Jazz Lab- Donald Byrd and Gigi Gryce "In The Laboratory"

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

One thing often leads to another when the editorial staff at JazzProfiles goes hunting through its extensive library and recording collection to prepare these features.

Inevitably, we get so caught up listening to the music of a proposed feature such that other ideas about related postings come to mind.

This is exactly what happened while preparing a general overview of Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald Second Edition of Rat Race Blues: The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce.

Out came the Gigi Gryce recordings and while listening to them I was reminded of my particular fondness for the LPs that Gigi made with The Jazz Lab, a quintet that he co-led with trumpeter Donald Byrd.

When we returned to Noal and Michael’s “Gigi Book,” here’s what we found about The Jazz Lab’s short-lived but amazingly productive existence.

“BY THE MEASURE OF RECORDING ACTIVITY, at least, Gryce's jazz career peaked in 1957. This would be his most productive period nor only as a leader, but as a sideman and writer on several recording sessions of high quality and great importance. It was at this time also that he would solidify his group conception of jazz, utilizing as a unifying element his series of recordings as co-leader of a quintet with Donald Byrd. And having entered the elite group of New York musicians capable of filling roles in a variety of settings, he was now getting sufficient work to ensure financial security. …

A very important event occurred in early 1957 when Gryce and Donald Byrd decided to join forces and co-lead the Jazz Lab ensemble. Seven years Gryce's junior, Byrd (1932-2013) relocated from his native Detroit to New York permanently in 1955, and soon thereafter was ensconced in the jazz scene, working and recording with nearly all of the hard bop stalwarts including Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, George Wallington, Art Blakey, and Horace Silver. He shared with Gryce a formal musical training, having received a Bachelor of Music degree from Wayne State University in 1954. Byrd also studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger (1963) and later became an educator, obtaining advanced degrees from Manhattan School of Music and Columbia University. At the time of his death [2013] he was teaching at Delaware State University as a distinguished artist-in-residence.

Fluent and lyrical, Byrd's style, like that of Art Farmer before him, fit beautifully with the conception of Gryce, spinning long, graceful lines in his solos. His facility at very fast tempi was notable, and in general his approach was somewhat more aggressive than that of Farmer, but not to the extent that it conflicted with or overshadowed that of Gryce. Furthermore, Byrd had an interest in writing and would contribute both originals and arrangements of standard tunes to the group's repertoire.

The name "Jazz Lab" might suggest an esoteric or academic approach to ensemble performance, but in reality the music the band offered was most accessible. It consisted of original compositions (many taken from Gryce's publishing company) and cleverly reworked standards. Blues were an important component of the repertoire. Gryce, who appeared to be the more dominant musical force of the two co-leaders, summed up the philosophy the band espoused:

The Modern Jazz Quartet will come to a club or concert and play very soft subtle music, and then Blakey will come around like thunder. We're trying to do both, and a few other things he-sides. Insofar as I can generalize, our originals and arrangements concentrate on imaginative use of dynamics and very strong rhythmic and melodic lines. We try to both give the listener something of substance that he can feel and understand and also indicate to the oriented that we're trying to work in more challenging musical forms and to expand the language in other ways.

One advantage, we hope, of the varied nature of our library, which is now over a hundred originals and arrangements, is that in the course of a set, almost any listener can become fulfilled. If he doesn't dig one, he may well dig the next because it will often be considerably different. Several people write for us in addition to Donald Byrd, myself, and others within the group. We have scores by Benny Golson, Ray Bryant, and several more.

A point I'm eager to emphasize is that the title, Jazz Lab, isn't meant to connote that we're entirely experimental in direction. We try to explore-all aspects of modern jazz—standards, originals, blues, hard swing, anything that can be filled and transmuted with jazz feeling. Even our experimentations are quite practical; they're not exercises for their own sake. They have to communicate feeling. For example, if we use devices like counterpoint, we utilize them from inside jazz. We don't go into Bach, pick up an invention or an idea for one, and then come back into jazz. It all stays within jazz in feeling and rhythmic flow and syncopation. In any of our work in form, you don't get the feeling of a classical piece. This is one of the lessons I absorbed from Charlie Parker. I believe that one of the best — and still fresh — examples of jazz counterpoint is what Charlie did on "Chasing the Bird."

We want to show how deep the language is; in addition to working with new forms, we want to go back into the language, show the different ways the older material can be formed and re-formed. We want to have everything covered. My two favorite musicians among the younger players may give a further idea of what I believe. Sonny Rollins and Benny Golson are not playing the cliches, and they play as if they have listened with feeling and respect to the older men like Herschel Evans, Chu Berry, and Coleman Hawkins. They're not just hip, flashy moderns.

In its brief existence of barely a year, the Jazz Lab quintet utilized some of the finest rhythm section accompanists available: pianists Tommy Flanagan, Wynton Kelly, Hank Jones, and the underappreciated Wade Legge (1934-1963), a great talent who passed away at the age of only 29; bassists Wendell Marshall and Paul Chambers; and drummers Art Taylor and Osie Johnson. During this period, the Jazz Lab recorded for no fewer than five different labels, at thirteen sessions, producing a total of six LPs, all of which helped to establish a high standard for ensemble performance within the hard bop genre.'

On February 4, 1957, a landmark jazz recording took place, the debut of the Donald Byrd-Gigi Gryce Jazz Lab on Columbia Records [CL998], the most prestigious label in the business. At this time it was the label of Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, and Duke Ellington. The Jazz Lab was signed just after Columbia dropped Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers upon completion of three albums, the first of which Byrd had participated in. Gryce returned to the nonet instrumentation (the working Jazz Lab quintet augmented by four additional horns) to reprise three compositions from earlier sessions. The fledgling Signal label on which Gryce had recorded in 1955 would soon be history, and Gryce was apparently hoping to capitalize on the distribution and publicity advantages now available through his association with a large, well-established record company.

To this end, "Speculation" was recorded for the third time in two years in very much the same format as the original version but with some modifications in the solo patterns. Now Byrd, Gryce, and pianist Tommy Flanagan each take an introductory chorus to begin the proceedings, but Gryce's solo following the theme is only two choruses as opposed to four in the earlier version. This is unfortunate since his playing is now more assertive and developed, although still very much in the Charlie Parker mold in this blues setting. In general, solo space on the nonet tracks is limited, probably because of Gryce's desire to include as much material as possible.

"Smoke Signal" is also performed using the same basic arrangement as on the Signal date but in a slightly shorter version wherein Gryce and Byrd split a chorus, the piano solo is omitted, and Art Taylor's drum feature is only a half chorus versus Kenny Clarke's earlier full-chorus outing. This track was not released with the original LP, Don Byrd-Gigi Gryce Jazz Lab, but appeared for the first time on a Columbia anthology entitled Jazz Omnibus (and not on CD until 2006) along with selections from many other artists associated with that label, including Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, J.J. Johnson, Erroll Garner, Miles Davis, and Art Blakey.

Gryce's fourth recording of "Nica's Tempo" borrows elements from the Oscar Pettiford chart but features a new and attractively voiced introduction. The soloists, who again take only one chorus each, are the composer (in fine form), Byrd, Flanagan, and Taylor.

The very next day the quintet recorded two tracks, again for Columbia. Gryce's arrangement of "Over the Rainbow" is typical of the jazz Lab approach to standards, fresh yet accessible. This 1939 chestnut is transformed from a ballad into a swinging medium-tempo piece in which the melody has been reformulated rhythmically and embellished harmonically to provide a very appealing and memorable frame for the improvisations. Byrd, Gryce, and Flanagan each provide two choruses, while bassist Wendell Marshall plays one.

In the same lyrical vein, a second version of "Sans Souci" was recorded, this time at a faster tempo than in 1955 and now featuring Flanagan's celeste in the introduction and coda. Gryce utilized this instrument more and more during 1957 sessions for a different orchestral color (it was probably only available at the better recording studios). The pianist lays out or "strolls" during the first of Gryce's two solo choruses, a practice commonly employed by hard bop ensembles of this period to offer some variety and tension to performances. The routine conforms to the 1955 Prestige version with Byrd and Flanagan each taking two choruses, and the same shout variation leads to Marshall's solo which continues for another chorus. The final track of the first Columbia Jazz Lab LP was recorded a few weeks later (March 13) and was yet another return to earlier material, this time "Blue Concept," in its third incarnation. Wade Legge was back on piano in the quintet. Always conscious of form and eager to avoid a haphazard jam-session approach, Gryce updated the Prestige version with shout figures behind the horn soloists and an interlude incorporating "The Hymn," made famous by Charlie Parker.

On March 13, 1957, Gryce returned to the nonet instrumentation to record the very first version of Benny Golson's touching tribute to Clifford Brown, "I Remember Clifford," arranged by the composer, as well as the waltz by Randy Weston, "Little Niles," dedicated to Weston's son. Gryce's playing on all the Columbia sessions is especially robust and consistent, and his solo on the Weston piece displays his most soulful traits. Jimmy Cleveland has a special fondness for these Columbia sessions:

“Yeah, they're great. I thought they were just out of sight. The personnel was great, you know. That's the other thing too. He made sure he got the right kind of guys to work together great and get the concept that he’s looking for.””

THE FORGOTTEN ONES - GIGI GRYCE by Gordon Jack

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“GIGI GRYCE, a shy, studious musician, barely out of his 'twenties, has been one of the herculean pillars of the modern jazz scene in New York through the 1950s. A composer and arranger, his work has been often heard and deeply felt wherever there is an audience for modern jazz; latterly through his own Jazz Lab, a unit which promises to release the small group from its ten years or more of strict allegiance to the Parker Quintet formula. It is, in the words of his contemporary Quincy Jones, "Always very melodic work, and it has a flowing quality with smoothly moving chord progressions. Also, it comes from that exceptional person, a conscientious composer with innocently fresh and unpretentious ideas."

As a soloist, too, he has been heard, lending a quiet and thoughtful style to the alto-saxophone at a time when the majority of its players are desperately struggling to invest themselves in the late Parker's robes.”

- Raymond Horricks,These Jazzmen of Our Times

Gordon Jack is the author of Fifties Jazz Talk: An Oral Retrospective and frequent contributor to Jazz periodicals such as JazzJournal. He also is extremely generous to the JazzProfiles “editorial staff” in allowing us to feature his well-researched and well-composed writings on these pages.

Alto saxophonist, composer and arranger Gigi Gryce impressed a lot of people with his compositions and his playing while he was on the Jazz scene in the 1950s before he vanished from it in 1961 under somewhat mysterious circumstances.

I’ve always considered Gigi to be right up there with Benny Golson, Horace Silver, Sonny Clark, Elmo Hope, and Tadd Dameron in his ability to construct intriguing and interesting modern Jazz compositions that are fun to listen to and fun to play on.

Gordon’s piece on Gigi first appeared in the August 2018 edition of JazzJournal and you can locate more information about the magazine by going here.

© -  Gordon Jack/JazzJournal; used with permission; copyright protected; all rights reserved.      

“In a short performing career Gigi Gryce worked with some of the most influential musicians on the dynamic New York jazz scene of the fifties including Clifford Brown, Benny Golson, Thelonious Monk and Max Roach. During that time his compositions like Minority, Social Call, and Nica’s Tempo became jazz standards. However in 1961 he mysteriously dropped out of the music scene entirely to become a teacher in the public school system in the Bronx where he was known by his Islamic name Basheer Qusim.

George General Gryce Jnr. was born in Pensacola, Florida on 28 November 1925. He came from a close and supportive family of African Methodist Episcopalians who attended services diligently. Music was important to his parents so Gigi and his siblings – four sisters and one brother - were encouraged to learn the piano. Church music was the order of the day as popular music and jazz were frowned upon. Thanks to the Works Progress Administration which was part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, Gigi began learning the clarinet when he was studying at the Booker T. Washington high school. His teacher was Raymond Sheppard who apparently had the best jazz orchestra in Pensacola. Gryce became so proficient that he won the state band competition for his clarinet solo on the William Tell Overture. When he graduated from high school he worked in the local shipyard and played with Sheppard until he was drafted in 1944. He joined the navy band at the Great Lakes Naval Training Centre which had been founded by John Philip Sousa in 1917. While in the service he had his first exposure to bebop when he bought the Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie recordings of Hot House and Salt Peanuts.

With the aid of the G.I. bill he enrolled at Boston’s Conservatory in 1947. He also studied privately with Serge Chaloff’s mother, the legendary Madame Margaret Chaloff. A partial list of her students would include Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, George Shearing, Ralph Burns, Leonard Bernstein and Chick Corea. By now a thoroughly well-schooled musician he began acquainting himself with Nicolas Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns – a book that many other jazz musicians like John Coltrane, Pete Christlieb and Bob Cooper have found to be invaluable.

While studying at the Conservatory he was living with Sam Rivers and Jaki Byard and their basement was the scene for regular jam sessions with visiting stars from New York like Charlie Parker, Clark Terry, Stan Getz and Zoot Sims. Gryce who became particularly close to Parker told writer Robert Reisner, “I knew him as a gentleman and a scholar. He was generous to an extreme”. Many other local musicians used to come along to play like Serge Chaloff, Charlie Mariano, Alan Dawson and Joe Gordon. It is possible that Dick Twardzik who was working with Chaloff at the time and was another of Madame Chaloff’s students would have occasionally been in attendance but I have found no evidence to support this.

Although singer Margie Anderson recorded Gigi Gryce’s You’ll Always Be The One I Love in 1950, it was really Stan Getz who introduced Gryce’s music to the wider jazz public. Working at Boston’s HI-Hat in 1951 opposite Gryce’s quartet the tenor-man invited Gigi to bring some of his originals to a rehearsal. Thoroughly impressed, he recorded Gryce’s Melody Express, Yvette, Wildwood and Mosquito Knees for the Roost label later that year. Gigi had also shown Stan an intriguing blues dedicated to the lady who became his wife – Eleanor. It can be heard as part of the Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid arrangement Getz recorded at Boston’s Storyville club in October 1951. Over the years he used it as a theme-song and it became better known as Stan’s Blues. In December 1952 he recorded another Gryce original (Hymn To The Orient) on a classic set of ballads for Verve.  All this material can be found on The Complete Recordings Of The Stan Getz Quintet With Jimmy Raney (Mosaic MD3-131).

Gigi left Boston and moved to Manhattan where he made his recording debut in April 1953 with a Max Roach group featuring Hank Mobley and Idrees Sulieman. Of more interest was a Howard McGhee session the following month which included two of his originals – Futurity and Shabozz. (Blue Note BLP 5024).The former is a relaxed line based on There Will Never Be Another You inspiring Gigi to probably his finest solo on the date.  Although he does not solo on his next recording with Tadd Dameron, it is significant because of the presence of Clifford Brown and Benny Golson who would have close personal relationships with Gryce over the years. He and the trumpeter had similar lifestyles which did not include drinking, smoking or taking drugs. Gigi became godfather to Clifford Brown Junior and in 1958 he was the Best Man at Benny Golson’s marriage in Washington D.C.

In 1953 Tadd Dameron took a band which included Johnny Coles, Cecil Payne, Percy Heath and Philly Joe Jones along with Gryce, Golson and Brown for a summer residency at the Paradise Club in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They backed variety acts there and also played for dancers. On one occasion Sammy Davis Jnr. who was appearing at Skinny D’Amato’s 500 Club nearby sat in on drums. (The 500 Club was where Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis started out in 1946 and it eventually became a home-from-home for Sinatra and the Rat Pack.)  Towards the end of the residency Quincy Jones arranged for Gryce, Brown and Golson to join the Lionel Hampton band that already boasted a number of young musicians like Art Farmer, Jimmy Cleveland, Buster Cooper, George Wallington, Annie Ross and Alan Dawson. Hampton (“The first rock & roll bandleader” according to Jones) would often have his musicians marching up and down the aisles at the Apollo theatre in Harlem and elsewhere playing The Saints, Flying Home or Hamp’s Boogie Woogie. That sort of showmanship did not go down too well with some of the newer band members, especially Brown, Gryce and Cleveland. Gigi appeared on Clifford’s debut as a leader just before the Hampton band left for their 1953 European tour. One of the stand-out tracks on the album is the trumpeter’s two choruses on Hymn To The Orient which is taken a little faster than Stan Getz’s version. Gigi has a sensitive half-chorus on Quincy Jones’s Brownie Eyes (Blue Note BLP 5032).

Lionel Hampton, encouraged by Gladys his formidable wife had a reputation of being less than generous with salaries but the lure of three months in Europe was enough for everyone except Benny Golson to overcome their reservations about the money. With its JATP-like atmosphere of excitement, the band proved to be hugely popular with European audiences. Standing ovations began at the first two concerts in Oslo where 2000 people attended and apparently continued for the rest of the tour. The Hamptons made it clear that nobody was allowed to record while they were in Europe without the leader and anyone found breaking this rule would be sent back to the States. Gryce, Brown and Cleveland found that European producers were desperate to record them and the musicians for their part were just as keen to supplement their band income. They tried, but Lionel and Gladys could not prevent numerous clandestine recordings taking place.

Henri Renaud produced a big band session in Paris with Gigi as the leader which included most of the Hampton band supplemented by local French musicians. The highlight was Gigi’s elaborate orchestral feature for Clifford Brown titled Brown Skins which after a slow, dramatic opening finds the trumpeter launching forth on a stunning up tempo examination of Cherokee –one of Brown’s favourite sequences (Original Jazz Classics OJCCD-359-2).

The next day, Brown recorded again with a sextet featuring Gryce, Jimmy Gourley, Henri Renaud, Pierre Michelot and Jean-Louis Viale. Gigi’s Blue Concept was introduced (later to be recorded by both Art Farmer and Donald Byrd) together with All The things You Are which has a fine improvised counter melody from Gryce behind Clifford’s theme statement. Goofin’ With Me is a relaxed theme-less jam on Indiana (Original Jazz Classics OJCCD 358-2). Hampton’s band then left for a series of concerts in Dusseldorf, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin.  On their return to Paris the Gryce-Brown sextet recorded four Gryce originals including Minority and Salute To The Bandbox which is based on I’ll Remember April (Original Jazz Classics OJCCD 358-2). Minority became Gryce’s most popular composition with over 100 recordings listed on Tom Lord’s discography by artists like Art Farmer, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans and Lee Konitz.

Hampton’s European tour which also included North African dates in Algiers and Oran was extremely successful. By the time they returned to NYC in November 1953 some of the sidemen threatened to go to the union over salary disputes. In a 1991 Jimmy Cleveland Cadence interview he said, “We got shafted with the money… (Hampton) would always do that”. For his part, the leader intended filing charges with the AFM against the musicians for recordings made in Paris using arrangements from his library without permission.

Early in 1954 Gryce and Art Farmer formed a quintet that worked quite extensively at Birdland and the Café Bohemia in NYC as well as out of town venues in Chicago, Baltimore and Boston.  The following year Gigi recorded with Oscar Pettiford in an all-star group that included Ernie Royal, Donald Byrd, Bob Brookmeyer, Jerome Richardson, Don Abney and Osie Johnson. Oscar was the musical director of the Café Bohemia in Greenwich Village and Bohemia After Dark with its distinctive modal bridge is one of the album’s highlights (Bethlehem BET 6017-2). Brookmeyer told me that Oscar’s group also made an appearance on TV.  Around this time Gigi organised his own publishing company (Melotone Music) in partnership with Benny Golson to handle their royalties.

In October 1955 he recorded four titles with Thelonious Monk proving to be perfectly at home in the pianist’s challenging environment. Accompanied by Percy Heath and Art Blakey he holds his own on Monk’s Shuffle Boil, Brake’s Sake and the fiendishly difficult Gallop’s Gallop (Savoy Records SV-0126). His Nica’s Tempo was debuted at the session and he later expanded it in a recording with Oscar Pettiford’s big band. At Oscar’s date he also wrote a feature for the amazing French horn players Julius Watkins and David Amram titled Two French Fries (Properbox 5002). Oscar’s band performed at Birdland and the Café Bohemia but eventually it disbanded due to a lack of work. Years later Jimmy Cleveland said, “One of the highlights of my life was playing with Oscar Pettiford’s band”.

Like the rest of the jazz world, Gryce had been impressed by the provocative tone colours and subtle dynamics created by the influential Miles Davis nonet and in late 1955 he recorded using an identical line-up. His charming Social Call with a lyric by Jon Hendricks was included as a feature for the husky-voiced Ernestine Anderson (Savoy Records SV-0126).

Metronome nominated Gigi Gryce, Mal Waldron and Donald Byrd as “The New Stars For 1956” which was the year Gryce started working with the Teddy Charles Tentet. The tentet performed innovative new material by writers like Mal Waldron, Gil Evans, George Russell, and Bob Brookmeyer and it made a well- received appearance at Newport that year. In 1956 he formed his Jazz lab Quintet initially with Idrees Sulieman and one of their first engagements was at The Nut Club in Greenwich Village where they appeared opposite Zoot Sims’ quartet.  Donald Byrd soon replaced Sulieman and his sparkling ideas and warm, Clifford Brown-like sound were a perfect contrast to Gigi’s delicate alto lines. In 2006 Lonehill reissued a particularly fine example of the group’s work with a CD benefiting from the presence of the immaculate Hank Jones. It includes the popular Minority which opens with an extended ostinato - a favourite device of the Clifford Brown - Max Roach quintet. Another of Gryce’s originals – Wake Up – finds him quoting extensively from Denzil Best’s Wee aka Allen’s Alley in the second chorus (LHJ 10255).

In 1958 Gigi was one of the jazz musicians seen in the iconic Art Kane picture in Esquire magazine. For the next couple of years he continued playing and arranging on sessions with Betty Carter, Benny Golson, Jimmy Cleveland, Curtis Fuller and Randy Weston. However, something happened around 1960 because to the surprise of many in the jazz community, Gigi Gryce stopped playing entirely and dropped out of the public eye. There has been speculation that he was having business difficulties with his publishing company. Public taste of course was changing and clubs were closing. He may also have been unsympathetic to the freedoms being explored by the new generation of jazz musicians.  

From 1963 and for the next 20 years he worked as a teacher in the public school system in Brooklyn and the Bronx. He had become a Muslim in the fifties and he used his Islamic name (Basheer Qusim) when teaching. The Community Elementary School No.53 was later renamed the Basheer Qusim/Gigi Gryce School in recognition of his long service. During this period, there was a surprising addendum to his musical career because his Jazz Dance Suite was featured in the 1972 documentary “Lenny Bruce Without Tears”.

George Gigi Gryce Jnr. died on March 14th. 1983 in his home town of Pensacola, Florida.  Sadly, nobody from the jazz world attended his funeral.”

RECOMMENDED READING

Noal Cohen & Michael Fitzgerald – Rat Race Blues. The Musical Life Of Gigi Gryce. Berkeley Hills Books.

Nick Catalano -- Clifford Brown. The Life And Art Of The Legendary Jazz Trumpeter. Oxford University Press.

Raymond Horricks – These Jazzmen Of Our Time. Victor Gollancz.

Rat Race Blues: The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce - 2nd Ed.

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“In the few short years Gigi Gryce lived in New York, it seemed just about every important jazz musician knew him. This was inevitable because of his ability as an alto saxophonist and an extremely creative writer. Many times, as the new boy in town, I was completely thrilled when visiting his apartment and Coleman Hawkins or Art Blakey or Max Roach or Howard McGhee or Hank Jones or others would call. I wanted to be in on the conversation so badly that the only thing I could think of to say was, "Tell him I said hello!" Of course, only a few actually knew who I was at the time. Gigi, knowing this, indulged me nevertheless.

He came to New York with bundles of music under his arms and even more in his mind. He was an organizer of the highest magnitude and quickly gained a reputation for it. When people—musicians, club owners, entrepreneurs—wanted quality jazz underscored with quality business, they often included Gigi in their calls. Although a graduate of the Boston Conservatory, he chose not to teach school in those early days because of devoting full time to writing and playing and becoming a well-informed business man in the marketplace. In fact, he and I later became partners in two publishing companies. Though he did not formally teach in any university then, he was always teaching. He was didactic by nature and could not envision life without intuitively teaching at every opportunity. I do not infer, however, that he was aggressive or arrogant in this. In a quite natural way, he lovingly and mercifully shared all the information he had stored in his capacious mind.”...

After perusing the contents of Rat Race Blues: The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce, the reader will never ever find Gigi Gryce relegated to the two-dimensional medium of vinyl discs and CDs only, but he will become as real as anyone we've ever known in life. Let's be glad that there was a musician like Gigi Gryce, and let's be glad that there were people like Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald who had enough conviction and vision to recall Gigi's plethoric life with the aid of their minds, hearts, and pens. Noal, Michael— I salute you.”

- Benny Golson, tenor saxophonist, composer-arranger bandleader

Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald are a couple of brave guys.

Not only have these courageous explorers signed on to navigate the dangerously obscure currents of the “Sea of Jazz History,” but in seeking to uncover the hidden island that is the biographical life of one “Gigi Gryce,” they have also volunteer to compile a discography of his recordings. Each a monumental task in-and-of-itself!

All metaphorical kidding aside, given the woeful and largely anecdotal information that exists about most major Jazz figures, not only have Noal and Michael taken on the huge task of writing a Jazz biography about a musician who was not particularly well-known outside of select Jazz circles, they have somehow managed to compile an excellent discography of his recordings, many of which were made for record companies who kept poor records at best, if they kept any at all!

The musician is question is alto saxophonist and bandleader Gigi Gryce 1925-1983 and the book is entitled Rat Race Blues: The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce [2nd edition.

Noal and Michael have assumed distribution responsibility for the second and subsequent editions of the book and you can locate more about them as well as order information by visiting this site.

What Noal and Michael set out to do and how they set out to do it are fully explained in the following excerpts from the book’s preface.

“THIS book is the result of nearly a decade of serious research and half a century of casual interest. It slowly came together as we became aware of Gigi Gryce's efforts, efforts scattered across many classic albums. Although his career was brief, lasting only a decade, he seemed to be associated with the greatest, most creative artists in jazz and his writing and playing were unique and readily identifiable.

Never before has there been a thorough and exhaustive look at the entire oeuvre of Gigi Gryce, which numbered over a hundred recording sessions, most of them issued commercially. During his lifetime he was the subject of a chapter in two books (Raymond Horricks's These Jazzmen of Our Time and Robert Reisner's The Jazz Titans), and since his death he has only figured as an auxiliary to the career of Clifford Brown and as one-of-many in the school of lyrical hard bop composers. Almost no writing existed that evaluated his career, his many compositions, and his place in the history of jazz. What did exist perhaps covered one aspect but ignored several others. Only when examined in full could the range of his musical development be seen and properly assessed.

Even before beginning work on this project it was apparent that there were contradictions and errors in the biographical details and in credits and titles of compositions. We worked to verify or disprove these definitively by using multiple sources. In digging deeper, we learned that Gryce's birth and death dates have regularly been misreported and that no published account of his life was without some kind of misinformation.

"So, whatever happened to Gigi Gryce?" was a frequent question we heard, not only from fans but also from some of the musicians who were close to him in the 1950s. Rumors were rampant and, if truth be told, Gryce himself contributed to the confusion. While this book cannot clear up the entire mystery, it will certainly present the clearest and most accurate account of his post-jazz life available at this time. It should be noted, however, that these years are not the focus of the book, which is concerned with the composer and performer.

Any biography of a musician must necessarily deal with that artist's recorded legacy and a complete discography was begun. This is the only comprehensive discography of Gigi Gryce ever to have been attempted, although general discographers (Raben, Bruyninckx, Lord) included the vast majority of sessions to one extent or another. Items were added and corrections made up until weeks before submitting the manuscript for publication. Items that had been issued but never documented were included and, in most cases, new information was added to amend the earlier work. An international community of record collectors supplied rare recordings and information relating to foreign issues.

One of the first thoughts regarding research strategy was to interview the musicians who knew and worked with Gryce. This logical idea led to compiling a list of survivors based on the most accurate discography. Added to this list were family members and then friends, co-workers, and acquaintances. The period with which we were primarily concerned was the years 1953—1963 and in the intervening decades a number of the participants have passed away. Even as we were conducting our research and writing the text of the first edition, we learned of the deaths of several important colleagues: Art Taylor (1995), Johnny Coles (1996), Gerry Mulligan (1996), Walter Bishop, Jr. (1998), Betty Carter (1998), Jaki Byard (1999), Art Farmer (1999), Milt Jackson (1999), Melba Liston (1999), Ernie Wilkins (1999), Al Grey (2000), Milt Hinton (2000), Alan Hovhaness (2000), Jerome Richardson (2000), Stanley Turrentine (2000), JJ. Johnson (2001), John Lewis (2001), and Makanda Ken Mclntyre (2001). Three of Gryces sisters also passed away during this time: Kessel Grice Jamieson (1997), Elvis Grice Blanchard (1999), and Harriet Grice Combs (1999). Regrettably, we were unable to communicate with some of them and, of course, these missed opportunities can never be regained. Some other subjects declined to be interviewed, and some were impossible to contact (though we certainly did try). In the end, we were fortunate to record over seventy-five conversations specifically on the topic of Gigi Gryce and his music.

Each of these presented new information and interesting anecdotes. We have tried in many cases to preserve in the text the actual words of the interviews. In the tradition of earlier books like Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya, this has elements of an oral history, but here the stories of the participants share the page with retrospection, critique, and our follow-up research which attempts to support and clarify the quotes. While neither of us ever met Gryce, we hope that through the words of those who knew him, something of him may be conveyed to future readers. (The code for each quoted interview is listed in a table.)

Another avenue of research involved going through the periodicals and literature with a fine-tooth comb. Sometimes even the smallest mention would eventually lead to a major discovery, particularly when several items were used in conjunction with each other, and with the interviews and photographic contributions. The bibliography included here does not detail all of these, but covers the publications that contain significant coverage related to Gryce s work and the world in which he operated.

Although this book is not targeted for musicians only, a great deal of examination was conducted on Gryces music, involving transcriptions and study of copyright deposits at the Library of Congress. It is hoped that any musical discussion here will be accessible to all readers. We anticipate that the printed compositions preface of Gigi Gryce will finally be made available in the near future and this will certainly generate more interest among the musical community.

We are eager to share our knowledge and enthusiasm and encourage future researchers to contact us with questions or new information. This has been a labor of love and although publication here brings some sense of finality, there will continue to be discoveries that will complete the picture of Gigi Gryce as man, musician, and teacher.

Addendum for the Second Edition

As predicted, further discoveries have indeed been made in the twelve years since the first edition was published. In many cases, these have been the result of the first edition's existence. Other new information has become known as a result of new digital research tools.

We have been able to pinpoint the timing of Gryce's mysterious trip to Paris in 1952, and we have gained access to materials that were previously unavailable to us, including unissued recordings as well as the full score of a large scale classical work that Gryce composed during his conservatory studies. Finally, having been able, at last, to identify and interview students in Gryce's classes during his twenty years as a teacher in New York City (as Basheer Qusim, the name he used during this period) has provided further insight into his methods as an educator. These discoveries and others now provide an even more complete study of this fascinating but often inscrutable individual.

The demand for Gryce's music continues to grow, and happily, it has become available. For the music student and professional, a number of Gryce's compositions have been published in lead sheet form thanks to the efforts of Don Sickler at Jazzleadsheets.

In sadness we must note that since publication of the first edition, we lost additional colleagues and family members, many of whom had provided valuable information: Valerie Grice Claiborne (2002), Henri Renaud (2002), Idrees Sulieman (2002), Mal Waldron (2002), Louis Victor Mialy (2003), Edwin Swanston (2003), Rev. Jerome A. Greene (2004), Walter Perkins (2004), Clifford Solomon (2004), Mort Fega (2005), Raymond Horricks (2005), Lucky Thompson (2005), Bruce Wright (2005), Don Butterfield (2006), Clifford Gunn (2006), Jack Lazare (2006), Bob Weinstock (2006), Art Davis (2007), Esmond Edwards (2007), Norman Macklin (2007), Cecil Payne (2007), Max Roach (2007), Harold Andrews (2008), Jimmy Cleveland (2008), Daniel Pinkham (2008), Dick Katz (2009), Mat Mathews (2009), Danny Bank (2010), Hank Jones (2010), Benny Powell (2010), Fred Baker (2011), Sam Rivers (2011), Teddy Charles (2012), Eleanor Gryce (2012), Hal McKusick (2012), Donald Byrd (2013), Donald Shirley (2013), Ed Shaughnessy (2013), Ben Tucker (2013), and Horace Silver (2014).

Lastly, we have made a significant decision regarding the revised and expanded discography and appendixes. These will not be found herein but rather online at https.www.gigigrycebook.com Our reasons for doing this stem from the following considerations:

1. The files can be updated regularly as new information and corrections are discovered or reported to us.

2. Online publication allows the incorporation of more tabulated information in an easily viewable format that is impractical with a print version. In this regard, it should be noted that the discography has now been compiled using Steve Albin's BRIAN database application, a major breakthrough in the storage and display of discographical information (http://www.jazzdiscography.com).

So while this new approach may seem an inconvenience at first, we are confident that the reader will ultimately appreciate the advantages online publication of these sections offers in the digital age.

Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald September 2014”

The following video tribute to Gigi Gryce offers a sampling of his arranging skills from his Jazz Lab association with trumpeter Donald Byrd. The tune is Horace Silver’s Speculation.