes back to hanging out
with nature.

[wooden xylophone music playing]

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[chanting vocalizations join in]

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♪

[music ends]

[atmospheric music droning]

We're taught about measures.

You know, we'll talk
about pulse beats.

All right, so we can count,

"One, two, three, four,"
and so on.

If you make the distance
between one and two

different from between
two and three--

okay, the time length--
people say,

"Hey, wait a minute, you're
screwing up the tempo, man.

You're out of tempo."

So I've known some people say,

"Well, you know,
the best way to play in tempo

is to get a metronome."

Oh, my gracious.

And forget about
atomic clocks, now.

Too exact, too exact.

But you know what?

The body, the heart,
doesn't have

the same time length,
you understand,

between each... each...
each contraction

and relaxation
of the heartbeat.

Ba-boom.

The distance between ba-boom
and the next ba-boom...

if they are the same,
that is extremely dangerous.

And that's what they were
missing before.

They weren't...
they weren't counting

the time difference
between there.

So, if a doctor heard that

and everything seemed
to be clean,

the more exact
the time measures,

the more dangerous it is.

So now there's gotta be
a time differential

between every beat.

You never see
the exact same time.

You're not supposed to see
the exact time distance

between each beat,
each pulse beat.

In other words, if you felt

your-your pulse rate
at your wrist

or any other place other than
listen to your heart,

you're gonna hear that...
[mimics thumping]

They should be different.

That's a healthy heartbeat.

They can call that
the chaos heartbeat.

They can call that
heart rate variability.

That's why the word
variability,

that means
the rate constantly varies.

And all that people have to do is feel their pulse,

and all of a sudden they count,

they'll notice they're counting slower at one point,

then they're counting
a little faster.

That's great, but if you count like a metronome,

and everything's like
bop... bop... bop,

just like the second hand,
that is extremely dangerous.

That means your body
is not responding.

[chuckles]

It must respond.

You cannot walk
across the street

in-in-in military march,

you know,
on the beat per second,

on a major high...
on a major highway

where traffic is coming.

If no traffic coming,
you could... you could...

you could march
with equal steps,

but when you see big trucks
coming, fast cars coming,

you'll be moving
all over the place.

Your tempo's gonna start
to change.

You see, that's what
the body expects.

The body doesn't
expect you to go

and train it
in a very metronomic way.

So, what makes a person
being able to swing,

a person not being
able to swing?

I got a lot of compliments

from a lot of those
older guys, man.

And I said, "You know, man,
I'm not playing your typical

dang, danga-dang,
danga-dang, danga-dang,"

but they heard it.

Like, there was dang...
it was all in there, man.

They heard it, man.

So I said, "When you talk
about this thing, swing, man,"

I said, "Swing, man...
y-you know, swing, man,

is getting you to move from
one point to another point."

It's putting life into you.

You can't put
a "dang, danga-dang"

and call that the swing rhythm.

Swing, it means, man,
when you can feel, man,

like, "Hey, man, I want to live to the next day."

[atmospheric music
continues droning]

[music fades
to thumping heartbeat]

[heartbeat continues]

[heartbeat continues]

So I went to the, uh,

Eastern School
for Physicians Aides,

and all you did for one year,
all we did for one year,

was just laboratory work.

You know, we learned how
to function

as a person that can take
a sample of blood

or some tissue or whatever else

and, you know, tell the doctors what's happening.

So I did that,
I completed that course,

and I got my permit,

and I wound up working
for a veterinarian.

So, I was the big guy
at the lab.

I was running this, and I was
doing my thing for two years.

So, during this time,
on my lunch break,

I used to go over
to Barnes & Noble's

on 18th Street
and Fifth Avenue.

I would always go
into the, uh, medical section.

So, one day,
I'm looking around,

and I looked
in the cardiology section,

and I see this recording.

Said this, uh...

"Heart Recordings"
by Dr. Geckeler.

I said, "Hmm, I wonder
what this is about."

And somehow, I just gravitated towards this recording.

I got this recording, I took
it home, and I listened.

DR. GECKELER: The quality of
a heart sound is important.

Here is a mitral first sound
which is sharp.

[heart beating]

GRAVES:
And I picked up the phone,

and I started calling
other drummers.

I said, "Wow."

I said, "I got a recording here

"that we don't have
to go around begging no more

"to so-called
traditional people

to teach us this
or teach us that."

I said,
"I got a recording that...

"it's-it's... it's got
everything that we do,

"that's supposed to be
the so-called secret rhythms

or possession rhythms
or ritual rhythms."

I immediately obtained
a stethoscope,

an electronic stethoscope.

And I had an old reel-to-reel.

No one can come to my house

without having their heart
recorded.

So I was recording this
on this reel-to-reel,

uh, tape, you know, and...

[heartbeat continues thumping]

What happened was that I heard some heart sounds

that wasn't on
Dr. Geckeler's recording.

I mean,
I really heard some stuff

that was just blowing me away.

I said, "Wow." I said, "The
heart really sounds like this?"

Years went by,
and years went by,

and I was, you know,

teaching this stuff,
teaching that stuff,

and I'm reading
all these articles,

and I'm up in Bennington.

[electronic pulse buzzing]

1999-- I wanted to get more
into my medical work again.

I said, "I need an
electrocardiogram machine."

[electronic notes and pulses]

So I was able to buy
this equipment.

I went and bought
all these books, and I dug in.

And I learned this system
called LabVIEW.

It's basically for scientists
and engineers.

And I started building
all these things.

And as usual,
any kind of major invention,

everything is by accident.

I'm looking for one thing,
and something comes up.

And I said,
"Wow, what is this?"

And all of a sudden, I heard
these melodic kind of sounds

coming from, initially,
the heartbeat

that I inputted
into the equipment.

[electronic notes and pulses]

So the first thing I do
when people come in,

I say, "Okay, so what we're
gonna do is we're gonna...

"I'm gonna... I'd like to get
some information on you.

"I want to see
how you're vibrating inside.

You know, how's your body
oscillating?" [chuckles]

So I go to the heart sound.

[heartbeat thumping]

I capture this kind of
electrical data.

Some people can
call it chi, prana--

anything you want to call it--

but regardless
of what you talk about,

it is electrical activity
in the body.

So you capture this,

transforming or converting this through a function generator.

You know, this is all
software-engineered.

It gives us,
through the different kind

of voltage changes--

'cause I be monitoring
all the voltage changes...

[deep electronic tone]

In other words, what I be doing

is not doing the typical way
to what they be doing.

All they're doing
is a lot of times...

when you hear
"ba-boom, ba-boom,"

they're just getting
the actual... the pulse,

what we call the pulse beat,
that something has taken place.

Instead of going just like...

[mimic-singing
a slow heartbeat tone]

...it's this...

[scats very fast
and erratic heartbeat tune]

I'm chopping that up.

In that one line,
some people go...

[hums deep, droning tone]

So you always had the drone.

[humming along
with deep electronic tone]

But you're gonna break it up.
[mimics fast beating]

[mimics faster
double-time beating]

So that's what I'm doing:
I'm getting little small shots,

and I'm bringing some life
to them.

They're all present
in the waveform.

And what happened to me,
I said, "Wait a minute."

As I looked in the waveforms,
I said,

"Well, what about that
little section there?" Okay?

So, instead of taking
a whole waveform,

giving a whole waveform, like, a numerical value of one,

well, what would it sound like if I ask to divide

that one whole tone
up into 50 parts?

And each one of those 50 parts is going to have

a different intensity
or amplitude.

It's got a different
voltage level.

And if I put it
through a function generator

that can now create
these melodic types of sounds,

what would it sound like?

Tell you what.

When you hear it,
it speaks for itself.

[solo drum music
with vocalizations]

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[upbeat, percussive
music playing]

[indistinct singing]

-[singing continues]
-[whooping]

[whooping]

♪

-[music continues]
-[whistling]

[shouting rhythmically]

[rhythmic shouting continues]

[whistling]

[long whistle]

-[music ends]
-[cheering, applause]

-MAN: Thank you.
-MAN 2: Yeah, yeah.

[indistinct chatter]

GRAVES: We were touring
different parts of Japan,

and part of the schedule

was to, uh, play
for these autistic kids.

[children's chatter]

It didn't faze me.

I just forgot about
the performance

and started observing
these kids.

And I said,
"Wow, this is gonna be

a different kind of situation."

[children's chatter continues]

[chatter continues]

[child shouting]

[children singing]

So you start thinking,
you know,

at an intellectual level,

how would you play
for kids like that?

How would they comprehend
what we even do?

So-called modern
or abstract dancing

or modern and some people say
abstract drumming.

You know, how would...
how would... what would we do?

[fast-tempo jazz drumming]

♪

So, all the talk was over
once we started to perform.

So I just started
thinking about:

"Okay, I have to get deep
into these kids' mind.

I gotta go into the mind."

It's not about, uh,
playing the situation

whereas you are dealing
with people who are coming in

to hear a commercial
performance,

or I'm not in a conservatory

playing for music students
or musicians.

I said, I'm playing for people that's human beings

that have a-a certain
kind of...

or different kind of electrical pathways in their brains.

So that means I have to get
deep into their mind-set

and see if I can reach them
from just a vibratory,

uh... kind of way.

♪

I think the main thing
that I thought about

was not to think
in terms of, uh,

showing any kind
of special, uh... or...

or thinking that musicians
were there in the audience

and that I had to think
in terms of being a musician

in the sense of, uh, approval

or being critiqued by,
you know, media or anything.

I thought... I said,
"Well, this here...

"these kids are coming in,

"and they're thinking in a-a... another kind of way.

Their bodies are moving
in another kind of way."

I said, "I think I'm gonna
have to go ritual."

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

This vibration didn't...

didn't come through by,
uh, uh, watching.

These kids was moving.
There was a lot of motion.

♪

You watch a newborn,
and they, uh...

you gotta so-called teach them how to stand,

teach them how to walk.

When there's just energy just
flowing throughout the body.

And, uh, the way I feel is that if you understand

so-called, uh, embryonic music, as I would call it,

and then if you can take
a ride with that, and...

it's like riding a bull
and the bull's trying

to throw you off
and you're taming it,

or getting on a horse
that doesn't,

you know, have a saddle
put on it.

♪

[speaking Japanese]

You ride that,
and after a while,

if you ride that, and when-when it... it's like voodoo.

You know, you mount the horse, and you gotta ride that horse.

You take the trip
with that deity.

And after a while, uh,
you're saying,

"Okay, I respect
what you're doing.

I can... I can... I can take
the ride with you."

♪

I'm trying to mount
the horse here,

and I'm gonna take you
to maybe areas

that you haven't
been to before.

Instead of being localized
in a little small area,

eating this little bit of grass and so on,

let's take a trip, you know,

maybe to a land
that's maybe 200 miles away,

that maybe you don't know
the direction,

but I'm gonna send you
into that direction.

♪

[drum music continues;
people shouting indistinctly]

[music ends; applause]

[insects trilling,
birds singing]

[insects buzzing loudly]

You want to be a painter?

You know about designs?

Get out in nature.
[chuckles]

And I just tell people,
just watch and observe,

and after a while,
it's gonna get inside of you.

If your passion is to say,
"Oh, I just want to see

all the different colors of
all the birds that's around,"

if you just love
and open yourself up,

just open yourself,
it comes to you.

That's been my experience.

You know, uh, music,
in the most superficial way,

uh, it enters our body
through the hearing apparatus.

Then we have the taste
apparatus throughour mouth.

Then we have the touch.

Then we have the smell.

Then we have the visual thing.

The interesting thing about

all of those different
five receptors

is that they're all
converted into, uh,

some people may want
to say chi,

chi or spiritual energy
or cosmic energy.

But in plain anatomical,
uh, language,

we're talking about
the nervous system,

as nerve impulses.

And they all combine,
they all combine.

If you study
the circulatory system,

you see how they all combine.

You see, so you can't
separate them.

This plant right now,
them leaves...

it's making contact
with the sun, okay?

Through the process
of photosynthesis,

we are dealing with
solar energy, cosmic energy.

And when you touch that
with your bare...

I have a glove on now,

but if you...
if you touch that... if...

Let me take this glove off now.

If I watch and see the...

the kind of purple violet
of this here...

It's definitely in the spectrum,
'cause it's...

it's-it's dealing
with that part of the spectrum

that's, uh...
uh, very energetical.

You know, when you're dealing
with that kind of violet

or purple thing, you know,
just talking about, uh, uh,

dealing with, uh, vitamin D.

So the visual thing is to say

not only that you're seeing
the structures;

it's-it's giving you some sort
of plant geometry.

You're looking at that there,
and the way the leaves is moving

and the way the sun
is bouncing it off,

it's causing frequency movement.

You smell it,
and it's very aromatic.

It-it-it gives me
that kind of...

uh, it's making my, uh,
salivary glands,

uh, uh, just move.

And then the hearing apparatus
is just...

in this particular point,
is great,

because the plant...
the way this plant's moving,

it's moving.

The-the air is moving.

The eardrum is moving.
The eardrum picks that up.

You may not be conscious of it,
but that very low frequency.

And you look at it, and you say,
"Everything feels good."

That's the whole
five-part harmony,

what's going on.

Sight, smell,

taste, hearing, touch.

Some people say
the sixth sense...

they... they'll say, "Okay,
that has a more spiritual,

cosmic aspect to it."

You say, "Ah..."

[horns honking]

[dog barking]

As long as I'm living,
as long as I'm alive,

as long as I'm in
this environment,

there's certain things
that not only myself,

but everyone should do
to be able to survive.

I find that it's
very important for me

to understand the idea
of martial art.

[grunting]

Yara is a Yoruba word that means
to be nimble or flexible.

Actually, it's spontaneous,
improvised,

and it's reacting according to that particular situation.

[grunting]

Yara is composed basically

of West African dance movement, warrior movement.

A lot of movements that
influenced me over the years.

And to me, it was only natural

just to flow
into this type of movement,

since it was part of my culture
and lifestyle.

[grunting]

When somebody's sparring
with me

and I see something
coming at me--

a fist or a foot that's coming--

and I know it's gonna
break me up, I want that.

Because I learn how to mobilize
and learn how to adjust

to that particular situation,
you see.

Some people play tennis.

Some people deal with golf,
bowling.

I don't feel like I'm getting
that kind of confrontation.

That thing coming at me,
that's a negative aspect.

You see?

But the positive aspect
is when I survive.

[erratic, percussive music]

[contemplative drum music]

[gong crashes]

[drumming continues]

♪

♪

♪

♪

[gong crashes; drumming ends]

[soft, humming drone]

The objective of music
was to train you

to understand motion,
oscillations.

[humming drone continues]

This is a membrane, which some people call a drum skin,

but we also have
a membrane inside.

Uh, this is more circular.

And the eardrum inside
has a more kind of oval shape.

But the principles of vibration is very similar.

This part of the skin goes up.

This part of the skin
goes down.

It sinks in,
so it's, like, vibrating

and has this
very warped type of...

of vibration
because of the surface.

[humming drone continues]

The cosmos and everything,

you know, planets,
they're all in motion.

Everything is moving
in all these

different kind
of directions here.

They all have effect
on all of the kind of...

how all of these neutrinos
and everything, these...

You know how much is going
through our body right now?

We got so much cosmic energy
going through us.

[melodic electronic tones]

And the drumming
is supposed to be very related

to the intake
of this cosmic energy.

Uh, plus we definitely
have the facilities.

And there's a lot of things
we don't hear.

And that's the... the movement of molecular substances,

or elements in the ear that
constantly be moving about.

I fully believe that there's
other substances out here

that's constantly impinging
on that membrane

and it's starting to vibrate.

And the body's ready
to receive that.

Uh, that's the loop
that we have with the cosmos.

You know, that... we gotta
constantly have that loop.

Nature said, "Okay, we need you to complete that loop,"

'cause I feel like there's
all these big loops

going all over the planet.

[melodic electronic tones
continue]

We should be vibrating
or oscillating

those creative areas
in the brain

that can feed us, uh,
new, uh, nerve pathways.

Growth of new pathways
so we can get in touch

with a lot of information

that, from a cosmic point,
is out there.

So we're not
fine-tuning ourselves

to be able to pick it up
so that all the thoughts

and concepts and creativity
is coming through to us.

That's how it works.

We need some drastic changes
because you know what?

The planet is changing.

The vibration of the planet
has changed.

Everybody talking about
the weather, more earthquakes--

and I say it's because
the motion

has changed the vibration.

Musicians,
we're supposed to hear that.

So the music has got to be
relevant to that.

You know, we got to have
some relevant vibrations.

[melodic electronic tones
continue]

♪

[erratic electronic tones]

♪

[sirens blaring]

In that time, man, if you got
caught with a pistol,

if you got caught
with a pistol,

and-and you're coming out the
Afro-American community, man,

the thing was,
you got seven and a half

to 15 years
just for possession, man.

The law was tough, man.

And I'm getting blown away.

I said,
"Man, they talking about

"I'm gonna have ten,
seven and a half to 15

for just having
this thing, man?"

I was living in Brooklyn.

[sighs]

And...

East... I was living
in East New York, and I had...

there were some people
in the block

that wasn't the greatest
kind of neighbors.

And my son was, uh,
11 years old.

Okay?

So, 11 years old,
that was 1969 this happened.

It was 1958 he was born.

So he used to play
with some kids down the block.

So I'm upstairs living
in this apartment building.

Four apartments--
I'm on the second floor

over the top
of this upholstery store.

And I'm just cooling out.

And I... somebody started
frantically knocking on my door.

And it was my upstairs neighbor
said that...

"They're killing
your son outside."

I said, "Killing my son?"

So immediately
I ran to the window.

My instinct was to run
to the window

and don't run downstairs.

And I saw this guy, this adult,

arms spread out across the door,

like, blocking my son
from running into the door.

He had a little fight--
kid fight--

11-year-old kid fight
with the kid down the block.

And his mother had my son
by his shirt in the back.

He had his shirt all twisted up,
holding him.

And she had a stick
in this hand.

And I don't know how the kid
got the... the glass,

but the glass,
the bottle was broken,

and she said,
"Kill him. Cut him. Cut him."

And they cut him behind his ear.

And I saw this here,
so I frantically...

whoa, I frantically just went
down them stairs.

But before I went downstairs,
I had a pistol.

[drum music playing]

And I kept a pistol
at my house, okay?

So, at this time,
I had four children.

I was living in an area

where guys was upstairs
selling drugs upstairs.

And I had a very fragile door

that could easily
be broken into.

And they had a gang

in that little area.
They had young guys,

always be on the corner,

in front of your house
and all that.

Well, you call the police,
there wasn't...

but so much response you get.

They come very late.

So I kept a gun in my house
for security.

You know, and at that time,
it was illegal.

I said,
"But you know something?

"I may have to sacrifice
to go to jail

than go to a funeral."

I said,
"I'm gonna protect my family."

So...

I, uh, went out

and had my...
put my pistol in here.

And I knocked the door open.

I mean, I pushed the door open,
the guy went off the steps.

And I pull the door open,
and I-I don't know if I...

maybe I pushed him
down the steps.

He was about three times
bigger than me.

You know, he was one of them
big power guys, you know?

And so...

somebody saw the pistol
in my waist here, man.

They say, "He's got a gun,
they got a gun."

And everybody started
scattering.

They really started scattering.

♪

And I got my son,
and I went back upstairs.

And I see the blood coming down,
and I was angry, man.

There was a lot of people
out in the streets there,

a lot of people,
and they were chanting,

"Kill him! Kill him!"

I said,
"What the hell is this, man?"

And I flipped out.
I lost myself, man.

I'm glad I didn't pull
the thing out, start shooting.

But I was just so angry,
man, I said,

"Well, why are these
people doing this?"

Two 11-year-old kids.

What is the purpose
of this, man?

What is the purpose?

So I came back upstairs,
and I worked myself up

till I just, like,
emotionally got,

you know,
just to the-the high point.

So I grabbed my German shepherd
that I had,

and I went back downstairs,
I went back outside,

and I went into the building
where they were, man.

And I went crashing
into that building, man, and...

I just took my arms, I'm pushing
everybody back in there,

whole first floor,
all those people.

I didn't care, man.
I just lost it.

The pistol fell and went off.

And when I was up in the air,
the... my dog pulled me, man,

back out on the steps,
and I'm trying to gain myself,

and I'm stumbling
down the stairs.

One of the... one of the...
one of the...

the-the ladies in there, man,
who was the big instigator,

she picked up the pistol,

and she's there, she said,
"Shoot him! Shoot him!"

But the police told me
the gun misfired,

and I'm there trying to duck
back and forth, man.

So I went and ran back
to my house

to re-protect the family,
and all of a sudden, man...

[mimics sirens blaring]

...the police is coming, man.

They're all coming
at my house, man.

And they looked at me and said,
"Is this your gun?"

I said, "Yes, sir."
I just told them the truth.

I said... they said, "Put your
hands behind your back."

They took me out to
the 75th Precinct in Brooklyn.

[drum music fades out]

[thumping heartbeat fades in]

And soon as I got
in there, man,

the cops...
one cop asked me, man, uh,

"What are you doing
with this pistol?"

And that was like 1969.

And, you know, I was...

You know, we were all
into African culture, man.

You know, that was the time,
you know.

You know...

And, uh,
had my big Afro on, man,

and my dashiki, man.

And this was the worst time,
'cause that was

the time the Black Panthers
were around there,

setting up police,
shooting them, man.

This guy took my head.

Bam!
Threw it up against the wall.

The detective in there, man...

So, people don't tell me nothing
about what goes on in precincts.

I know what I went through, man.

They didn't even
give me a chance, man.

Said, "Is this your gun?"
I said, "Yes, sir."

I was just following
all the rules, man.

'Cause I had to tell the truth.

I say the best way to do it,
I'm gonna tell the truth, man.

You know?
I was in a situation, man,

protecting myself
and blah, blah, blah.

I ain't shoot nobody, man.

[heartbeat thumping]

I go to court, go to court,

go to court, go to court, man.

So my lawyer would always say

we could, you know,
work it out, though.

We wasn't prepared,
blah, blah, blah.

So this went on
for two years, man.

Two years, man.

I said, "Wow, this is
gonna be rough, man."

This final court appearance,
man, this was gonna be it.

And I said, "Man, shit, man,
this next one, man,"

I said, "this guy may
give me time, man."

And I'm going against, they say,

the roughest judge in Brooklyn
who don't mess around.

He gives you time, man.

So, anyway, now it gets
to the... the final situation.

There was a place called
the Cheese of All Nations

on Chambers Street in Manhattan.

So...

It's always crowded.

So I go down on a Saturday,

and Monday was
my court appearance, man.

And I'm trying to go down there
and get me some cheese.

That's when I was
eating cheese, man.

Enjoyed me some sheep cheese,
some, you know, goat cheese.

I said,
"I'm gonna enjoy myself, man,

"'cause I may not
be able to get no...

no-none of this cheese
in the jailhouse, man."

So... I'm on line,
and it's packed in there, man.

It's packed, man.

And so this guy is
standing next to me, man.

I'm... I started talking
to this guy,

and I'm saying, "You know,

"there's a more efficient way
that this place could operate

if they had this
and they had that."

So the guy says,
"I agree with you."

And then, after that, my number
was called, and I said...

said, "It was nice talking to...
talking to you, sir."

"It was nice talking
to you, too."

I said, "All right,
maybe I'll see you again."

So, anyway, I got my cheese
and walked out.

So I go to court Monday,
man, that Monday,

and my lawyer, man, he goes over

to the prosecuting
district attorney, man.

And all of a sudden, my, uh...
my lawyer leaves the guy.

He's coming to me,
smiling like this.

He said, "Guess what.

"The prosecuting attorney
you was talking to,

"district attorney,
he was the guy

you was talking to
at the Cheese of all Nations."

[laughs]

So he looked at me
and did like that.

I looked at him, did like this,
and he looked at me, man.

They had a conference with
the judge, and the judge said,

"Well, it was probably
a little old misunder...

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

He said,
"Unconditional discharge."

Then, when I got
my fingerprints, man,

they said, man, "I don't know
what happened here," he said,

"but that guy doesn't let
nobody go, man."

I said, "Judge, you will never
see me in here again.

I'm sorry for everything
that took place, man."

And you know what? I think what
was really behind that, man,

the reason I went out--
I didn't go out like a thug.

I went out because there was
lack of response

in that community, man,
when you reported a crime, man.

No one really cared, man.

You know, you're in
a predominantly

African-American,
Hispanic, uh, community, man.

I think there was a greater
spirit that was inside, man.

How is it possible, man,
that of all those people

and I'm talking
to the guy who was gonna...

You know what I mean?

So, what that did to me,
it said, man,

you know, you don't know
who you talking to.

You know, be nice at all...
it doesn't hurt

to be nice
and be a human being, man.

[drum music]

[vocalizing along with drumbeat]

♪

♪

[stops playing]

[younger Graves whooping]

[vocalizing along with drumbeat]

[applause]

[rapid vocalizing]

-[deep vocalization]
-[taps gong]

[high-pitched whoop]

[cheering and applause]

[high-pitched whoop]

[grunts]

[erratic vocalizing]

[high-pitched whoop]

One, two, three, four, five.

One, two, three,
four, five.

One, two, three, four, five.

Two, three, four, five.

One, two, three, four, five.

One, two, three,
four, five.

[audience clapping rhythmically]

[rapidly]: One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven.

One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven.

-[audience laughing]
-One, two, three.

One, two, three. One, two,
three. One, two, three.

[grunts]

One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven.

One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven.

One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven.

One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven. One, two, three.

One, two, three. One, two,
three. One, two, three.

[grunts]

♪

[grunts]

One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven.

One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven.

One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven.

One, two, three, four, five.

[grunts]

[electronic tone humming]

[vehicle passing]

[electronic tone continues]

[melodic electronic tones]

[melodic electronic tones
continue]

[melodic electronic tones
continue]

[droning electronic hum]

[electronic hum stops]

There's certain ways
when you vocalize, man.

You've got to do
certain things.

You know what I mean?

So, if-if I say a, uh...
if I say, "Ah,"

if I'm doing "ah,"
if I'm doing, like, a...

"beh" or "dah," you know?

'Cause if I say, like,
"Beh, beh,"

you tasted bitter food.

"Beh, beh, beh."

You got to see the anatomy
that's involved

and what that taste does.

A sour taste...
[clicking tongue, grunting]

[clicking tongue]

Now, when you make...
if you do certain kind of...

you know, pronounce
certain kind of vowels

or consonants,
pay attention, man,

to-to the whole
anatomical structural setup.

[grunts, sighs]

That's sweet for me.
"Ah, mm, ah."

You know, "Ah."

So you get down
into that pitch level.

So that's how I-I put that off
and I translate it.

The different tastes, man,
to the different notes, man.

One of the publications
I was reading, man--

it's a thing, like, well,

why does minor scales...

why does... why are they...

why are they related to sadness and melancholy, man?

And why is the major ones
to, like, joy, happy

and up and all that there?

And...

And I figured I'd won out
by playing with

theautonomic nervous system.

Okay?

So, if you're going to go
to the so-called yang side,

if you're going to go to...

That's the sympathetic
nervous system.

You're going to mess
with your adrenaline.

That's the more aggressive
side, man, like this here.

Okay?

You go the yin, the yin side,
or theparasympathetic side,

that's more
of your reduced side,

you know, your easy side.

Now, they both can check
each other.

Okay?

It's too much, then something
gottacome and say,

"We have to lessen it.
We'll give you less."

Sadness...

can be related to crying.

People sad, they go through,
they cry, they feel all down,

they be crying, man, you know, like and so on.

Crying is related... uh, uh,
is related to your tear ducts.

You secrete fluid
from your tear ducts.

Secretion from the tear ducts

is stimulated
by the parasympathetic nerves.

That's the yin thing.
That's parasympathetic.

Now, what you have to learn
how to do, man--

and this is important--

that's what I was
telling you earlier--

when you find
that you're getting

toosympathetic inside, man,

you have to not so much cry,

but you have to stimulate
your tear ducts.

Once you stimulate your...
your tear ducts, man,

you'll start to stimulate...
you have to activate

the parasympathetic
nervous system.

That's the calming effect.

But it can't be excessive.

Okay? 'Cause excessive...
excessive yin, as they say,

will turn into yang.

That's the protective part
of the body.

It's gonna kick in, man.
The adrenaline's gonna kick in.

In order to cause secretion
from your tear ducts, man,

anatomically,
you have to do certain things

up... in the upper part
here, man.

You see? The cheek bones--
right on up here.

Temple area.

And you... and it's a way
you drop down inside, man,

you just go inside, man,
you just...

You got to roll your eyes
just a little bit, man.

You go down and...

[sighs]

See, and I'm starting
to lubricate my eyes now.

You can't see that far away.

Yeah, see, I-I've got...

I brought tears in my eyes here.

I just excited
my sympathetic nervous system.

So, if you gonna go...

[melodic vocalizing]

[strained vocalizing]

...as soon as you go in between,
you understand,

you're getting into
that semitone

and going to a more minor thing.

[strained vocalizing]

You have to use the same...

muscle and nerve
involvement, man,

that's used to create tears.

[laughs]

You see?

So, naturally,
when the ear hears that, man,

the human being

is also responding
to that, man-- that tone.

They're hearing that tone,
and they're saying it inside.

So, what it does is stimulate
the same yin apparatus.

That's my theory on what the...
what the heck is happening, man,

what minor tones is about, man.

[vocalizing minor tones]

And that's the other thing.
Check this out.

[vocalizing minor tones]

You see, they start coming out
even more now over here.

♪ I got soul

♪ I feel so good

♪ It's so good to me

♪ Uh, yes, I have the blues.

That don't do nothing, man.

I'm down here...
♪ I got the blues.

[vocalizes minor tones]

One is taking... the sympathetic
takes it more on here.

You understand?

It doesn't take it up
into this area here, man.

So it's a whole big thing
with major and minor, man.

Major intervals are too wide.

You're not stimulating
that apparatus--

that neuromuscular apparatus
that stimulates tear glands.

Any time there's a tear,
the body knows, man,

that it's coming to a mode
to protect you, man,

from getting... [growls]

[growling]: Like this here,
like this here.

So, when you're all charged up
like this here, man,

you got to know to go back down.

And it may even take going back
and singing that...

[vocalizing minor tones]

Over the last few years,
I have really involved myself

in polymeter playing,

playing of different kind
of meters.

In other words,
different feelings.

It's different feelings
I'm about.

This is doing one feeling.
This is doing another feeling.

In other words,
this may be doing a sad feeling.

This may be doing, like,
a happy feeling.

Sometimes almost like
a contradiction

that you set up with inside.

And it's not only twofold,

where they're talking about
the two parts of the brains.

It's multifold.

Because, see,
that simple type of sadness

may produce, like, just
subdivisions of that sadness

that takes on all different kind
of degrees of sadness.

See, it may be sadness
'cause somebody

told you that there was death.

It may be sadness because
you broke your favorite dish.

It's all sadness,
but different types of sadness,

but lumped up
as just one big sadness.

[vocalizing rhythmically
along with drumbeat]

♪

♪

♪

♪

[melodic vocalizing]

♪

♪

[cheering and applause]

[coughs, chuckles]

[clears throat]

[sighs]
It's all in here.

It's all in here.

Not here.

You don't play the drums
with these.

You play it with this.

And whatever else comes in
goes out.

[vehicles passing,
birds singing]

[birds squawking]

[airplane engine roaring]

[airplane continues
passing overhead]

[distant chatter]

[vehicles continue passing]

[vehicles continue passing]

[vehicles continue passing]

[vehicles continue passing]

[distant chatter]

[vehicles continue passing]