| Summary: | Composer and trombonist Dick Griffin or James Richard Griffin was born on January 28, 1940 in Fannin, Mississippi. As a child, he studied piano but soon switched to trombone. He graduated from Jackson State University in 1963, and later earned his M.S. degree in music education and trombone from Indiana University. In the mid-1960s, Griffin performed with the Sun Ra Arkestra and began a long-time collaboration with saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Strata-East Records. His first album with Kirk, The Inflated Tear, came out in 1968. Throughout his career, Griffin worked with celebrated musicians including Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson. Griffin released his first album as a band leader, The Eighth Wonder, in 1974, followed by Now is the Time in 1979, A Dream for Rahsaan in 1985. In addition to playing music, Griffin served as a professor of music at Wesleyan University and SUNY-Old Westbury.
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