Jerry Gray

Jerry Gray.
Photography by William P. Gottlieb .

Jerry Gray (born July 3, 1915 in Boston as Generoso Graziano , † August 10, 1976 in Dallas ) was an American violinist , arranger , composer and big band leader in the field of swing and popular music . He worked for the bands of Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller .

Live and act

Jerry Gray took violin lessons from his father, a music teacher, when he was seven; later he was a soloist in the Boston Junior Symphony Orchestra. At the age of 18, he formed a jazz band with which he performed in clubs in the Boston area. In 1936 Gray became a violinist in the Artie Shaws New Music Orchestra; with him he learned to arrange, one year later he became his arranger and in the next two years he worked on many of the big band's successes, such as Carioca, Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise , Any Old Time and Shaw's classic Begin the Beguine .

When Artie Shaw broke up the band in November 1939, Glenn Miller offered him to work for him as arranger. Gray, who initially had problems adjusting to the tighter and more commercial organization of the Miller Band, which allowed him less freedom than with Artie Shaw, later said in an interview with author George T. Simon : “I was with Artie in more musical terms Satisfied in ways, but personally, I was happier with Miller. Glenn did something: he encouraged me to write. "

While Jerry Gray was with the Glenn Miller Orchestra , a large number of notable recordings were made; he arranged Elmer's Tune, Moonlight Cocktails and Chattanooga Choo-Choo. He also composed titles such as Sun Valley Jump, The Man in the Moon, Caribbean Clipper and the hit numbers Pennsylvania 6-5000 and A String of Pearls. When Miller finally broke up in September 1942 to join the US Air Force, through Miller's help he got a job as chief arranger in Miller's Army band, the Band of the Training Command , known as the Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra became known. Gray henceforth wrote material for the dance band and a 21-piece string group, such as a new arrangement by Begin the Beguine.

After Glenn Miller's fatal plane crash, Gray was assistant director of the orchestra; a first concert in which Gray conducted the orchestra took place in Paris . He took over the sole management until November, but was passed over in the future leadership of the Ghost Band of the post-war period; the Glenn Miller Orchestra was then led by Tex Beneke after Ray McKinley declined .

Jerry Gray then worked in the Los Angeles area for radio stations and as a studio musician, leading a radio show with Dick Haymes and, for many years, the Bob Crosby Show . In 1949, Decca Records asked him to found his own big band, in which many former Glenn Miller musicians such as Al Klink , Trigger Alpert , Zeke Zarchy , Jimmy Priddy, Ernie Caceres and Bernie Privin played and which also played in the style of the Miller Orchestra. Her name was Jerry Gray and the Band of Today and she has played both Glenn Miller's hits and more recent compositions.

Gray worked with this band until the 1950s, in which the young saxophonist Jack Montrose also played; Donn Trenner was his arranger. In 1953 he worked with Henry Mancini on the music for the biopic The Glenn Miller Story , in which James Stewart played the leading role. He also worked as an arranger and composer for Vic Damone , among others , and recorded an album with his own compositions. In the 1960s he settled in Dallas , where he led the house band at the Fairmont Hotel , in which Pete Christlieb played and the young Patty Waters sang; with this ensemble he then accompanied Sammy Nestico and Billy Byers . He worked with the Fairmont Hotel Band until the 1970s, when he died of a heart attack .

Discographic notes

• The Uncollected - Featuring Tommy Traynor and Lynn Franklin (Hindsight, 1952)
• Jerry Gray and his Orchestra at the Hollywood Palladium (Collector's Choice)
• Jerry Gray and his Orchestra and The Pied Pipers Singin '& Swingin' (Warner Bros WS1446 1962)

swell

• George T. Simon: The Golden Era of Big Bands ("The Big bands"). Hannibal-Verlag, Höfen 2004, ISBN 3-854-45243-8 .
• Leo Walker: The Big Band Almanac . Ward Ritchie Press, Pasadena. 1978.

Web links

• Jerry Gray in the Bigband database
• Biography of Bruce the in Allmusic

Remarks

1. ↑ Quoted from Simon, p. 312.