Miles Griffith

Biography

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 their CDs in the ‘90s included trumpeter Bill Mobley and guitarist Mark Elf. It was in 1999 that Griffith released Spiritual Freedom himself; although most of the album was recorded in 1997 and 1998, a few of the tracks went back to 1994. The early 2000s found Griffith keeping busy as a featured vocalist for drummer T.S. Monk (son of the seminal pianist Thelonious Monk) and the Masters of Suspense, a post-bop outfit led by trumpeter Jack Walrath. In 2002, Griffith recorded Expanded Interpretations, an album of adventurous vocal duets with female singer Vered Dekel. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide