Larry Gray is a Chicago musician known for his compositions and skill on the
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
and cello. His primary teachers were Joseph Guastafeste, longtime principal bassist of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenure ...
, and cellist Karl Fruh.
[University of Illinois at Chicago biography page fo]
Larry Gray
Family
Gray was born to Pauline Waterman and Lawrence Gray. He has been married to Karolyn R. Kuehner since 1990. They have one daughter, Soffia H. Kuehner Gray.
Music style
Originally a jazz guitarist, Gray switched to double bass and developed a reputation as a first-call sideman. Within a short time, he began to work at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, where he appeared with drummer Wilbur Campbell and pianist
Willie Pickens
Willie Pickens (April 18, 1931 – December 12, 2017) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and educator.
Early life
Pickens was born in Milwaukee on April 18, 1931. He studied piano formally from the age of 14. He attended Lincoln H ...
.
Throughout the years he has worked with
George Coleman
George Edward Coleman (born March 8, 1935) is an American jazz saxophonist known for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s. In 2015, he was named an NEA Jazz Master.
Early life
Coleman was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He was ...
,
Lee Konitz
Leon Konitz (October 13, 1927 – April 15, 2020) was an American composer and alto saxophonist.
He performed successfully in a wide range of jazz styles, including bebop, cool jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Konitz's association with the cool jazz ...
,
Bobby Hutcherson
Robert Hutcherson (January 27, 1941 – August 15, 2016) was an American jazz vibraphone and marimba player. "Little B's Poem", from the 1966 Blue Note album '' Components'', is one of his best-known compositions.Huey, Steve. "Components – Bob ...
,
McCoy Tyner
Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938March 6, 2020) was an American jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet (from 1960 to 1965) and his long solo career afterwards. He was an NEA Jazz Masters, NEA ...
,
Sonny Fortune
Cornelius "Sonny" Fortune (May 19, 1939 – October 25, 2018) was an American jazz saxophonist. Fortune played soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones, clarinet, and flute.
Biography
He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United Stat ...
,
Ira Sullivan
Ira Sullivan (May 1, 1931 – September 21, 2020) was an American jazz trumpeter, Flugelhorn, flugelhornist, flautist, saxophonist, and composer born in Washington, D.C., United States. An active musician since the 1950s, he often worked with ...
,
Junior Mance
Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. (October 10, 1928 – January 17, 2021), known as Junior Mance, was an American jazz pianist and composer.
Biography Early life (1928–1947)
Mance was born in Evanston, Illinois. When he was five years old, Mance st ...
,
David "Fathead" Newman
David "Fathead" Newman (February 24, 1933 – January 20, 2009) was an American jazz and rhythm-and-blues saxophonist, who made numerous recordings as a session musician and leader, but is best known for his work as a sideman on seminal 1950s and ...
,
Charles McPherson,
Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis (born August 26, 1960) is an American saxophonist
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed inst ...
,
Benny Golson
Benny Golson (born January 25, 1929) is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a performer, before launch ...
,
Jackie McLean
John Lenwood "Jackie" McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator, and is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their deat ...
,
Sonny Stitt
Edward Hammond Boatner Jr. (February 2, 1924 – July 22, 1982), known professionally as Sonny Stitt, was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. Known for his warm tone, he was one of the best-documented saxophonists of his ...
,
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
Edward F. Davis (March 2, 1922 – November 3, 1986), known professionally as Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.
It is unclear how he acquired the moniker "Lockjaw" (later shortened in "Jaws"): it is either said that ...
,
Al Cohn
Al Cohn (November 24, 1925 – February 15, 1988) was an American jazz saxophonist, arranger and composer. He came to prominence in the band of clarinetist Woody Herman and was known for his longtime musical partnership with fellow saxophonist ...
,
Eddie Harris
Eddie Harris (October 20, 1934 – November 5, 1996) was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ. His best-k ...
and
Les McCann. In addition, he has collaborated with guitarists
Kenny Burrell
Kenneth Earl Burrell (born July 31, 1931) is an American jazz guitarist known for his work on numerous top jazz labels: Prestige, Blue Note, Verve, CTI, Muse, and Concord. His collaborations with Jimmy Smith were notable, and produced the 1965 ...
,
Joe Pass
Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalaqua; January 13, 1929 – May 23, 1994) was an American jazz guitarist. Pass is well known for his work stemming from numerous collaborations with pianist Oscar Peterson and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, an ...
, and
Tal Farlow
Talmage Holt Farlow (June 7, 1921 – July 25, 1998) was an American jazz guitarist. He was nicknamed "Octopus" because of how his large, quick hands spread over the fretboard. As Steve Rochinski notes, "Of all the guitarists to emerge in th ...
, as well as the drummers
Ed Thigpen
Edmund Leonard Thigpen (December 28, 1930 – January 13, 2010) was an American jazz drummer, best known for his work with the Oscar Peterson trio from 1959 to 1965. Thigpen also performed with the Billy Taylor trio from 1956 to 1959.
Biograp ...
and
Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette (born August 9, 1942) is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer.
Known for his extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians including Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, John Abercrombie, ...
, and trumpeters
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few hard bop m ...
and
Harry "Sweets" Edison
Harry "Sweets" Edison (October 10, 1915 – July 27, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. His most important contribution was as a Hollywood studio musician, whose muted trumpet can be heard bac ...
, among others.
Gray has studied classical music extensively. His principal teachers were Joseph Guastafeste, longtime principal bassist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and cellist Karl Fruh. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in Cello Performance from
Chicago Musical College
Chicago Musical College is a division of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.
History
Founding
Dr. Florenz Ziegfeld Sr (1841–1923), founded the college in 1867 as the Chicago Academy of Music. The institution h ...
.
Touring
He tours extensively, performing at jazz festivals and clubs, including the Umbria Jazz Festival, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, The Montreaux Detroit Festival, the ECM Festival, the Poznan Jazz Festival, the Chicago Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, the Havana Jazz Festival, Rio São Paulo Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Johannesburg International Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl, Village Vanguard, the Blue Notes in Tokyo, Nagoya, New York and Milan, Ronnie Scott's in London, Zawinal's Birdland in Vienna, and the Ravinia Festival, with such jazz luminaries as
Marian McPartland
Margaret Marian McPartland OBE ( Turner;Hasson, Claire"Marian McPartland: Jazz Pianist: An Overview of a Career" PhD Thesis. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013), was an English–American jazz pianist, composer, and wri ...
,
Clark Terry
Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator.
He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–51), Duke ...
,
Nancy Wilson,
Frank Morgan
Francis Phillip Wuppermann (June 1, 1890 – September 18, 1949), known professionally as Frank Morgan, was an American character actor. He was best known for his appearances in films starting in the silent era in 1916, and then numerous sound ...
,
Roscoe Mitchell
Roscoe Mitchell (born August 3, 1940) is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' described him as "one of the key figures ...
,
James Moody,
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist.
Early life
Larry Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas, United States. He never knew his biological father, a musician. He w ...
,
Louis Bellson
Louie Bellson (born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, July 6, 1924 – February 14, 2009), often seen in sources as Louis Bellson, although he himself preferred the spelling Louie, was an American jazz drummer. He was a composer, ...
,
Barry Harris
Barry Doyle Harris (December 15, 1929 – December 8, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. He was an exponent of the bebop style.
Life and career
Harris was born in Detroit, Michigan, on December ...
,
Ramsey Lewis
Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis Jr. (May 27, 1935 – September 12, 2022) was an American jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and radio personality. Lewis recorded over 80 albums and received five RIAA certification, gold records and three Grammy Awards ...
,
Dorothy Donegan
Dorothy Donegan (April 6, 1922 – May 19, 1998) was a classically trained American jazz pianist and occasional vocalist, primarily known for performing stride and boogie-woogie, as well as bebop, swing, and classical.
Early life, family ...
,
Monty Alexander
Montgomery Bernard "Monty" Alexander (born 6 June 1944) is a Jamaican jazz pianist. His playing has a Caribbean influence and bright swinging feeling, with a strong vocabulary of bebop jazz and blues rooted melodies. He was influenced by Louis ...
,
Frank Wess
Frank Wellington Wess (January 4, 1922 – October 30, 2013) was an American jazz saxophonist and flutist. In addition to his extensive solo work, Wess is remembered for his time in Count Basie's band from the early 1950s into the 1960s. Critic ...
,
Joe Williams,
Doc Severinsen
Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen (born July 7, 1927) is an American retired jazz trumpeter who led the NBC Orchestra on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''.
Early life
Severinsen was born in Arlington, Oregon, to Minnie Mae (1897–1998) a ...
and
The Tonight Show Band
The Tonight Show Band is the house band that plays on the American television variety show '' The Tonight Show''. From 1962 until 1992, when the show was known as '' The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'', the band was a 17-piece big band, and ...
, and
Kenny Drew Jr
Kenny Drew Jr. (June 14, 1958 – August 3, 2014) was an American jazz pianist. His music is known for its hard-swinging bluesy sound and large, two-handed rooty chords contrasting with fast runs. The son of jazz pianist Kenny Drew, he did not c ...
.
Recording and performing
Gray is an
arranger
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...
and composer whose discography includes ''Solo + Quartet'' on Premonition Records; ''Gravity'', a solo bass recording, and ''One Look'', featuring his piano trio's performances of original compositions, both on Graywater Records; the Ramsey Lewis Trio recordings ''Appassionata'', ''Time Flies'', and ''With One Voice;'' the
Ramsey Lewis
Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis Jr. (May 27, 1935 – September 12, 2022) was an American jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and radio personality. Lewis recorded over 80 albums and received five RIAA certification, gold records and three Grammy Awards ...
and
Nancy Wilson collaborations ''Meant to Be'' and ''Simple Pleasures'', all on Narada/
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...
. He arranged and produced the album ''Django by Ferro'' by Mike Ferro.
His original composition for double bass and guitar, ''Five Movements'', was commissioned and performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chamber Ensemble at
Symphony Center
Symphony Center is a music complex located at 220 South Michigan Avenue in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. Home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Chicago Symphony Chorus; Civic Orchestra of Chicago; and the Institute for Learning, Access, and ...
in Chicago. His album ''Larry Gray 1,2,3 ...'', featuring his guitar trio's performances of his original compositions, on Chicago Sessions Records, was released in December 2008.
He has recorded with
Curtis Fuller
Curtis DuBois Fuller (December 15, 1932May 8, 2021) was an American jazz trombonist. He was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributed to many classic jazz recordings.
Early life
Fuller was born in Detroit on December 15, 1932. ...
,
Ira Sullivan
Ira Sullivan (May 1, 1931 – September 21, 2020) was an American jazz trumpeter, Flugelhorn, flugelhornist, flautist, saxophonist, and composer born in Washington, D.C., United States. An active musician since the 1950s, he often worked with ...
,
Lin Halliday
Lin Halliday (June 16, 1936 – January 25, 2000) was an American saxophonist.
He was born in De Queen, Arkansas and was raised in Little Rock, where he played the saxophone and clarinet in school. After he moved to Los Angeles in his teens ...
,
Jodie Christian
Jodie Christian (February 2, 1932 – February 13, 2012)
- accessed February 14, 2012 was an American jazz pianist, n ...
,
Willie Pickens
Willie Pickens (April 18, 1931 – December 12, 2017) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and educator.
Early life
Pickens was born in Milwaukee on April 18, 1931. He studied piano formally from the age of 14. He attended Lincoln H ...
,
Nicholas Payton
Nicholas Payton (born September 26, 1973) is an American trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist. A Grammy Award winner, he is from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is also a prolific and provocative writer who comments on a multitude of subjects, inc ...
,
Randy Brecker
Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock, and R&B.
Early life
Brecker was born on Nov ...
,
Bunky Green
Vernice "Bunky" Green (born April 23, 1935) is an American jazz alto saxophonist and educator.
Biography
Green was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he played the alto saxophone, mainly at a local club called "The Brass Rail".
Green's fir ...
,
Bob Moses Robert Moses (1888–1981) was an American city planner.
Robert Moses may also refer to:
* Bob Moses (activist) (1935–2021), American educator and civil rights activist
* Bob Moses, American football player in the 1962 Cotton Bowl Classic
* Bob M ...
,
Laurence Nugent,
John Williams
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who wa ...
and
Bohola
Bohola () is a village in County Mayo, Ireland located along the N5 national primary road. It is in the barony of Gallen and gives its name to the parish of Bohola. The village's amenities include two pubs, a post office and a Catholic church ...
,
Linda Eder
Linda Eder (; born February 3, 1961) is an American singer and actress. She made her Broadway debut in the musical '' Jekyll & Hyde'', originating the role of Lucy Harris, for which she was nominated for the Drama Desk Award. Eder has performe ...
,
Dennis DeYoung
Dennis DeYoung (born February 18, 1947) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He was a founding member of the rock band Styx, and served as its primary lead vocalist and keyboardist from 1972 until 1999. DeYoung was th ...
,
Jim Peterik
James Michael Peterik ( ; born November 11, 1950) is an American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the founder of the rock band Survivor, as vocalist and songwriter of "Vehicle" by the Ides of March, and as co-writer of the anthem " ...
,
Peter Cetera
Peter Paul Cetera ( ; born September 13, 1944) is an American retired musician best known for being a lead vocalist and the bassist of the rock band Chicago from 1967 until his departure in 1985, before launching a successful solo career. His c ...
, and Michael Smith.
He appeared on the PBS series ''Legends of Jazz'' hosted by Ramsey Lewis. He is a first-call
studio musician
Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...
and his playing can be heard on many commercial radio and television jingle and studio projects.
Gray has been featured as a solo recitalist on both bass and cello at various universities and venues throughout the midwest. His recitals combine jazz, classical, and improvised music.
He was the featured bassist in ''Amistad'', produced by the
Lyric Opera
Lyric may refer to:
* Lyrics, the words, often in verse form, which are sung, usually to a melody, and constitute the semantic content of a song
* Lyric poetry is a form of poetry that expresses a subjective, personal point of view
* Lyric, from t ...
of Chicago. He was principal bass of
Civic Orchestra of Chicago and has served as a substitute with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenure ...
. He collaborated with choreographer Lauri Stallings and dancers from Hubbard Street Chicago and the
Joffrey Ballet, developing an original work for solo double bass and dancers.
Teaching
In 2007, he joined the full-time jazz faculty at the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
where he is Assistant Professor of Double Bass in Jazz. He previously held positions at
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...
, where he taught for nineteen years, and also at
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...
and the
American Conservatory of Music
The American Conservatory of Music (ACM) was a major American school of music founded in Chicago in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt (1851–1931). The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It developed the Conservator ...
. He participates as a clinician in high school and college jazz festivals.
Discography
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Larry
Musicians from Chicago
Living people
Roosevelt University alumni
University of Illinois faculty
DePaul University faculty
Northern Illinois University faculty
Year of birth missing (living people)