‘Reaching for inspiration back into the music’s deepest origins’ ... Milford Graves. Photograph: PR Image Sun 14 Feb 2021 07.32 EST Last modified on Tue 16 Feb 2021 07.53 EST Of all the freedoms opened up by the free-jazz revolution of the 1960s, none was more radical or, to many, disturbing than the freeing of rhythm from fixed points of bar lines and regular time signatures. The American drummer Milford Graves, who has died aged 79, was in the forefront of that move to create momentum through surges of energy that seemed to reflect the social and political passions driving what became known simply as the new music.