Former prison guard Eric Kamau Gravatt, 60, retired as a lieutenant with the Minnesota Department of Corrections in 2001 — only to end up three years later back at his pre-prison job as drummer for Philly-born jazz piano master McCoy Tyner.
"My career started with a telephone call. McCoy called me to play," Gravatt said. "My career stopped just as easily when the telephone didn't ring anymore."
Gravatt said Tyner, who is perhaps best known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet, had dropped him in 1976 when he failed to show up at a gig in New York because of a mix-up over his plane ticket.