Pheeroan akLaff is a drummer at the heart of American creative and avant-garde jazz, known for his elastic, deeply musical playing behind adventurous composers. Born Paul Maddox in 1955 in Detroit, he made his recording debut with saxophonist Bill Barron in 1975 and became a core member of Wadada Leo Smith's New Dalta Ahkri from 1977 to 1979. Over the following decades he recorded and toured with a wide circle of leading figures including Oliver Lake, Andrew Hill, Cecil Taylor, Henry Threadgill, Anthony Davis, Sonny Sharrock, and Reggie Workman. In 2009 he renewed his longtime partnership with Wadada Leo Smith, contributing to Smith's Ten Freedom Summers, a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music. akLaff is also a bandleader and educator, releasing recordings under his own name and teaching on the music faculty at Wesleyan University.
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