::: DERRICK BRANDON GRAVES :::

oDERRICK BRANDON GRAVES at iTunes... Click on Icon to the left o

I was born a native Philadelphian during the time when music was considered to be at its renaissance period. By this, I mean the time when the be-bop period was so-called ending, and the onset of a new decade of experimental types of music began. At this time, musicians such as “PRINCE” had recorded“I WANNA BE YOUR LOVER”, “THE BEATLES " ending their era as a band, “JAMES BROWN", “JIMI HEN­DRIX" AND “QUINCY JONES” were all recording music that was changing the approach& minds of younger musicians growing up and aspiring to follow in their footsteps. This sparked my interest & guided my approach to developing my musical taste & style!

I learned to play piano at an early age, five, thanks to my aunt's instruction. She was the organist for her church. I later took up the violin when I was in junior high school and performed in the "All- City" orchestra for four years. During this time I met many other fellow musicians who introduced me to other forms of popu­lar and jazz music. I might add that I grew up in a household where music, particularly jazz music, was heard quite often. My mother and father were musical, and encouraged me to learn and appreciate all styles of music from classical to rock. While in high school, I became very interested in what was called dance/funk/ rock (psychedelic) music of the 60's & early 70's. It was at this point that I decided to take up the guitar, and shortly after, the electric bass. I formed my first band three months later and never looked back.

I began to jam and record with many different musicians. Some of them were, Kevin Eubanks and George Howard. Most recently my production company Mastermind has played host to such artists as Eve and As Yet. The current projects I am working on are Victoria Wallace (Euro Dance / House), Rodney Mansfield (R&B / Smooth Jazz) and a hip hop rap/vocal duo called Range & Smooth, and a young lady rapper/spoken word artist named Jalimaah.

Today, I would describe my involvement with the music business as trying to keep up with the new wave of technology that exists. Over the past five years, I've tried to immerse myself in situations which enable me to keep up to date with the recording, producing, & engineering side of the industry, as well as maintain my ability to play my axe, and perform my own music. "Altered Natives" is a fusion of to day's technological advances on yesterdays, today's & tomorrows music! In the future, I plan to again do more recording proj­ects in "live" situations as well as in film scoring.

Thank you for letting me express…


Purchase and listen to Altered Natives at CD Baby:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/derrick

Altered Natives CD available now from Mastermind Productions! 1. Progress 2. Altered Natives 3. Spanish Rice 4. Interlude 5. Play Day 6. Palm Reader 7. Bag Ladies 8. Peace of the Rock 9. Bass Metaphor *Special guests include Darryl Johnson, Robert Landrum, Bing Aragon,& Jeff Lee Johnson.