Brooklyn-based, Detroit-bred drummer/composer Gerald Cleaver is among the most agile first-call musicians on the jazz scene. Known in the Motor City as both a musician and an educator from the mid-1980s onward, his national emergence at the end of 1990s was precipitated by his participation in recordings led by Rodney Whitaker, Roscoe Mitchell, Bill McHenry, and Joe Morris. These efforts brought his powerful, detailed drumming to international attention. As a sideman, he has worked with everyone from Craig Taborn and Miroslav Vitous to Matthew Shipp and William Parker. His own dates, including Adjust (2001), Gerald Cleaver's Detroit (2007), Be It as I See It (2009), and Live at Firehouse 12 (2019), reveal a drummer whose discipline is equanimous with his appetite for taking risks. Likewise, Cleaver has also explored experimental electronic music with Signs (2020) and Griots (2021).