Gigi Gryce
Encyclopedia
Gigi Gryce was an American saxophonist, flautist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, educator, and big band
bandleader
.
His performing career was relatively short and, in comparison to other musicians of his generation, Gryce's work is little known. However, several of his compositions have been covered extensively ("Minority," "Social Call," "Nica's Tempo") and have become minor jazz standard
s. Gryce's compositional bent includes harmonic choices similar to those of Benny Golson
, Tadd Dameron
and Horace Silver
in the contemporaneous period. Gryce's playing, arranging, composing is most associated with the classic hard bop
era (roughly 1953-1965).
He retired from music in the early 1960s, due primarily to frustration with the financial side of his career.
and Daniel Pinkham
at the Boston Conservatory
following World War II (he entered September 15, 1947 and obtained a Bachelor of Music degree on June 6, 1952). While there, he may have composed a number of symphonic compositions and chamber works. Gryce won a Fulbright scholarship and continued his studies in Paris with Nadia Boulanger
and Arthur Honegger
. He also studied composition with the Boston music teacher Madame Margaret Chaloff, the mother of the baritone saxophonist
Serge Chaloff
.
During the 1950s he achieved some renown for his innovative bebop
playing, his primary instrument being the alto saxophone. Among the musicians with whom Gryce performed were Thelonious Monk
, Tadd Dameron
, Lionel Hampton
, Donald Byrd
, Clifford Brown
, Art Farmer
, Howard McGhee
, Lee Morgan
, Max Roach
, Oscar Pettiford
, Teddy Charles
, and Benny Golson
. In 1955, Gryce formed the Jazz Lab Quintet, which included trumpeter Donald Byrd.
In the mid-1950s he converted to Islam
and adopted the name Basheer Qusim. By the early 1960s he stopped using the name Gigi Gryce and, partly due to personal problems that took their toll on his financial and emotional state, withdrew from performing. During this last period of his life he taught at a series of public schools in Long Island
and New York City
, and the CES (Community Elementary School) 53 on 168th Street in Bronx, New York
, the last school at which Qusim taught, was renamed the Basheer Qusim School in his honor.
With Betty Carter
With Thelonious Monk
With Lee Morgan
With Mal Waldron
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
.
His performing career was relatively short and, in comparison to other musicians of his generation, Gryce's work is little known. However, several of his compositions have been covered extensively ("Minority," "Social Call," "Nica's Tempo") and have become minor jazz standard
Jazz standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...
s. Gryce's compositional bent includes harmonic choices similar to those of Benny Golson
Benny Golson
Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger.-Biography:While in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and...
, Tadd Dameron
Tadd Dameron
Tadley Ewing Peake "Tadd" Dameron was an American jazz composer, arranger and pianist. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon called Dameron the "romanticist" of the bop movement, while reviewer Scott Yanow writes that Dameron was the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era".-Biography:Born in Cleveland,...
and Horace Silver
Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
in the contemporaneous period. Gryce's playing, arranging, composing is most associated with the classic hard bop
Hard bop
Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...
era (roughly 1953-1965).
He retired from music in the early 1960s, due primarily to frustration with the financial side of his career.
Biography
Although primarily a jazz musician, Gryce studied classical composition with Alan HovhanessAlan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer.His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation...
and Daniel Pinkham
Daniel Pinkham
Daniel Rogers Pinkham, Jr. was an American composer, organist, and harpsichordist. Pinkham was one of America's most active composers during his lifetime...
at the Boston Conservatory
Boston Conservatory
The Boston Conservatory is a performing arts conservatory located in the Fenway-Kenmore region of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in music, dance and musical theater...
following World War II (he entered September 15, 1947 and obtained a Bachelor of Music degree on June 6, 1952). While there, he may have composed a number of symphonic compositions and chamber works. Gryce won a Fulbright scholarship and continued his studies in Paris with Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
and Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive.-Biography:Born...
. He also studied composition with the Boston music teacher Madame Margaret Chaloff, the mother of the baritone saxophonist
Baritone saxophone
The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
Serge Chaloff
Serge Chaloff
Serge Chaloff was an American jazz baritone saxophonist.The son of noted Boston piano teachers, Margaret and Julius Chaloff, he was among the few major jazz performers on his instrument. Until Chaloff the only prominent baritone player in jazz was Harry Carney of the Duke Ellington Orchestra...
.
During the 1950s he achieved some renown for his innovative bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
playing, his primary instrument being the alto saxophone. Among the musicians with whom Gryce performed were Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
, Tadd Dameron
Tadd Dameron
Tadley Ewing Peake "Tadd" Dameron was an American jazz composer, arranger and pianist. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon called Dameron the "romanticist" of the bop movement, while reviewer Scott Yanow writes that Dameron was the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era".-Biography:Born in Cleveland,...
, Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
, Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...
, Art Farmer
Art Farmer
Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet/flugelhorn combination designed for him by David Monette. His identical twin brother, Addison Farmer Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer (August 21, 1928, Council Bluffs, Iowa –...
, Howard McGhee
Howard McGhee
Howard McGhee was one of the very first bebop jazz trumpeters, together with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. He was known for lightning-fast fingers and very high notes...
, Lee Morgan
Lee Morgan
Edward Lee Morgan was an American hard bop trumpeter.-Biography:...
, Max Roach
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
, Oscar Pettiford
Oscar Pettiford
Oscar Pettiford was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer known particularly for his pioneering work in bebop.-Biography:...
, Teddy Charles
Teddy Charles
Teddy Charles is an American jazz pianist, drummer and vibraphone musician. Born Theodore Charles Cohen in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, he began his musical career studying at Juilliard School of Music as a percussionist...
, and Benny Golson
Benny Golson
Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger.-Biography:While in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and...
. In 1955, Gryce formed the Jazz Lab Quintet, which included trumpeter Donald Byrd.
In the mid-1950s he converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and adopted the name Basheer Qusim. By the early 1960s he stopped using the name Gigi Gryce and, partly due to personal problems that took their toll on his financial and emotional state, withdrew from performing. During this last period of his life he taught at a series of public schools in Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and the CES (Community Elementary School) 53 on 168th Street in Bronx, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, the last school at which Qusim taught, was renamed the Basheer Qusim School in his honor.
As leader
- 1954 When Farmer Met Gryce (Prestige) with Art FarmerArt FarmerArthur Stewart "Art" Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet/flugelhorn combination designed for him by David Monette. His identical twin brother, Addison Farmer Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer (August 21, 1928, Council Bluffs, Iowa –...
- 1955 Do It Yourself Jazz (Savoy) with Duke JordanDuke JordanIrving Sidney "Duke" Jordan was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:An imaginative and gifted pianist, Jordan was a regular member of Charlie Parker's so-called "classic quintet" , featuring Miles Davis...
, Oscar PettifordOscar PettifordOscar Pettiford was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer known particularly for his pioneering work in bebop.-Biography:...
, Kenny ClarkeKenny ClarkeKenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming... - 1955 Nica's TempoNica's TempoNica's Tempo is an album by Gigi Gryce recorded in 1955. The title track is a reference to Nica de Koenigswarter aka "The Bebop Baroness" or "The Jazz Baroness," a patron of jazz greats such as Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker.-Track listing:#"Speculation" – 4:03 #"In a...
(Savoy RecordsSavoy RecordsSavoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part in popularizing bebop.Savoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part...
) - 1957 Jazz Labaratory Series 1+2 (Savoy Records)
- 1957 Jazz Lab (Columbia)
- 1957 Gigi Gryce and The Jazz Lab Quintet (Prestige)
- 1957 At NewportAt Newport (Cecil Taylor & Gigi Gryce album)At Newport is a live album by the Gigi Gryce-Donald Byrd Jazz Laboratory and the Cecil Taylor Quartet recorded for the Verve label at the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1957. The original LP album featured one side of performances by Taylor with Buell Neidlinger, Denis Charles and Steve Lacy and the...
(Verve) One side of LP - 1957 Modern Jazz Perspective (Columbia)
- 1958 Gigi Gryce (MetroJazz RecordsMetroJazz Records-Discography:...
) - 1960 Sayin´ Something (Prestige)
- 1960 The Hap´nin´s (Prestige)
- 1960 The Rat Race Blues (Prestige)
- 1960 Reminiscin (Mercury)
- 2011 Doing' The Gigi - previously unissued tracks 1957-1961 (Uptown Records UPCD 27.64)
As sideman
With Clifford BrownClifford Brown
Clifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...
- Memorial AlbumMemorial AlbumMemorial Album is an album by American jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown composed of tracks recorded at two sessions in 1953 and originally released on the Blue Note label in 1956...
(Blue Note, 1953)
With Betty Carter
Betty Carter
Betty Carter was an American jazz singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style...
- Out ThereOut There (Betty Carter album)Out There is a critically acclaimed avante-garde bop album by Betty Carter, released in February 1958. Ron Wynn of Allmusic called the album "a dynamic set."...
(1958) - I Can't Help ItI Can't Help It (album)I Can't Help It is a 1992 Betty Carter compilation album. It contains all the tracks from her albums Out There with Betty Carter and The Modern Sound of Betty Carter...
(1982)
With Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
- Monk's MusicMonk's MusicMonk's Music is a 1957 album by Thelonious Monk's jazz septet. It was recorded in New York on June 26, 1957. The first song "Abide With Me"—a hymn by W. H. Monk—is an austere rendition played only by the septet's horn section. The song "Ruby, My Dear" is performed only by Monk, Coleman Hawkins,...
(1957) - Thelonious Monk with John ColtraneThelonious Monk with John ColtraneThelonious Monk with John Coltrane is a 1957 album by Thelonious Monk originally recorded for Riverside Records. It was recorded while Monk was engaged in a six-month stay at New York's legendary Five Spot in 1957 with his quartet of the time, which included Coltrane...
(1957)
With Lee Morgan
Lee Morgan
Edward Lee Morgan was an American hard bop trumpeter.-Biography:...
- Lee Morgan Vol. 3Lee Morgan Vol. 3Lee Morgan Vol. 3 is the third album by jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan released on the Blue Note. It was recorded on March 24, 1957 and features performances by Morgan, Gigi Gryce, Benny Golson, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Charlie Persip...
(1957)
With Mal Waldron
Mal Waldron
Malcolm Earl Waldron was an American jazz and world music pianist and composer, born in New York City.Like his contemporaries, Waldron's roots lie chiefly in the hard bop and post-bop genres of the New York club scene of the 1950s; but with time, he gravitated more towards free jazz and composition...
- Mal-1Mal-1Mal-1 is the debut album by American jazz pianist Mal Waldron recorded in 1956 and released on the Prestige label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Jim Todd awarded the album 4 stars stating "Mal Waldron's recording debut as a leader presents the pianist with his many gifts already well...
(Prestige, 1956)
External links
- Cohen, Noal, and Michael Fitzgerald (2002). Rat Race Blues: The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce. Foreword by Benny Golson. Berkeley, California: Berkeley Hills Books.
- "Gigi Gryce" by David Griffith, from All About Jazz website
- Gigi Gryce site
- List of CDs featuring appearances by Gigi Gryce