Drummer Gerald Cleaver was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and is a product of the rich music tradition found there and also in his home. Inspired by his father, John Cleaver, also a drummer, he began playing the drums at an early age. He also played violin in elementary school and switched to trumpet during junior high and high school. While in his teens, he gained early working experience with Detroit jazz masters Ali Muhammad Jackson, Lamont Hamilton, Earl Van Riper, and Pancho Hagood, the latter three of which may be heard, along with Gerald on, A Night of Song, a compilation of live performances from the 1982 Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival.

While attending the University of Michigan, as a music education major, Gerald was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Study Grant, to study with drummer Victor Lewis. He graduated in 1992 and began teaching in Detroit. Around this time he also began working with A. Spencer Barefield, Marcus Belgrave, Donald Walden, Wendell Harrison and with visiting musicians Eddie Harris, Cecil Bridgewater, Dennis Rowland, Howard Johnson, Diana Krall, and Don Byron, among others. In 1995 he accepted an appointment as Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Michigan, and in 1998 also joined the jazz faculty at Michigan State University. Gerald moved to New York in 1999.

Gerald has toured in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia with a wide variety of artists: Franck Amsallem, Henry Threadgills Very Very Circus, Rodney Whitaker, Kevin Mahogany, Charles Gayle, Jacky Terrasson, Roscoe Mitchell, Joe Morris, Detroit Jazz All-Stars, featuring Kenny Burrell, Hank Jones and Frank Foster, Bruce Barth, Steve Wilson, Muhal Richard Abrams, Craig Taborn, Marty Ehrlichs Travelers Tales, David Berkman, Matt Shipp, and Mark Helias Open-Loose. In addition, he has performed with Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Tim Berne and Craig Taborn, Ray Bryant, Ellery Eskelin and Andrea Parkins, Bob James, John Lindberg, Mark Turner, Ralph Alessi and Reggie Workman and Marilyn Crispell.

Most recently, Gerald has formed Veil of Names, which features Andrew Bishop (clarinet & saxes); Mat Maneri (viola); Craig Taborn (keyboards); Ben Monder (guitar); and Reid Anderson (electric & acoustic bass), and has recorded his first works as a leader, Adjust, Gerald Cleaver's Detroit, and Be It As I See It, for the Fresh Sound New Talent label.