GRAYSON HUGH'S LEGACY
Grayson Hugh was destined to perform. He came from a family whose members were accomplished in theater, opera, film and television. His father was born Ivor Pugh, in London, England, the son of Welsh parents. Ivor later changed his last name to Hugh. (In Welsh, Pugh means "son of Hugh"). Grayson's paternal grandfather Ralph (Papa) was a well-known film distributor in the U.K. After a severe financial loss, Ralph moved his family to the U.S., first to Pelham, New York, then later to Torrington, Connecticut.
Grayson's paternal grandmother Grace was a member of a very musical family. Her father, Grayson's great-grandfather, had emigrated from Wales to Ogden, Utah, where he joined the Mormon church. All three of his daughters had beautiful natural voices. One of them, Grayson's great aunt Hazel Tout, took the stage name Hazel Dawn and became a celebrated Broadway star and film actress. Coincidentally, in 1912, she recorded "The Pink Lady Waltz" on RCA records in New York, the same label that Grayson would record under, some 78 years later. Another great aunt, whose stage name was Margaret Romane, was an opera singer who performed with Enrico Caruso, among others.
Grayson's uncles, Ivor Hugh's older brothers, both earned reknown in television and films. John Hugh settled in Orlando, Florida and worked as a writer/director. His films included Johnny Tiger (1966, with Robert Taylor and Chad Everett), about a white teacher living among the Seminole Indians, Throw Out The Anchor (1974, with Dina Merill and Richard Egan), Naked In The Sun, and Yellowneck. Edwin Hugh was an actor and director who worked on the Jack Parr Show, Sid Caesar's Your Show Of Shows, and many productions in Essex, CT, at the Ivoryton Playhouse.
Grayson's mother, Jean Iris Rawlinson, was born in Shanghai, China, the daughter of missionaries. She left China at age fourteen and moved in with family in Toledo, Ohio, and later, in Salem Center, Indiana. Jean attended Oberlin College on a voice scholarship. Her father, Dr. Frank Rawlinson, was editor of The Chinese Recorder, a newspaper in Shanghai. Rawlinson was killed in 1937 when a Chinese plane accidentally dropped a bomb on the city while protecting its harbor from a Japanese attack. Grayson's moving song, "For The Innocent", (from his 1992 album Road To Freedom) is dedicated to his grandfather.
During Grayson's childhood years, his father, Ivor, was the host of a classical music radio show called "The Sage Allen Concert Hour", which broadcasted from the old Bond Hotel in Hartford, Connecticut and aired on WCCC. On the same station Ivor also hosted a children's radio show, "Big Brother Bill and The Friendly Forest". Later, Ivor branched out to television, and became famous for creating the character "Flippy The Clown" for Channel 8 (New Haven) and Channel 18 (Hartford). Ivor Hugh also hosted The Young People's Symphony Concerts with The Hartford Symphony. Young Grayson would often accompany his dad to rehearsals, getting to know musicians, among them the conductor Fritz Mahler, Gustav Mahler's nephew. Grayson spent many hours imitating "Uncle Fritz", conducting The Peer Gynt Suite in his living room on Walkley Road in West Hartford.
THE EVOLUTION OF A YOUNG MUSICIAN
Grayson grew up in constant close proximity to various pianos, and he and his two brothers would often terrorize the neighborhood by holding extremely loud and long "practice sessions", utilizing many cheap improvised percussion instruments. Some of the family furniture still bear the marks of this enthusiastic drumming! His fascination with rhythm led him to explore his father's extensive record collection, where he listened to African drummer Babatunde Olatunji, the calypso of Harry Belafonte and the earthy music of Ray Charles and Odetta. Grayson loved the rhythmic guitar-picking of folk and bluegrass music as well, and at an early age he began to incorporate these elements into his piano playing style.
Vocal styles intrigued Grayson, too. While still in grade school, he admired the stark, reverberating singing of early Elvis, and also the smooth lonely harmonies of The Everly Brothers. He bought his first record (as a birthday present) in 1960: "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles. He memorized the electric piano part to the title song; this marked the beginning of his life-long long fascination with rhythm and blues. When The Beatles arrived in America, Grayson's young brain pretty much exploded and that was it; he knew what he wanted to do. The lure of rock n' roll trumped all his other interests. Classical music, drawing, baseball, poetry (and schoolwork) took a back seat, and his obsession with writing and performing songs began.
Grayson's obsession continues to this day. His music reflects his love of many different genres - soul, folk, rock, gospel, bluegrass, old country music ballads; and his poetic lyrics narrate songs that are like miniature films or storybooks. They describe the things he loves: trees, angles of light, the way the different seasons make you feel, how snow looks half-melted on a sagging barn, the way the tendrils of twigs curl, the red glow of certain bushes in early March, the salty smell of skin on the beach in the summer. To create his songs, Grayson plumbs the many memories of his life experience, still rich with childhood wonder.
He loved the great soul records of the sixties and seventies, and he discovered the roots of soul music while working a year-long stint as the pianist in a black gospel church in Hartford. Grayson expanded his musical vocabulary in the early seventies, by studying piano with jazz pianist Jaki Byard, and piano and composition with Ran Blake (co-founder, along with Gunther Schuller, of The Third Stream Department at New England Conservatory). He also studied and performed African drumming with John Chernoff, who was completing his doctoral dissertation at The Hartford Seminary.
Grayson's strong attraction to the visual arts (including photography and film) led him to study filmmaking briefly at The University Of Bridgeport in 1979.
THE BANDS BEGIN
Grayson quit high school in his junior year, worked one hundred and seven meaningless jobs, and began performing in a long roster of bands. In 1965 Grayson played Wurlitzer electric piano and sang lead with The Braekirk Aggregation; also in 1967, he pounded the Vox Continental Organ and sang lead in The Last Five; in 1969 he founded Portrait Blues, an original music band, with bassist Dave Stoltz and drummer Ralph Rosen; in 1971, along with clarinet/alto saxophone player Stanley Geidel and guitarist Lucien Williams, Grayson sang and played piano and soprano saxophone with The Wild Goose Trio, a "chamber improvisational jazz" group; in 1973 he played tenor saxophone and sang in the horn band Thundermug; in 1978 he teamed up with guitarist Tom Majesky and singer Kris Adams to form a trio called Haiku that performed highly-stylized vocal arrangements of Motown and soul classics. He also played piano and sang lead with a Texas swing band called High Times from 1975 through 1978.
In 1980 he formed The Grayson Hugh Quartet, in which he played piano, Hammond B3 organ and sang lead. Along with David Stoltz on bass, Tom Majesky on guitar and vocals, and Rob Gottfried on drums, this was the band that recorded Grayson's first record "Grayson Hugh", on the label One of Nineteen Records in 1980. In 1982 Grayson founded The Wildtones, with his future wife Polly Messer on vocals, Tom Majesky on guitar and vocals, Rob Gottfried on drums, Dave Stoltz on bass and Johnny Ventura on timbales and himself on piano,synthesizer and lead vocals. In 1983, Grayson's band Haiku expanded to include ex-Parliament/Funkadelic drummer Tyrone Lampkin and bassists Ed Alton and Mark Powell. Grayson also did a two year stint as keyboardist/vocalist/arranger for the fusion band Street Temperature in 1984.
WORKING WITH DANCERS
In the early seventies, after leaving high school early and in need of a job, Grayson discovered he could make money improvising for modern dance classes. His father had been working with a well-known local modern dancer, Truda Kaschmann, doing the narration for her production of Peter And The Wolf with The Hartford Symphony. Ivor Hugh suggested to his son that he apply for a job with Truda. Truda loved his wild music, which included singing, playing home-made wind instruments, putting paper, coat hangers and other objects on the grand piano strings, and pounding out rhythms on African and Chinese drums. The German-born dancer, a former student of Mary Wigman and teacher to Alwin Nikolais and Merce Cunningham, would pick Grayson up (he didn't drive) and bring him with her to the nearby Miss Porter's School For Girls in Farmington. He also played for her classes at The Hartford Conservatory where, during breaks between night classes, she'd take pity on the young starving musician and give him some of her dark German bread and strong coffee.
In 1974, Grayson landed a full-time job as the modern dance accompanist for The School Of The Hartford Ballet. He would start at eight in the morning and play for classes all day long, often into the evening. Occasionally the ballet masters from the Company would request Grayson's services for Company classes, and Grayson would provide his unorthodox ballet accompaniment, sometimes breaking into loud singing of soul songs such as Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On", as the startled dancers did their plies and tendus.
The connection with dancers continued into the early eighties. He had heard that choreographer Viola Farber (a founding member of The Merce Cunningham Dance Company) had her own company in New York. He decided to simply go to her studio one day in 1983 and introduce himself. Viola asked him if he would like to play for a Company class. She liked what she heard and asked him if he would consider performing his music with her Company on two consecutive evenings in March of 1983. She also requested that he record this music. When he asked for more specific guidelines, she responded, "Just do what you do for 21 minutes".
Grayson went on to accompany for the dance departments of Trinity College, Boston University, The Boston Conservatory, Princeton University, Sarah Lawrence College, Julliard and The School of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He played master classes for choreographers Gus Solomons Jr., Bill T. Jones, The Paul Taylor Dance Company and Pilobolus. His commissioned works include scores for Prometheus Dance, The Bennett Dance Company and Rebecca Rice.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
By 1986 Grayson decided he had had enough of the local music scene and eking out a living accompanying for dance classes. He moved to New York, determined to stay there until he got a record deal. This proved to be a fortuitous decision. He was camping out on an army cot in a basement barber shop (owned by the friend of a friend), when one day as he was riding an elevator he happened to strike up a conversation with his fellow passenger, who turned out to be music producer Michael Baker. At that time, Baker was finishing up producing English pop-soul band The Blow Monkeys for RCA records. In the elevator, Grayson asked Baker if he'd like to hear some of his music; Baker said "Sure", so he brought Baker up to his friend's apartment and played one of his cassette recordings. At first, Baker didn't believe it was Grayson on the recording, so Grayson played one of his songs on the piano. After this impromptu performance, Baker said, "I can get you a record deal". Grayson ended up signing a production agreement with Baker and, six months later, he signed on with RCA Records in a three-record deal.
The first of these projected records, "Blind To Reason", went on to have two gold records and three radio hits. Grayson then began two years of touring in the U.S and overseas. With his old friend and guitarist Tom Majesky, he put together a band and began touring, at first as as opening act for several people,including Dickie Betts, Sheena Easton, and Mick Ronson/Ian Hunter/Jack Bruce. Then, in 1989, after his single "Talk It Over" became a Top Twenty hit on the radio, he began headlining his own shows. During this time he also appeared on several network television talk shows, including The Today Show, The Byron Allen Show and, in London, England, The Wogan Show.
In 1990, Grayson began work on his second record "Road To Freedom", which through a long, complicated series of events landed at MCA Records. As a result of this association two notable film directors heard his work. The first of these was Ridley Scott; after hearing an advance pressing of Grayon's album, Scott considered several of Grayson's songs for "Thelma and Louise". They eventually settled on two: Grayson's soulful "I Can't Untie You From Me", featured in the diner scene in which Thelma (Susan Sarandon) gives her ring back to Jimmy (Michael Madsen); and the countryish rock song "Don't Look Back", which plays on a jukebox in a roadside honky-tonk as Louise calls detective Hal Slocumb (Harvey Keitel). The other director was Jon Avnet; he asked MCA music supervisor Kathy Nelson if Grayson would be interested in recording Bob Dylan's song "I'll Remember You" for his upcoming film "Fried Green Tomatoes". Grayson drew on his experience as a pianist in an A.M.E church back in Hartford to arrange the song in a slow, heartfelt southern gospel style. For the recording, producer Arthur Baker recruited members of Eric Clapton's touring band to back up Grayson. Grayson sang lead vocals and played his Hammond B3 organ, and the resulting version of "I'll Remember You" became the end-title song for the movie and went on to find a home on "Road To Freedom".
"Road To Freedom" was named one of 1992's top-ten albums by Billboard Magazine, among much other critical praise. The record's ascent was cut short, however, after the A&R man who had signed Grayson to MCA was fired, and all of his acts subsequently dropped. Disillusioned with the entire situation, Grayson moved to coastal North Carolina in 1994 and began writing in earnest.
GRAYSON LEAVES AND BRANCHES OUT
Grayson eventually wound up back in the northeast with a wagonload of new songs, where he landed a job in 1999 teaching songwriting at Berklee College of Music in Boston. His mom lived in Newton, Massachusets, his Dad and brothers were nearby in Connecticut, and he was glad to be near family again. While living in the Boston area, he was commissioned to compose scores for several modern dance companies, notably Prometheus Dance and Bennett Dance Company.
By October of 2006 Grayson had become determined to make a work of art unencumbered by a mercenary music industry, thus he began to work independently on a new studio album (to be called "An American Record"), his first in fifteen years. He reconnected with his long-time friend and backup singer, Polly Messer, when she offered to sing backup on the new album. One harmony led to another, and Polly ended up co-producing the new record with Grayson. They were married on August 17, 2008, surrounded by friends, family and fellow musicians.
The eagerly-awaited "An American Record" is scheduled for a Spring 2010 release.
