Gigi Gryce
*Gigi Gryce was born on this date in 1925. He was a Black jazz saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, and educator.
George General Gryce Jr. was born in Pensacola, Florida, and spent most of his early life in Hartford, Connecticut. His family's strong emphasis on music, manners, and discipline tremendously affected him as a child and into his later career. Gryce's father owned a small cleaning and pressing service, and his mother, Rebecca Rials, was a seamstress who also helped her husband run the business. The family belonged to the African Methodist Episcopal Church and regularly attended services.
Especially as the Great Depression began to take its toll on the family's finances, the family instilled the value of discipline and hard work in their children. The family had a piano, which Gigi and his siblings (four older sisters and one younger brother) were encouraged to play. Church music was primarily performed in the Gryce home. (Later, however, when Gigi pursued jazz as a career, his mother and older sisters would support him personally and financially.) Many Gryce children were encouraged to pursue vocal performance at church, school, and other communities; the family even held weekly recitals in their home.
In 1931, the family was forced to sell their cleaning business. Two years later, Gigi's father, George Sr., died after suffering a heart attack. His mother raised the children as a single mother, relocating the family to rent out the house. However, despite this hardship, she motivated her children to succeed by encouraging musical development, hard work, discipline, and Christian morals. Gigi Gryce was reserved, polite, studious, and formal as a youth. He first began learning the clarinet at age 9 or 10, but the first evidence for his pursuit appeared later as he entered high school. Though under-resourced, mostly Black, Booker T. Washington High School had a series of music teachers through the Federal Music Project; Gigi first studied with Joseph Jessie and later Raymond Shepard.
As it was for many, when Gigi and his brother Tommy studied clarinet with Shepard, they allegedly borrowed the same clarinet from a friend directly before each lesson. Eventually, his mother was able to buy him his own Cavalier metal clarinet, with which Gryce became quite successful, winning school and state competitions. At school, Gryce studied music theory, which he enjoyed and continued to explore on the piano at home. While his performing career was relatively short, much of his work as a player, composer, and arranger was influential and well-recognized. As a jazz musician and composer, he was influenced by Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk.
However, Gryce changed his name to Basheer Qusim and ended his jazz career in the 1960s. This, and him being a very private person, has resulted in very little knowledge of Gryce today. Several of his compositions have been covered extensively and have become minor jazz standards. Gryce's compositional bent includes harmonic choices similar to those of Benny Golson, Tadd Dameron, and Horace Silver. Gryce's playing, arranging, and composing are classic hard bop era. He was a well-educated composer and musician and wrote some classical works as a student at the Boston Conservatory. GiGi Gryce died on March 17, 1983.
To Become a musician or Singer
To Become a Conductor or Composer
