Miles Griffith

Native New Yorker Miles Griffith is among the male jazz vocalists who started recording in the ‘90s--a relatively small group that also includes Kevin Mahogany, J.D. Walter, Allan Harris, Giacomo Gates, Kurt Elling and Lou Lanza (among others). Griffith, who grew up in Brooklyn, will not be mistaken for a member of jazz' subtle, restrained Cool School--the gritty, big-voiced improviser favors a hard-swinging, aggressive, full-bodied vocal style whether he is scatting, interpreting standards or performing his own songs. But for all his aggression, intensity and forcefulness, Griffith is also capable of sensitivity and vulnerability (especially on ballads). The hard bop/post-bop singer has both male and female influences; there are elements of Jon Hendicks, Eddie Jefferson, Bobby McFerrin, Babs Gonzales and early Al Jarreau in Griffith's phrasing, and he also has been affected by female vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter (although he generally isn't quite as abstract as the challenging Carter). While Griffith was born and raised in the Big Apple, his parents are immigrants from Trinidad. Griffith's mother and father were interested in gospel as well as Caribbean music, and both of them encouraged their son to start singing as a child. At 11, Griffith became a member of the Boys Choir of Harlem, and he went on to study music at Long Island University from 1988-1991 and Queens College from 1993-1995 (eventually earning a masters degree in vocal performance). Several years before he put out his first album, Spiritual Freedom, Griffith was building a resume as a sideman. Around 1994, he joined pianist James Williams' band ICU, and in 1995, he was featured on Wynton Marsalis' conceptual Blood on the Fields album. Other instrumentalists who featured Griffith on...