James Willis Graves

When Bau Graves sauntered onto the stage before a performance, his enthusiasm was intoxicating. Whether a soukous band from the Republic of Congo, the Kronos Quartet from California, The Five Blind Boys from Alabama–or a massive mandolin ensemble from Maine, Bau's enthusiasm, his pure delight, let audiences know that they were in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.

With great sadness we share the news that James "Bau" Graves passed away on September 24, 2025, in Harpswell, Maine, from heart disease. He was 73. He lived an incredibly vibrant, creative, and musical life, full of love and worldwide adventure and left for his next journey, peacefully and painlessly, surrounded by his loved ones-just as he wanted.

Bau moved to Maine and opened Welcome Home Music in downtown Brunswick in 1976, selling instruments and offering a gathering space for other professional and aspiring musicians. Simultaneously he was presenting small concerts and, as the western world was shifting from disco to late punk, he and his friends were organizing bands such as The Blue Sky Serenaders, The Neverly Brothers, and The Sex Howitzers–a thirty-six-member mandolin ensemble (renamed Howitzers in deference to more genteel tastes).

In 1987, as the new artistic director of The Maine Festival, Bau and the festival's director, his wife Phyllis O'Neil, expanded the event from a showcase for Maine artists to a nationally recognized celebration presenting artists from across America and the world at large. Concurrently, the couple created the multi-venue New Year's Portland and, in quick succession, Maine Arts, Inc., ultimately creating the Center for Cultural Exchange (CCE) at Portland's Longfellow Square.

Along the way Bau and Phyllis championed traditional and experimental performers, commissioning performances that bridged cultures and disciplines. Graves offered a vision of the performing arts, which intentionally recognized and blurred boundaries, embracing the brilliance of various musical genres from Old-Timey String Bands to Afro-Futurism. As the couple enlarged their scope and commitment to cultural democracy, Portland's demographics also shifted to reflect the surge of immigrants from Asia, Africa, Central and South America. In response, Bau created the House Island Project to give new communities a seat at the table that reflected their home culture.

In total, when Graves and O'Neill left Portland, Bau had personally hired dozens of bands from the African continent, another dozen from Louisiana's Cajun Zydeco community, fiddlers from around the globe, Mongolian throat singers, countless American blues singers, tap dancers, monologists, world-renowned jazz performers, hundreds of Maine artists, and a juggler among others. From solo accordion performers to Ray Charles and his band, Graves booked the unknown and the hugely popular, equally embracing each of them.

Amazingly, thousands of audience members in Maine took that journey with Bau. As news of Bau's death spread in the past week, many recalled, in minute detail, concerts they'd attended decades ago.

Bau held a Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology from Tufts University, published essays concerning cultural issues in both the academic and popular press, and appeared on and/or produced numerous recordings. Notably his book about the arts and community, "Cultural Democracy", was published in 2005 by the University of Illinois Press, the essay "Why Public Culture Fails at Diversity" appeared in the Handbook of Community Music in 2016 from Oxford University Press, and "Bau's 101 Arrangements for Mandolins" in 2024.

Bau was a musician first, a fan a close second, and a presenter third. He retired and returned to Maine seven years ago, after many years as Executive Director of the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, the largest community school of the arts in the nation. And always the biggest love in his life was his family.

This generous, joyous, singular man is survived by his wife Phyllis, daughter Hannah Kailer and her children, son Guthrie Graves, and siblings Adrienne Southgate and John Graves.

Memories and condolences may be shared on his tribute wall.