Born in Detroit on January 27, 1955, Pheeroan akLaff grew up listening to recordings by such talents as Thelonious Monk, the Clifford Brown / Max Roach quintet, and the Modern Jazz Quartet. He studied speech and drama at Eastern Michigan University, then spent several months studying and performing with drummers and dancers in Cote D'Ivoire West Africa. Eventually he settled in New York, where his technical facility was finely tuned and his musical taste quickly won him numerous admirers - particularly among the city's more adventuresome players and composers.

Audiences around the world have marveled firsthand at Pheeroan's exciting percussion work, thanks to a number of overseas tours - with his own ensembles and those of his peers. His newest works on CD include Global Mantras on the Modern Masters label and Brooklyn Waters, a collaboration with pianist Michael Cain on Telepathy records.

Throughout the Eighties and Nineties, Pheeroan has performed and recorded with many of today's leading musical lights: Geri Allen, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Davis, Andrew Hill, Oliver Lake, David Murray, Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor, Henry Threadgill, Mal Waldron, Yosuke Yamashita and a host of others

Cultural Embassary
Pheeroan has been a headliner at festivals, concerts and clubs throughout North America, as well at such major overseas events as the Sju Festival in the Netherlands, the Willisau Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the Moers Festival and the Nurnberg East-West Festival, in Germany, and the Montsalvat Festival in Australia.

He has performed in Togo, Cote D'Ivoire, Liberia, Swaziland and Malawi, in 1982 with Oliver Lake's Jump Up band - and in India, Syria, Jordan, Sudan, Egypt and Morocco in 1985 with Jay Hoggard group, both under U.S. Information Agency sponsorship. Pheeroan accompanied the Marie Rose Guiraud Dance Company at performances in four Ivorian cities in 1981 - and was a member of the Henry Threadgill ensemble featured at India's Jazz Yatra festival in 1984. Since 1989 Pheeroan has performed annually in Japan and in New York with the Yosuke Yamashita New York Trio which includes the renowned bassist Cecil McBee. This group has featured guest artist of various disciplines and have recorded numerous original works Mr. Yamashita, a national treasure awarded artist, is known for his renegade piano style, and humorous literature.

Theatrical Work
In mid-1996, Pheeroan presented portions of Frederick Douglass Chronicles, his work-in-progress, at the Carver Cultural Center in San Antonio. He has performed with poet Amiri Baraka in the Blue Ark ensemble and with Bass vocalist Kevin Maynor. He handled demanding percussion work during the premiere performance of Anthony Davis' widely acclaimed opera "The Life and Times of Malcolm X." at New York City Opera. He worked with the playwrite Oyamo Charles Gordon at the Manhattan Theater Company and the Yale Repertory Theater performing "The Ressurecton Of Lady Lester" and in 1976 he worked writers Thulani Davis, Jesica Hagedorn and Ntozake Shange and director Reggie Life at the New York Shakespeare Festival.

Educational Outreach
Sharing his musical skills and sensitivity with other players - and with young people - has long been important to Pheeroan. For example, he took part in History of Jazz courses offered by Brooklyn's Youth Development Council during the Eighties. He taught master classes at the New School's jazz program in 1991-92. Since 1993, he's been involved with students of drumming and African-American music at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. In the summer of 2001 he directed the Park Art program for Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut.

He has collabrated with professors Dr. Julian Thayer; Psycophisiology/Music, Rob Fisher; Engineering/Scuplture, and Scott Robinson; Music in multi-media presentations, with fellow Wesleyan professor of Dance; Mickey Davidson in creative and historical works and with Rev. Dr. Dwight D. Andrews in music and theater productions.

Pheeroan has been profiled by publications in the United States, Canada, Germany, Finland, India, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Japan and Australia. He's also been the subject of feature articles in Musician, and Modern Drummer and Coda magazines.

He was a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts award in the year 2000 for music composition.