Henry Gray (musician)
Encyclopedia
Henry Gray is an African-American blues
piano
player and singer
. He has been playing for more than seven decades, and has played with a multitude of artists including Robert Lockwood, Jr., Billy Boy Arnold
, Morris Pejoe, the Rolling Stones
, Muddy Waters
and Howlin' Wolf
among many others. He has more than 58 albums to his credit, including recordings for the legendary Chess Records
label. He is credited as helping to create the distinctive sound of the Chicago
blues piano
.
, where he would spend his childhood years. Gray began studying piano at the age of eight with a neighborhood woman, Mrs. White. Gray also credits the radio and music records in his home for inspiring his love for music at a young age. A few years later, Gray began playing piano and organ at his local Baptist church, and his family eventually got a piano for the house. While blues playing was not encouraged within his family's home, Henry did play blues at Mrs. White's house, and by the time he was 16 he was playing blues music at a club in Alsen. His father initially disapproved of Gray's "club gig" but, after seeing how much money he was making, Gray's father became supportive. In 1943, Gray joined the United States Army
and was sent to the South Pacific
during World War II
. While in the Army, Gray would frequently entertain his fellow soldiers with his piano playing and singing. Shortly before the war was over, Gray was given a medical discharge from the army. He returned to the U.S. in 1946 where he spent a brief time in Alsen before relocating to Chicago where he had relatives.
, an important jazz and blues piano player in Chicago (from Detroit). Merriweather befriended Gray and had an important impact on influencing Gray's "two-fisted playing" and introducing him to several notable bands and club owners. As a result, Grey was able to obtain steady gigs with groups like Little Hudson's Red Devil Trio (Hudson Showers) and guitarist Morris Pejoe before moving into extensive work as a session musician in the recording studio behind Jimmy Reed
, Bo Diddley
, Billy Boy Arnold
, Pejoe, and others. His first recording session was in 1952 with Jimmy Rogers
. Gray also worked occasionally with Little Walter
, who nicknamed the young pianist "Bird Breast."
In 1956, Gray joined Howlin' Wolf
's band and was Wolf's main piano player for twelve years in performance and on recordings. Also during this time, Gray became a session player for numerous artists on recordings made by Chess Records
. He recorded with many icons of the blues including: Abb Lock, Sonny Boy Williamson II
, Homesick James
, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Billy Boy Arnold
, Muddy Waters
, Johnny Shines
, Hubert Sumlin
, Lazy Lester
, Little Walter Jacobs
, Otis Rush
, Buddy Guy
, James Cotton
, Little Milton Campbell, Jimmy Rogers
, Jimmy Reed
, and Koko Taylor
among others. Gray also made some recordings on other labels including several recording with J. D. "Jay" Miller's Louisiana Excello blues band during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1963, Gray played with Elmore James
on the night that James died of a heart attack.
During the last thirty years, Gray has performed at virtually all New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
s, three Chicago Blues Festival
s (1987, 1989, and 2005), the Montreal Jazz Festival
(1988), nearly every Baton Rouge Blues Festival since its inception, the San Francisco Blues Festival
, Memphis's W.C. Handy Blues Festival, several times at Festival International
(Lafayette, Louisiana
), the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival (Davenport, Iowa
), the King Biscuit Blues Festival
(Helena, Arkansas
), and many other festivals around the United States.
Gray has also traveled to Europe
frequently to play in festivals and concerts and can be heard on several European releases. In 1988, Blind Pig Records
released Gray's first stateside feature LP
entitled Lucky Man. The album was produced by guitarist
Steve Freund
who also joined Gray on the album for a combination of both Windy City blues and bayou boogie. In 1990, he recorded Louisiana Swamp Blues on the Wolf Records label. In 1998, Gray received a Grammy Award
nomination for his album A Tribute to Howlin' Wolf released on TelArc Records. That same year he played for Mick Jagger
's 55th birthday celebration in Paris
. In the summer of 1999, Gray toured Europe with Marva Wright
and her band giving concerts of "Louisiana music" under the sponsorship of Blue House Records. In 2001, Gray recorded two albums: Watch Yourself on the Lucky Cat label and Henry Gray Plays Chicago Blues for Hightone Records. During 2003, Henry Gray & the Cats released a CD and DVD entitled Henry Gray & the Cats: Live in Paris. Additionally in 2003, Gray was featured along with Ray Charles, Dr. John, Pinetop Perkins and Dave Brubeck in Clint Eastwood's "Blues Piano" which was part of Martin Scorsese
's seven part series, "The Blues", which was aired nationally on public television. Gray was awarded the 2006 National Heritage Fellowship Award by the NEA which is the nation's top honor for folk artist.National Endowment for the Arts
. In the same year, Gray was featured along with Jerry Lee Lewis, Pinetop Perkins, Marcia Ball and Little Red in a concert at Morgan Freeman's club Ground Zero in Clarksdale, MS which became the DVD "Falsifyin'" produced and released by SunLion films. That same year, Gray starred in the independent film The Glass Chord as Saul Solomon, an aging musician suffering from Alzheimer's disease
.
Gray continues to tour as a soloist and with his band Henry Gray and the Cats.
but has now obtained sobriety for many years. In 1989, his home in the Baton Rouge
area was destroyed by a tornado
. Gray is married to Rivers Gray and they have three children and eight grandchildren together.
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
player and singer
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
. He has been playing for more than seven decades, and has played with a multitude of artists including Robert Lockwood, Jr., Billy Boy Arnold
Billy Boy Arnold
Billy Boy Arnold is an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.-Biography:...
, Morris Pejoe, the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
and Howlin' Wolf
Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett , known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....
among many others. He has more than 58 albums to his credit, including recordings for the legendary Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
label. He is credited as helping to create the distinctive sound of the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
blues piano
Piano blues
Piano blues refers to a variety of blues styles, sharing only the characteristic that they use the piano as the primary musical instrument. Boogie woogie is the best known kind of piano blues, though barrelhouse, swing, R&B, rock and roll and jazz are strongly influenced by early pianists who...
.
Early life and education
Shortly after he was born Gray, an only child, moved with his parents to a farm in Alsen, LA, a few miles north of Baton RougeBaton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
, where he would spend his childhood years. Gray began studying piano at the age of eight with a neighborhood woman, Mrs. White. Gray also credits the radio and music records in his home for inspiring his love for music at a young age. A few years later, Gray began playing piano and organ at his local Baptist church, and his family eventually got a piano for the house. While blues playing was not encouraged within his family's home, Henry did play blues at Mrs. White's house, and by the time he was 16 he was playing blues music at a club in Alsen. His father initially disapproved of Gray's "club gig" but, after seeing how much money he was making, Gray's father became supportive. In 1943, Gray joined the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and was sent to the South Pacific
South West Pacific theatre of World War II
The South West Pacific Theatre, technically the South West Pacific Area, between 1942 and 1945, was one of two designated area commands and war theatres enumerated by the Combined Chiefs of Staff of World War II in the Pacific region....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. While in the Army, Gray would frequently entertain his fellow soldiers with his piano playing and singing. Shortly before the war was over, Gray was given a medical discharge from the army. He returned to the U.S. in 1946 where he spent a brief time in Alsen before relocating to Chicago where he had relatives.
Chicago:1946-1968
After arriving in Chicago, Gray began spending a great deal of his time in the growing postwar jazz and blues club scene. He would spend hours listening to and trying to learn from the Windy City's best piano players and would occasionally get hired for smaller gigs. One day while he was sitting in at a club, he caught the attention of Big Maceo MerriweatherBig Maceo Merriweather
Big Maceo Merriweather was an American Chicago blues pianist and singer, active in Chicago in the 1940s.-Career:...
, an important jazz and blues piano player in Chicago (from Detroit). Merriweather befriended Gray and had an important impact on influencing Gray's "two-fisted playing" and introducing him to several notable bands and club owners. As a result, Grey was able to obtain steady gigs with groups like Little Hudson's Red Devil Trio (Hudson Showers) and guitarist Morris Pejoe before moving into extensive work as a session musician in the recording studio behind Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
, Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
, Billy Boy Arnold
Billy Boy Arnold
Billy Boy Arnold is an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.-Biography:...
, Pejoe, and others. His first recording session was in 1952 with Jimmy Rogers
Jimmy Rogers
Jimmy Rogers was an American Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters' band of the 1950s.-Career:...
. Gray also worked occasionally with Little Walter
Little Walter
Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs , was an American blues harmonica player, whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, for innovation and impact on succeeding generations...
, who nicknamed the young pianist "Bird Breast."
In 1956, Gray joined Howlin' Wolf
Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett , known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....
's band and was Wolf's main piano player for twelve years in performance and on recordings. Also during this time, Gray became a session player for numerous artists on recordings made by Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
. He recorded with many icons of the blues including: Abb Lock, Sonny Boy Williamson II
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Willie "Sonny Boy" Williamson was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, from Mississippi. He is acknowledged as one of the most charismatic and influential blues musicians, with considerable prowess on the harmonica and highly creative songwriting skills...
, Homesick James
Homesick James
Homesick James was an American blues musician. He most notably played slide guitar, and recorded covers of "Stones In My Passway" and "Homesick"...
, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Billy Boy Arnold
Billy Boy Arnold
Billy Boy Arnold is an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.-Biography:...
, Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
, Johnny Shines
Johnny Shines
Johnny Shines was an American blues singer and guitarist. According to the music journalist Tony Russell, "Shines was that rare being, a blues artist who overcame age and rustiness to make music that stood up beside the work of his youth...
, Hubert Sumlin
Hubert Sumlin
Hubert Sumlin is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer, best known for his celebrated work, from 1955, as guitarist in Howlin' Wolf's band. His singular playing is characterized by "wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic...
, Lazy Lester
Lazy Lester
Lazy Lester is an American blues harmonica player, whose career spans the 1950s to the 2000s....
, Little Walter Jacobs
Little Walter
Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs , was an American blues harmonica player, whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, for innovation and impact on succeeding generations...
, Otis Rush
Otis Rush
Otis Rush is a blues musician, singer and guitarist. His distinctive guitar style features a slow burning sound and long bent notes...
, Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
, James Cotton
James Cotton
James Cotton is an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who has performed and recorded with many of the great blues artists of his time as well as with his own band.-Career:...
, Little Milton Campbell, Jimmy Rogers
Jimmy Rogers
Jimmy Rogers was an American Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters' band of the 1950s.-Career:...
, Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
, and Koko Taylor
Koko Taylor
Koko Taylor sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor was an American Chicago blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings....
among others. Gray also made some recordings on other labels including several recording with J. D. "Jay" Miller's Louisiana Excello blues band during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1963, Gray played with Elmore James
Elmore James
Elmore James was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and band leader. He was known as "the King of the Slide Guitar" and had a unique guitar style, noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice.-Biography:James was born Elmore Brooks in the old Richland community in...
on the night that James died of a heart attack.
Louisiana:1968-today
Gray left Wolf's band and Chicago in 1968 to return to Alsen, Louisiana due to the death of his father and to assist his mother with the family fish market business. Gray became an important part of Louisiana's music scene where his big, rollicking sound became part of the region's "swamp blues" style. In addition to performing, Gray worked with the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board as a roofer from 1968-1983.During the last thirty years, Gray has performed at virtually all New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, often known as Jazz Fest, is an annual celebration of the music and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana...
s, three Chicago Blues Festival
Chicago Blues Festival
The Chicago Blues Festival is an annual event held in June that features three days of performances by top-tier blues musicians, both old favorites and the up-and-coming. It is hosted by the City of Chicago Mayor's Office of Special Events, and always occurs in early June...
s (1987, 1989, and 2005), the Montreal Jazz Festival
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal
The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz festival...
(1988), nearly every Baton Rouge Blues Festival since its inception, the San Francisco Blues Festival
San Francisco Blues Festival
Debuting in 1973, the San Francisco Blues Festival is the longest running blues festival in the United States. Tom Mazzolini, the event's producer, founded the blues festival to educate the public about the history and evolution of the blues...
, Memphis's W.C. Handy Blues Festival, several times at Festival International
Festival International
The Festival International de Louisiane is an annual music and arts festival held in Lafayette, Louisiana celebrating the French heritage of the region. The festival was first held in 1987 and has become very popular, attracting musicians, artists, and craftsmen from around the world...
(Lafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the Vermilion River. The population was 120,623 at the 2010 census...
), the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival (Davenport, Iowa
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city located along the Mississippi River in Scott County, Iowa, United States. Davenport is the county seat of and largest city in Scott County. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk...
), the King Biscuit Blues Festival
King Biscuit Blues Festival
The King Biscuit Blues Festival is an annual multi-day Blues festival held in Helena, Arkansas which attracts upwards of 100,000 Blues aficionados.The name comes from “King Biscuit Time,” which was the longest running radio show...
(Helena, Arkansas
Helena, Arkansas
Helena is the eastern portion of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas. As of the 2000 census, this portion of the city population was 6,323. Helena was the county seat of Phillips County until January 1, 2006, when it merged its government and city limits with...
), and many other festivals around the United States.
Gray has also traveled to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
frequently to play in festivals and concerts and can be heard on several European releases. In 1988, Blind Pig Records
Blind Pig Records
Blind Pig Records is an American blues record label.Blind Pig was formed in 1977 in Ann Arbor, Michigan by Jerry Del Giudice, owner of the Blind Pig Cafe, and his friend Edward Chmelewski. The label is now based in San Francisco...
released Gray's first stateside feature LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
entitled Lucky Man. The album was produced by guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
Steve Freund
Steve Freund
Steve Freund is an American blues guitarist, singer, bandleader and record producer. Although Freund has toured throughout the United States , he is presently based in the San Francisco Bay Area where he is best-known.-Career:His mother initially inspired...
who also joined Gray on the album for a combination of both Windy City blues and bayou boogie. In 1990, he recorded Louisiana Swamp Blues on the Wolf Records label. In 1998, Gray received a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nomination for his album A Tribute to Howlin' Wolf released on TelArc Records. That same year he played for Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
's 55th birthday celebration in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. In the summer of 1999, Gray toured Europe with Marva Wright
Marva Wright
Marva Wright was an American blues singer.-Biography:Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Wright's first public singing efforts were heard in church, with her mother the late Mattie Gilbert, a piano player and gospel singer as her accompanist. Top honors in a school-sponsored singing competition followed...
and her band giving concerts of "Louisiana music" under the sponsorship of Blue House Records. In 2001, Gray recorded two albums: Watch Yourself on the Lucky Cat label and Henry Gray Plays Chicago Blues for Hightone Records. During 2003, Henry Gray & the Cats released a CD and DVD entitled Henry Gray & the Cats: Live in Paris. Additionally in 2003, Gray was featured along with Ray Charles, Dr. John, Pinetop Perkins and Dave Brubeck in Clint Eastwood's "Blues Piano" which was part of Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's seven part series, "The Blues", which was aired nationally on public television. Gray was awarded the 2006 National Heritage Fellowship Award by the NEA which is the nation's top honor for folk artist.National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
. In the same year, Gray was featured along with Jerry Lee Lewis, Pinetop Perkins, Marcia Ball and Little Red in a concert at Morgan Freeman's club Ground Zero in Clarksdale, MS which became the DVD "Falsifyin'" produced and released by SunLion films. That same year, Gray starred in the independent film The Glass Chord as Saul Solomon, an aging musician suffering from Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
.
Gray continues to tour as a soloist and with his band Henry Gray and the Cats.
Personal life
At one point in his life Gray suffered from alcoholismAlcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
but has now obtained sobriety for many years. In 1989, his home in the Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
area was destroyed by a tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
. Gray is married to Rivers Gray and they have three children and eight grandchildren together.
Selected discography
- Louisiana Swamp Blues, Vol. 2 (1990 Wolf Records)
- Blues Won't Let Me Take My Rest (1999 Lucky Cat Records)
- Don't Start That Stuff (2000 Last Call Records)
- Henry Gray Plays Chicago Blues (2001 Hightone Record)
- Watch Yourself (1999 Lucky Cat Records)
- Henry Gray and the Cats: Live in Paris CD/DVD (2003 Lucky Cat Records)
- The Blues of Henry Gray & Cousin Joe (2004 Storyville Records)
- Times Are Gettin Hard (2009 Lucky Cat Productions)