Bio

History—

Born in Baltimore, bred in Los Angeles, John Allen Graves composes music for film, concert halls, classrooms and practice rooms. John completed the Masters in Music Composition program at California State University Long Beach in Spring 2022, with a Distinguished Achievement in Creative Activity Award. His recital included “Our Common Purpose,” a piece for string quintet (standard quartet plus double bass), “While the While,” a reflection on time for solo piano, as well as “An Air of Relief,” a song cycle for soprano and septet.

American Circumcision (2018), the documentary by filmmaker Brendon Marotta is John's first feature length score.

John began his musical development singing in a local children’s choir. He started piano at 8, switching to electric bass at age 13 and took up double bass at 17, studying at the Colburn School. A composition major, and student of Joel Feigin, John received his Bachelor of Music from UC Santa Barbara, where he also studied classical bass with Nico Abondolo. He then went on to study North Indian classical music at the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music for a summer.

Upon graduating, John moved back to his native Los Angeles where he delved more deeply into jazz improvisation with Harold Land, Billy Higgins, Roberto Miranda and Kenny Burrell, and film scoring, both through the UCLA extension program. John counts the hard-earned "A" in Mr. Land's jazz combo class among his most prize possessions.

Since leaving academia, John has worked as a composer, bassist and producer in such diverse areas as classical, jazz, pop, rock, folk, Arabic, gospel, Klezmer, hip-hop, Western swing, film music and reggae. John has composed for Emmy-winning Discovery Channel documentaries, student films and reality TV. As bassist for the stage and dance bands on Holland America’s Ryndam cruise ship during the summer of 2001, John performed every day in a variety of styles, supporting the cast in Broadway style productions as well as guest artists ranging from classical pianists to comedians. Ian Hattwick’s Handwritten, from 2006 is a excellent example of John’s work as an interpreter of another composer’s work. A 2012 concert at the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman was a highlight of his work with Mesto. In 2013 he was the bassist for “When You’re In Love, The Whole World is Jewish,” directed by Jason Alexander.

He currently freelances in both jazz combos and symphony orchestras. John composes trailer music for audiomachine, a music library. His compositions have been featured in the promotional campaigns for “Rango,” the 2010 Winter Olympics, “Argo,” “Rio,” “Jane Eyre,” “Hyde Park on Hudson,” “Philomena,” “The King’s Speech,” and “Downton Abbey.”