Gerald Cleaver
The Process
"Just want to emphasize that Detroit is my heart. That’s the environment of my imagination. From the beginning."
Gerald Cleaver
the blacksmiths, the flowers
Reading Group is thrilled to announce a new album from the celebrated trio of Fred Moten (voice), Brandon López (double bass), and Gerald Cleaver (drums). Following the release of their 2022 self-titled debut album, also on Reading Group (RG23), the trio has been developing their improvisatory language in concerts across North America and the UK. While growing from their first album’s perpetually restrained simmer, their infamous live shows explore a propulsive, relentless, and massively energet…
Signs
2024 stock. Gerald Cleaver is best known for his career as a top jazz drummer, however, his memories of growing up in Detroit inspired him to create his latest project Signs. This debut as an electronic musician and composer came about in his Brooklyn studio through a long process of looking to translate what he heard, into a new language. Cleaver was born and spent most of his life in Detroit, where he experienced, and was influenced by, the legendary development and blossoming of the Motor Cit…
Welcome Adventure! Vol. 1
*2024 stock* Are you ready for magic? The master musicians Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Gerald Cleaver will provide access with this album, the first they have released after playing together for decades.
Daniel Carter has been collaborating with William Parker since the early 70s and with Matthew Shipp starting in the mid 80s. This trio has played together on many recordings but by adding legendary drummer Gerald Cleaver to the mix they have created a masterpiece combination…
Upcoming Hurricane
*2023 stock. 300 copies limited edition* "I was already familiar with Pascal Niggenkemper's work as a result of the release, Klippe by Thomas Heberer, early this summer and a superb trio with Robin Verheyen and Tyshawn Sorey, PN Trio. So this was always going to be an exciting adventure to see what his new trio would put forth. And the new album, Upcoming Hurricane, pretty much says it all. This is a heavy storm of sound that comes on quietly but resonates brightly over 60+ minutes. Clean, open …
In The Wilderness
In The Wilderness opens with textured drums, a muted bass, celestial sound, like stars breaking into puddles. Confident engineering and gentle instrumentation invite the audience to wander into the unknown. The project draws from an experimental performance by drummer Gerald Cleaver and bassist Brandon Lopez, at 577 Records’ Forward Festival, which was later deconstructed and rebuilt by hip-hop producer Hprizm of the Antipop Consortium. All three musicians were involved in visioning the project’…
22 / 23
Gerald Cleaver’s newest album, 22/23, journeys through genre, exploring the future and recalling history, in his most place-based album yet. Born and raised in Detroit, Cleaver is a product of the Motor City’s rich musical history. Long the manufacturing capital of America, Detroit citizens have never been afraid of imagination: technological innovation, a strong labor movement, techno-utopianism or afrofuturism. This spirit of innovation is felt on Cleaver’s newest album, particularly on songs …
s/t
Reading Group is thrilled to introduce the debut LP from a new improvising group of three singular artists: Fred Moten (voice), Brandon López (double bass), and Gerald Cleaver (drums). López and Cleaver have been improvising together as a duo for a number of years, over which they’ve developed a secret, unspoken language of organically growing repetitive figures in a wide range of sonic palettes. López and Cleaver have long been recognized as some of the most vital voices in contemporary experim…
Universal Tonality
William Parker’s Universal Tonality documents an epic performance which brings his titular concept to full, vibrant life. An exquisite example of this system in practice, it features a truly once-in-a-lifetime assembly of creative music luminaries and legends. Clocking in at nearly two hours and featuring six extended pieces flowing across two discs, this Universal Tonality happening took place in December 2002. Parker invited 16 musicians of various ages, cultures and musical backgrounds – to j…
Welcome Adventure! Vol. 2
*In process of stocking* How do you welcome adventure? Longtime comrades, legendary Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Gerald Cleaver investigated this in their first album, Welcome Adventure, Vol. 1, resulting in 577 Records’ best-selling release in the 20 years we’ve been operating. Now, the group is trying the question again with their second astonishing volume, taken from the same historical recording session. Daniel Carter (Saxophone, Clarinet) has been collaborating with Will…
Griots
Gerald Cleaver's second electronic album, jointly released by 577 Records sub label Positive Elevation and Meakusma. It sees Cleaver further exploring the depths of electronic music offered by his hometown Detroit, combining those influences with his personal musical background as a jazz drummer.
Floating Islands
** 2021 Stock ** Centrifuga Records presents Floating Islands by Lotte Anker, Gerald Cleaver and Craig Taborn. The album is a live performance recorded during CPH jazz festival in 2008. Floating Islands was issued on CD in 2009 on ILK music, and finally we are able to make this superb recording available on vinyl in a collaboration between ILK, Insula Music and Centrifuga.
Saxophones – Lotte AnkerDrums – Gerald CleaverPiano – Craig TabornMixed and Mastered By – John FomsgaardRecorded live at Bor…
Upcoming Hurricane
"I was already familiar with Pascal Niggenkemper's work as a result of the release, Klippe by Thomas Heberer, early this summer and a superb trio with Robin Verheyen and Tyshawn Sorey, PN Trio. So this was always going to be an exciting adventure to see what his new trio would put forth. And the new album, Upcoming Hurricane, pretty much says it all. This is a heavy storm of sound that comes on quietly but resonates brightly over 60+ minutes. Clean, open and improvised, Niggenkemper is a brillia…
Altitude
Altitude is one of two live recordings to be released in July 2012 as part of the celebration of AUM Fidelity’s 15th anniversary. It documents the first-ever performance by esteemed veteran improvisers Joe Morris, William Parker and Gerald Cleaver as a trio during label founder Steven Joerg’s two-week run curating The Stone in New York during June 2011.
Collectively, Morris, Parker and Cleaver have appeared on hundreds of recordings, including a variety of prominent releases on AUM Fidelity, but…