Miles Griffith

Native New Yorker Miles Griffith was among the male jazz vocalists who started recording in the ‘90s -- a relatively small group that also included Kevin Mahogany, J.D. Walter, Allan Harris, Giacomo Gates, Kurt Elling, and Lou Lanza (among others). Griffith, who grew up in Brooklyn, was not mistaken for a member of jazz's subtle, restrained cool school -- the gritty, big-voiced improviser favored a hard-swinging, aggressive, full-bodied vocal style whether he was scatting, interpreting standards, or performing his own songs. But for all his aggression, intensity, and forcefulness, Griffith was also capable of sensitivity and vulnerability (especially on ballads). The hard bop/post-bop singer had both male and female influences; there were elements of Jon Hendricks, Eddie Jefferson, Bobby McFerrin, Babs Gonzales, and early Al Jarreau in Griffith's phrasing, and he also was affected by female vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter (although he generally wasn't quite as abstract as the challenging Carter). While Griffith was born and raised in the Big Apple, his parents were 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 Master's degree in vocal performance). Several years before he put out his first album, Spiritual Freedom, Griffith was building a résumé 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 2003, Griffith delivered Expanded Interpretations, an album of adventurous vocal duets with singer Vered Dekel. Miles Griffith died on April 2, 2025, at the age of 55. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi