At age 21, Eric Kamau Gravatt was McCoy Tyner's drummer, one of the most coveted jobs a jazz musician could hope to get. After 20 years of working as a prison guard, he is back behind the kit — again as the pianist's drummer.

"My career started with a telephone call. McCoy called me to play," Gravatt, now 60, said. "My career stopped just as easily when the telephone didn't ring anymore."

While not quite a household name, Gravatt has played with Weather Report, Freddie Hubbard, Albert Ayler, Charles Mingus, Paquito D'Rivera, Sonny Fortune, Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean — a list that reads like a who's who of jazz greats.