Pheeroan Aklaff

Biography

Pheeroan akLaff believes that the arts are a way to give thanks and to work for change. He is a musician who has kept New York vibrant with live music and emerging performance art for over thirty years. His personal style of drumming with adventuresome composers has been voluminously documented in several areas of Creative Music. As a young artist Pheeroan akLaff toured countries of Africa Asia and Europe. His associations with Wadada Leo Smith, Oliver Lake, Anthony Davis, Henry Threadgill, Sonny Sharrock, and eventually Yamashita Yosuke, Liu Sola Henry Brant, and Andrew Hill presented him with challenging expansions of musical systems.

He utilized his versatility, with a wave of Funk and Reggae influenced performances and recordings in he early 1980's. He lived and worked in Abidjan, Cote D"Ivoire with Marie Rose Guiraud's dance troupe. He met Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Sonny Okosun, and Steve Rhodes while visiting Frank T. Fairfax the 3rd in Lagos Nigeria. U.S. State Department touring of nine African nations, the Near East, and India, in 1982 and 1985 were to follow.

Pheeroan akLaff featured his writing for quintet, quartet, and trio as a headliner at the Willisau festival of Switzerland, the Sju festival of the Netherlands, the Montsalvat festival of Australia, the Moers, and the Nurnberg festivals of Germany. He led the Double Duo ensemble dedicated to the spiritual music of John Coltrane using the sound of two saxophonists; Mixashawn and Ravi Coltrane, and two drummers; akLaff and his mentor Rashied Ali.

His Solo performances have occured in Japanene temples, and on theater stages. He wrote and performed Frederick Douglass Chronicles using words of the 19th Century statesman. Since 1991, Mr.akLaff has taught drums to University students. He began at New School University in New York and is presently at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He has been at the forefront of musical expression and cultural enrichment through his approach to the drum-set. He has taught students in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.