Pheeroan akLaff has great memories of his childhood in Detroit, Michigan where he enjoyed the sounds of his elder brother Eric practicing to be a concert pianist, the Jazz legends in concerts halls, and the spectacular shows of Motown. After studying with Randall Hicks and Jimmy Pistol Allen he performed with Travis Biggs  Ars Nova, and other Detroit area local bands.

He relocated to New Haven, Connecticut and performed with his band Deja Vu and several musicians of the area. His move to New York, encouraged by mentor Rashied Ali, and his international work with Wadada Leo Smith, set things in motion.

In 1981 he performed and briefly resided in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire, with the Marie Rose Guiraud Dance Company and explored urban music with Frank T. Fairfax, and Fela Anikulapo Kuti in Lagos, Nigeria. He also performed on Nigeria's Steve Rhodes Television Show as a surprise guest drummer.
 
Throughout the Eighties and Nineties Pheeraon has performed and recorded his compositions for quartet, quintet, power trio, and solo oratorio. He has been profiled by international publications and is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow. He is a co-founder of Seed Artists Inc. for Artists and Communities.

Selected Discography
Pheeroan akLaff -recordings as leader Brooklyn Waters, Global Mantras, Sonogram, Fits Like a Glove, and House of Spirit: Mirth
featured on recordings with
Oliver Lake - Cloth, Live at Willisau, Virtual Reality, Again and Again, The Prophet, Gallery, Clevont Fitzhubert, Impala, Expandable Language, Shine, Life Dance of Is, Holding Together / Wadada Leo Smith - Song O Humanity, Spirit Catcher, Spiritual Dimensions / Yosuke Yamashita – Triple Cats, Groovin' Days, Pacific Crossings, Field Of Grooves, Wind of the Age, Canvas In Vigor, Spider, Ways of Time, Dazzling Days, Kurdish Dance, Sakura Live, Sakura, Plays Gershwin, Crescendo / 
Anthony Davis -“X” The Life and Times of Malcom X, Episteme, Hemispheres, Of Blues and Dreams, The Enemy of Light, Hidden Voices / James Newton - Romance and Revolution, African Flower / Tom Pierson - Left Right, The Hidden Goddess, Planet of Tears / Henry Threadgill - Makin' a Move, Slippin' Into Another World, Subject to Change, You Know the Number, Just the Facts, When Was That / Mal Waldron - My Dear Family / Geri Allen - Maroons / Baikida Carroll - Door Of The Cage, Marionettes, Shadows and Reflections / Don Byron - Bug Music, Tuskegee Experiments / Anthony Braxton - Charlie Parker Project, Live Piano Quartet / Marty Ehrlich - Things Have Got to Change, The Welcome / Sachi Hayasaka - Minga, Beat, Beat, Break Up / Mario Pavove - Digit, Shrapeville / Liu Sola - Apparitions, Live Beijing / Fred Simmons - Going Forth / Craig Harris - Shelter / New Air - Live at Montreal, Air Show / Oliver Lake and Jump Up Band - Plug It, Jump Up /Jerome Harris - Algorithms  Sonny Sharrock - Seize The Rainbow, "Live" / Carlos Ward – Faces, Live At The Bug / Jay Hoggard - Love Is The Answer, Riverside Dance, Love Survives / Rob Reddy - Post War Euphoria, Songs You Can Trust / Mark Helias - Desert Blue / Amina Claudine Myers - Song for Mother E / Ray Anderson - What Because / David Murray - Karmen Gei,Yonn De, Live at the Vangaurd / Dorothy Cowfield - I'm a Cowgirl, Cows In The Sky, No Broken Dreams,
Significant recorded works with Steve Lehman, Sean Conly, Fjrode Gersted, Jun Miyake, Summit Conference, Paul Sullivan.......

Print Articles

Hot House Magazine cover article April 2004
Coda Magazine cover article July/August 1997
Signature Magazine Japan, Dr. Tekemura interview April 1996
The Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Jordan interview, January 1996
The Villager, interview New York, N.Y. February 1996
Modern Drummer, Noah Howard interview 12/95,
Drums Magazine Japan, Interview 1991
Marie Claire Japan, CD review 1990,Jazz Podium, Germany 1989
Musician Magazine Ted Drozdowski interview June 1989
RYTMI Magazine Finland #9-10 interview November1987
Modern Drummer, Chip Stern interview May 1984
Midday Times Bombay, India interview January 1984
Coda Magazine Canada#186 interview January 1982
Ivoire Dimanche Magazine Ivory Coast #537 J.S. Bakiono interview June 1981
Ophelia Magazine Nigeria Volume 2 Frank Fairfax interview January 1981


Significant Performances

Saalfelden Jazz Festival 2009 / Painter Peter Tschulnigg

Warsaw Summer Jazz 2009 / with Wadada Leo Smith Golden Quartet

Blue Note 2009 / Duo with Cecil Taylor

Lincoln Center 2008 / with Cecil Taylor Trio

The Artist Collective 2007 with Cecil Taylor Trio

Maizuru, Kyoto, Tokyo, and Mie Japan 2004 / with Grand Water Trine -  Yosuke Yamashita, Tom Pierson and Pheeroan akLaff

Columbia University 1999. 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003l with Double Duo - Rashied Ali, Ravi Coltrane, Mixashawn, Pheeroan akLaff

Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia, 1996 / with Pheeroan akLaff Quartet - Mike Nock, Cameron Undy, Tim Hopkins

Middleheim Festival Belgium, 1995 with Andrew Hill, Reggie Workman, Julian Priester, Sam Rivers, Pheeroan akLaff

Tokyo, and Kyoto, Japan 1994 / with aklaff Power Trio - Ed Cherry, Andy McKee

Willisau Jazz Festival, Switzerland -1993 / with aklaff Quartet - John Stubblefield, Mark Helias, Ed Cherry

Sju Festival , Netherlands -1993 / with akLaff Power Trio - Ed Cherry, Andy McKee

Nurnberg Ost-West Festival Germany -1992 / with akLaff Quartet Scott Robinson, Chulo Gatewood, Ed Cherry

Moers International Festival Germany-1989 w/ akLaff Quintet - C. Ward, C. Burnham, I. Coleman, A. Dieng

New York City Opera; The Life and Times of Malcolm X by Anthony Davis: 1988

Inter-disciplinary Performances and Workshops

Rob Fisher; sculptor, Dr.Julian Thayer; psycho-physiologist. Pheeroan akLaff and Scott Robinson musicians;
Carnegie Mellon School of Creative Inquiry 1996, University of Pennsylvania, Central Pennsylvania Arts Festival Bellefonte Pennsylvania Arts Council 1993, 1992, 1991

Yosuke Yamashita,Cecil Mcbee, Pheeroan akLaff; musicians Sadamsa Montanaga,painter Iga Ueno City, Japan 1992

Jay Hoggard Group U.S.I.S. tour and workshop of; Bangalore, India, Syria, Jordan , Sudan Morocco, 1985

Henry Threadgill Sextet/Jazz Yatra; Bombay and Delhi India 1984

Oliver Lake and Jump Up Band U.S.I.S. tour and workshop of; Malawi, Togo, Swaziland, Liberia, and Cote D’Ivoire 1982

Marie Rose Guiraud Dance Company ; Abidjan, Bouake, Yamossoukro and Korhogo, Cote D’Ivoire 1981

Theater

Frederick Douglass Chronicles; nusic and recitations by Pheeroan akLaff, words of Frederick Douglass: Carver Cultural Center San Antoni TX 1996

The Resurrection of Lady Lester by Oyamo Charles Gordon ;  Manhattan Theater Company 1981, Yale Repertory Theater 1980

Mango Tango by Jessica Hagedorn  Reggie Life, director New York Shakespeare Festival 1978

Where The Mississippi Meets the Amazon by Ntozake Shange, Thulani Davis, and Jessica Hagadorn  New York Shakespeare Festival 1977, 1976

Cecil Taylor took the stage with his New AHA 3 trio consisting of drummer Pheeroan akLaff and bassist Henry Grimes, who was reunited with the great pianist after a 40-year hiatus (Grimes played on Taylor's groundbreaking 1966 Blue Note album, Conquistador!). The 78-year-old avant-garde icon entered to a standing ovation, then stood at his piano reciting cryptic poetry while accompanying himself on shaker. akLaff engaged Cecil with a djembe drum and with fingers on the snare while Grimes picked up a violin, which he bowed with legit technique, if poor intonation. akLaff switched to brushes against the tide of Taylor's piano playing and as the music built to a more turbulent peak, Grimes discarded the violin, picked up Olive Oyl (his green upright bass, given to him by William Parker) and away they went. akLaff matched Cecil's explosively percussive attack on the keyboard with some whirlwind intensity of his own on the kit, heavy on the toms with an overt African influence in his playing. While most drummers over time--including Max Roach and Elvin Jones--have deferred to Cecil's power, Pheeroan rose to the occasion with thunderous drumming, going toe-to-toe with the master. And while at times his muscular playing on the kit threatened to drown out the piano, Taylor seemed to enjoy the fire that akLaff lit under him throughout this powerhouse high-octane set of music. For sheer bombast, decibel level and visceral appeal, The Bad Plus can't touch this. Though akLaff does bring the energy and slamming authority of an explosive fusion drummer to bear on Cecil's music (think Billy Cobham, Alphonse Mouzon or Tony Williams with Lifetime), he also is a great listener with a remarkable capacity to suit the surroundings. Throughout this volatile set he shaped and enhanced the proceedings with his skillful use of dynamics and an intuitive sense of orchestrating from behind the kit. At one point, he switched to playing strictly cymbals to allow Grimes' brilliant pizzicato playing to cut through in the mix. At other times, in the midst of particularly rhapsodic passages by Cecil, Pheeroan would underscore the music with sparse mallet work or by playing the drum shells and rims or using sticks on his djembe drum. A sensitive colorist, he leaves holes in the music for gems to shine through. And more so than other drummers who have worked with Cecil Taylor over the past 40 years, akLaff brings the funk. Rather than being busy on top, his flurries come from the bass drum and work their way up. And he deals more forcefully and effectively with the tom toms than most other Cecil drummers, putting some real meat in the music. A player of almost super human intensity, he's an athlete on the drums who also dances behind his kit. And Cecil's signature two-fisted clusters and ferocious forearm smashes to the keys don't sound quite so jarring with this kind of bombast underneath it. akLaff makes Cecil's turbulent music groove. I mean, when was the last time you saw heads bobbing in unison at a Cecil concert? "Aha" is an exclamation one makes. It's the sound of discovery. It's also an apt name for this triumvirate of creative spirits and courageous explorers. Bill Milkowski

Forebearers Row

Max Roach Day at Wesleyan