Brooklyn
I was born in Brooklyn, in 1947, of Russian heritage. I can remember Grandpa and Grandma's candy store; sitting at the counter, having egg creams, and those great long stick pretzels. Then a nap in the rear of the store on Fort Hamilton Parkway.
My mom gave me my music. She started me on piano, and accordion at 8yrs. with lessons and an instrument. I heard my teacher tell my mother that I was so talented, that I could get by without practicing. So I did get by for a while faking my lessons, but my accordion career was quite short, although; I did get a foothold in the musical world. All the while, Mom, taking me to the Metropolitan Opera House, and Carnegie Hall, for classical exposure and the magic of music. However: In 1960 my family moved to the suburbs of Lynbrook LI, where I was finishing 6th grade, and entering junior high school. There I was exposed to a very good music program, and quickly picked up the trumpet; even though I really wanted the saxophone. The marching band needed trumpets, and when Mr. Lechey, put a mouthpiece in a cornet and handed it to me, to both our surprise and delight, a beautiful sound came out. I enjoyed playing in the marching band. On a few occasions I got to sub on bass drum. Oh what joy, but I always got in trouble because I would put my funky little off beats in. I loved my uniform, and kicking high, small town parades, formations on the football field, all of it. I put together a little swing band. Drums, bass, accordion, trumpet, and sax. We would practice, and practice, but never played out.
Then all of a sudden it was 1964. The Beatles had made their splash, and I went to Sears & Roebuck and bought me a guitar. You know the one; a white and black electric with a lipstick tube pickup, silver sparkles, and an amp built into the case; cost all of $60. It came with a chord chart of 9 chords, and an instructional yellow 33rpm record. The first chord I learned was G, then D, then C, and I was playing my first song in an hour. I think it was a country song. Then I got a Josh White song book, and was erupt towards the crossroads.
MEMPHIS
I graduated high school in 1965, Viet Nam was happening, I was still only 16. I entered Memphis State Univ. on a Band scholarship. As long as I played trumpet in the concert and marching bands I got a modest scholarship. But little did I know that my real music education was about to begin outside the school limits, meeting and hanging with Memphis musicians in regular clubs and after hour clubs.
After a while I found a band: The Boogie children. With them I was what they used to call the utility man. I played rhythm guitar, trumpet, harp, organ, and sang backup. Tim, the lead singer and mentor, was great. He would testify like a baptist preacher, and when he danced; the girls went nuts for him. He did all the booking, and got us gigs in dirt floor shacks in Mississippi, and brought us groupies. Young girls with stars in their eyes, and we were the stars. Needless to say, we felt like gods. We were local heros basking in the glow of our 14 year old fans, and I was doing what I loved. I was taken in by the lead singer's mother Mrs. Teal, and moved in for a while. We didn't make hardly any money, but that didn't matter, the times were magic, the music was magic, and we were magic as well. We were playing some originals, but mostly covers of the Stones, Eric Burton and the Animals, John Mayal, Otis Redding, Elvis, the Byrds, I even learned to play A Whiter Shade of pale on a continental organ, all the popular stuff of the day. This band and all it's members, and relatives became my family. Mrs. teal, Tim's mom made the best pan fried cornbread, Sister Debbie would curl my bangs into a pageboy, Ricky the 15yr old bass player was so good, and so talented. We had a groove.
We had our first and only recording session at Sun studios,Not the original Sun, but owned by the same Sam Phillips. Dicky Lee , a friend of Tim's did the engineering, and we all did the producing. We cut four tunes, which I still think are damn good. We made our TV debute, on George Kline's Talent show on WHBO in Memphis in 1968.
That same year at The Overton Park Shell, a blues festival was held. This concert was one that I still look back on as a pivotal moment in my life. I met, listened and began to revere many blues players that I had never heard of. Delta guys like: Nathan Beauregard, Bukka White, Furry Lewis, and a Young Johnny Winter, tearing up the stage. There were so many more talented people there, but my mind has limited recall, so that's all for now. Jim Dickenson, Allmans
Hitch-hiking Back to Memphis 1970.
It was summer, and a hot dry morning on the Memphis side of Nashville US hyway 40. The night before, I spent the night on a hip lawyer's floor; after meeting him at a Nashville bar room. A few puffs, and a handful of songs, and I was on the road again, anxious to get back to Memphis. So it's getting hot, and a 1952 chevy stops and picks me up with two red necks in the front, and one in the back seat, where they motion for me to get. So here I am, in the back seat of a '52 Chevy, with my Brooklyn-fro, sitting next to a young drunk redneck, who is cradling a six-pack of champagne velvet beer, saying their radio was broken so I'd better get my guitar out and play some country music or else... At the time I was happy for the ride. Country music was not my thing. I realized I knew James Taylor's "Walkin' down a country road". They loved it. I played that song for two and a half hours, all the way into Memphis. At one point, I needed to stop and take a break, but the guy next to me took out a knife, put it on his friends neck, the driver, and said I'd better start playing soon. so I did... When They let me out, there were no hard feelings. They were entertained, and I was back in Memphis....
NYC
In 1979, I had a 6th fl. walk up on 15th st. It was real cheep. I got it from a high school wrestling buddy, who I miss even now. But I screwed that up. Anyway, The apartment had a bathroom in the hall, and a bath tub in the kitchen. After a gig, three or four in the morning, I would be carrying amps,PA, instruments, etc. I was mostly always , alone so this was my star of David to bear.
I think it was 1978. I needed a picture of my new band, but I didn't have a band. So I went down to CBGC's where I new I could find at least one musician, it turned out I found two friends, a bass player, Nick, and a drummer, Sticks Nixon, who sat in on a band picture, snaped by my automatic Yashica; on stage infront of the cymbals. I used that picture to get my first gigs in NYC with the the band name 212. Later to become the Fabulous Blue Roots.
The drummer I had been rehearsing with, didn't think he was ready for our first gig, so I had to hire someone cold, and unrehearsed. NYC was full of great musicians. I had no trouble finding a sub, who was great. That first gig was downtown in the financial district. I think I lost only $25 on that gig. Soon I'd be breaking even, and then on to the wonderful world of profit. I was driving a cab at nite, and did handy work during the day. On nites that great shows were in the clubs, I would hit all the clubs, and catch some fantastic music.. One summer nite in 1979, at the Lone star Cafe', in NYC, while attending a show by Bo Diddley, I met a pretty little girl who was to become my wife for the next ten years. This change took me away from the music scene for a while, but eventually I came back stronger than ever.
South Fallsberg, NYCatskill Mts.
In the summer of 1975-6 I was living in a bungalow, on an old farm, in Bethel NY. Six years after the Wood stock concert. a promoter from NYC, is trying to put on a concert in a huge tent in South Fallsberg. I answered an ad for a carpenter, and helped build a stage and related projects for White Bird productions.As time went by, the stage and all the projects got finished. Now we were anticipating the opening. The first nite the headliner was to be Black Oak Arkansas. As the opening day approached, the weather services began to predict a large summer storms, but we were protected by this circus tent.....What we were unaware of was that the site the tent stood on, was a low lying dried up swamp. Well that's all the monsoon rains needed to know. By the time the show was to begin, the ground was spongy wet, and the stage was beginning to puddle up from the leaking tent.
During my time in Memphis in 1968 I had met a local band from across the Miss. River called Nobody Else. A bunch of hippies living in Arkansas. Their lead singer Jim Magnison and I became fast friends. Not knowing in 1976, He would become the infamous, Jim Dandy, of Black Oak Arkansas. Now in upstate NY, in a predominantly Jewish vacation area, this over the top rock and roll performer was to gyrate and orgasm.
As the time of the performance was approaching, and the rain was still pounding the tent, I went back stage to see how Jim and the band were holding up. The promoters were trying to make the show go on, but as a musician, and a friend, I told Jim that the stage was dangerously wet for electric instruments. Evidently he took my advice, and sneaked out of the tent, and the band was out of the backstage area and into their bus and gone. Only their crew was left to pack up and load out. No-one until now knew that I was indirectly responsible for the close and failure of the concert.
Otis Rush,NYC 1979
Earning a living, and trying to be a musician, was tough. So I drove a yellow cab. It was a time when magical things were happening in NYC. Two legendary music clubs. Tramps, on 15th street, and the Lone Star Cafe`on 13th., were putting on some great blues and r&b artists. I met Otis Rush, at the Lone Star. It was a slow nite driving the cab, I decided to hold up and watch the show. We hung out for a while then I drove him to his hotel. In his room, we talked music, and he played for me, but hid his fingers so as not to let me see his secret weapon, that thing he does with the harmony notes and his fingers.
Since I played trumpet at the Lone Star almost every Sun. with Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys. I was always comped in, so I was there quite a lot. That's where I met Buddy Fox, the owner of Manny's Car Wash. He used to bar tend there. He thinks to this day that I'm country. Who knows, part of me probably is. I love those country blues, and that sweet soul music. That's why when Albert King came through the Lone Star, I was sure to be there.
I met his sax player first, and we started talking about how they had just lost their trumpet player, and how they were down to just a tenor and alto. Well this was an opportunity to play with one of my mentors, so I shmoozed them into letting me play trumpet with them, if it was ok with the boss. Well they asked Albert, who was sitting at a table downstairs, he said yes. So I was in for the first show that night. Well, that first show was great, Albert, with his pipe on the side, gave me a solo, and a smile, and asked me to play the rest of his three day gig. I was walking on air. I could have died at this point in my life and been fulfilled. Playing out the rest of the shows was fabulous. I was so high on the music, and Albert.
WHAT, ME WORRY/May 1999
How you doin'? Haven't heard from you in a while. Dig this:
I got a solo gig, playing guitar in a bar in bayside this past Wed. nite. The guy that hired me heard my demo, and booked me from that. So I get to the club at 7, for an 8-12, they had me standing in a corner, infront of a video-gambling device, that had I not pulled the plug on, would have had people moving behind me on my few square feet of dream stage. I set up did my first forty minute set, a couple of regular bar customers came up and did a blues. One did BaBarbra Anne, the set went well. On my break I went outside for some air. The manager, who wasn't the guy who booked me, comes outside and tells me that a table of his friends, who are sitting in the dining room, a completely different room off the bar, do not like the blues, and he's going to shut me down. My jaw dropped, because I figured, the 8-10 people were the after work crowd, and then the younger crowd, more into the blues, and r&b stuff I do would be coming in. Anyway he was very fair. He gave me $70 out of the $100 promised, and dinner to go. Actually, that was pretty good pay. Even though the rejection sucked...Gary
11/9/99
Well, it's tough trying to be a musician. It's great when it all works out. But that's not the norm. It was great to get a millennial gig, only to have it canceled, and the club owner wants to find a cheep DJ. You know, I love to play, and the magic in the music is what I seek. all these club owners who can't fill their clubs and always blame the bands, can go straight to hell.
113Why 2K
I've been busy lately. Plenty of carpentry work, and lots of gigs. My great and regular bass player, Frankie Rosati, has gone to visit his family in the Midwest. Of course I have three gigs I will need a sub for, which I found very difficult. Lousy $50 makes it hard to find anybody professional. I'm just glad I have gigs.
2272000
(boy was I pissed) email flyer to my mailing list
Hi, Friends of Blueroots. I Wanted to tell you all about the controlling squinty eyed, red-faced, alkaloid; who happens to own F. Scott's in Douglaston Queens. Keeping the bands volume down so low that we could barely get tone from our instruments, he found the courage to have the bartender cancel our next date, because this time he asked me to turn down, I spoke to the band on the monitor. Since he stands right in front of the band, he was offended, because it made him look like the asshole he is.
This was a poor paying gig, the room is ok, the owner stifles the music, and is typical of the type of the personality which seems to be in control so much of the time.
Now that we will no longer play this venue, I feel compelled to tell you that most of my friends, aquaitances, strangers who knew the club, and new fans who came to see us at F. Scott's, complained about the quality of the food, not being able to hear the vocals, and the background positioning of the band. The bartenders and waiters, are all pleasant and accomidating.
It's a shame, because I liked the room and the people we worked with. In this business you learn to take the good bad and the ugly. Sometimes they all come at once...
Gary Gray
9/2k
Man, I don't know what happened. It's like night and day. Last year was great. Lots of gigs, momentum was building, then the turn of 2000. No gigs for months, clubs closing, changing formats to dj's and karioke. I hoped BB King's new club would help the upcoming musician, but the don't use opening acts anymore. I hope at least BB's and Eric's album "Ridin' w/the King" fuels the blues.
My good buddy and harmonacist extrodinair, Danny Russo, and I are of the same mind, in that we feel NYC has all but lost the blues. A couple of venues, little interest from the public, clubs care more for the dollar than for quality music. The media is hard selling pop, and rap. The kids know how to follow.
I'm trying to get up the energy to do another CD. I also want to put together my photographs in some kind of presentation, whether it's in CD or book form.
July 6, 2001
Hi phil,
I just got back from spending a couple of days up at my friends house in Bethel NY. Her father bought Yasgur's farm. He put up some houses, but preserved the field and stage area of the old Wood stock festival. He also erected a monument , in a small park on the festival site. When it all comes down, it's just a farm field, but I saw some people sitting in the park, I saw a guy with sticks, drumming on his lap, with his oriental girlfriend decked out in colorful tie-died outfit; and a couple of tourists from Scotland...
Well my friend's house overlooks a pond, where I saw deer, beaver, and a lot of very colorful birds. The naked swimmers were long gone...
Man, I did a gig a little over a week ago, on Long Island, where the small audience was all over 65yr. old. I had to squeeze my drummer between a piano bar, and a wall, the bass, behind the piano, me on the opposite side and the sax behind me. Then a cocktail waitress tried to push up back even more so she could have 12 seats at this piano bar, which remained empty throughout the nite. The owner tried to keep the volume lower than we already were. We should have had the sound direct to earphones, so there would be no live sound in the room. Anyway the owner did pay all he was contracted for, and that was good. Needless to say, I don't think we will get a callback. Got a few small local gigs coming up......Well, That's all for now...Gary "Grog" Gray
Dec.9, The first day of Hanukah ,2001.
I am so friggin' depressed. The music scene has disintegrated to almost nothing. Gigs are so hard to find. DJs have taken over the clubs. Blues is not happening here in NY. even the NY Blues society is having their holiday party in New Jersey. My carpentry business is off. Mutual funds are down more than 50%. I went cold turkey today. Danny Russo Harp man extrodinair, calls and hopes I have a gig which he can play on. I played for a benefit for the bikers "toys for tots", and nobody came. Some gigs I actually end up paying to play. I feel like Jimi Hendrix when he sang, "there ain't no life, nowhere". Television has taken so much time from me. Like I have said in the past, Big brother doesn't have to watch us, we are all watching him.
end of March/2002
Been a while. It realy has sucked these last 6 mo. after the towers. Now spring is trying to get a foothold, but it's not that easy. Everything is different. Well, not everything: Music is still magic, when I'm allowed to play. Argh, I'm speechless in Briarwood.
Feb. 2004
Damn, what a life. Doors, credit, work, age, body, record new CD? What next GEEZE...........
Jan. 2008
Wow, four years since I have written here. I did put out another CD. A live solo CD, "GROG THE BOOGIE MAN". And it got a good review in Living Blues mag. in 2006. The last few years have been quite a ride. Anyway: I've been doing hospital bedside concerts for a group called "MUSICIANS ON CALL". A great volunteer organization. Here is an email I sent to Johnny, the coordinator for MOC describing a situation that arose on my last performance at. Mt Sinai in Queens, NY.
"I had a great time Wed, at Mt Sinai. My guide was great too; although I still can't pronounce her name. It starts with a "J" so that's what I call her. I must tell you of a room with four women. I was working my charm, and the first song went terrific. during the second song a sound rang out, like a clapper seeking a bell, but I only found an aged Asian woman, banging a metal cookie can cover on the radiator, so I cut my song short and left. "J" and I had a moment, shared a giggle, and moved on....."
Feb. 2008
I've started to go to CHAM the childrens hospital in the Bronx. Some of these kids are in poor shape, and just to get a little smile is a wonderful thing.
I also produced a single on "Pleeze mr. Bush", trying to get some airplay in this political season. we'll see what happens. |
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