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Home>Jazz Profiles - A to Z>Jazz profiles - "G"
| Garland Red
piano, composer (13/05/1923-23/04/1984)
Red’s early dream was to become a professional boxer – his first instrument was a clarinet which he gave up on when he was drafted into the Army in 1941.
It was in the Army that Red took some fundamental piano lessons. He also listened over and over again to recordings by Nat Cole, Bud Powell and Art Tatum.
Red Garland’s prominence in jazz history books is the key role he played in the classic Miles Davis Quintet of the early 1950s.
Garner Erroll
piano, composer (15/06/1921-2/01/1977)
Garner was one of the best known and original pianists in jazz, and was recognized from early childhood as a gifted musician.
He first started appearing on radio shows when he was 10. A totally self-taught pianist, his inability to read music didn’t stop him from composing some beautiful tunes, including “Misty”.
Erroll’s unique brand of rhythmic drive was like no one else’s, and this with his own style of basic improvisation, and his irresistible sense of humor, were perhaps the most important aspects of his truly original keyboard style.
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| Getz Stan
tenor sax (30/01/1911–28/02/1989)
Stan had his first big band experience at the incredible age of 15, with Jack Teagarden.
During the early to mid 40s Stan played in the bands of Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey and Glen Miller. At 19 he made his first recordings under his own name.
The early 1960s found Stan releasing a number of “bossa nova” albums featuring jazz interpretation of the seductive Brazillian sambas written by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto.
Stan Getz was one of the most renowned of jazz musicians, and one of the comparatively few who achieved widespread acclaim.
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| Gillespie Dizzy
trumpet, composer, arranger (21/10/1917-6/06/1993)
Gillespie was one of the principal developers of be-bop
John Birks Gillespie started to teach himself trombone and trumpet at the age of 12.
After leaving school in 1935 he joined a band and was given the nick name “Dizzy” because of his clownish behaviour.
In 1939 he landed a job with Cab Calloway’s Band, one of the highest paid black bands in New York at the time.
It was in 1940 that Dizzy met Charlie Parker, and began playing after hours jam sessions with Parker and pianist Thelonious Monk, drummer Kenny Clark and others.
What developed was a new, more complex style of jazz that was to be called be-bop.
Dizzy’s trademark upturned trumpet allegedly came about when in the early 50’s someone accidentally sat on it, resulting in the bell being bent.
Dizzy played it and like the sound, and from that point on he had all his trumpets made with the bell pointing skywards.
Golson Benny
tenor sax, composer, arranger (25/01/1929)
Following a stint with rhythm and blues bands Benny joined the Lionel Hampton Orchestra.
In the mid 1950s he played with and arranged for Dizzy Gillespie’s band, along with recording with other jazz artists.
Golson gradually gave up playing to concentrate on writing for jazz related big bands, as well as for television, commercials and serials.
One of Benny Golson’s noted compositions is “I remember Clifford” which he dedicated to the brilliant trumpet player Clifford Brown
Gonsalevs Paul
tenor sax (12/07/1920-14/05/1974)
Between 1946 and ’49 Gonsalves was a member of the Count Basie Band, before doing a short stint with Dizzy Gillespie.
He is best remembered for the 24 years he spent as a member of Duke Ellington’s famous orchestras. It was on ballads that Paul’s tenor sax tone was most affecting.
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| Goodman Benny
clarinet/bandleader-(30/05/1909 – 20/06/1986)
Born in Chicago he started studying the clarinet at the age of 11, and by 13 he was working professionally.
In 1954 at the age of 26 Benny was leading his own band.
During the following 5 years Goodman rose to national fame, playing at New York’s famous Paramount Theatre.
Apart from his big bands, Benny Goodman formed some very successful small groups, taking a major step, at the time, to include black musicians. Namely vibes player Lionel Hampton and pianist Teddy Wilson.
Goodman was a complex individual, who was a perfectionist and very difficult to work for.
He embraced the changes in jazz over the years, and by the end of the 1940s was incorporating bebop into his programs.
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| Gordon Dexter
tenor sax (27/02/1923-25/04/1990)
At the age of 17 Dexter joined Lionel Hampton’s band where he remained for three years. He went on to tour with the bands of Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong and Billy Eskstine.
In 1945 in New York he played with Charlie Parker’s band, and on returning to Los Angeles the following year did freelance work, and made several recordings under his own name.
In 1962 Gordon settled in Copenhagen, Denmark where he remained for 14 years, occasionally returning to the United States where he drew large audiences.
Dexter’s sax tone quality which was always vibrantly hot, even when playing ballads, remained virtually unchanged for 40 years.
Grappelli Stephan
violin (26/01/1908-1/12/1997)
Born in Paris, France, Grappelli is one of the great jazz violinists.
He was a member of the famous Quintet of the Hot Club of France between 1934 and ’39.
Grappelli continued to build on his reputation when he formed his own groups. He made extensive international concert tours, and played with some of the biggest names from the world of jazz, including pianist Oscar Peterson.
Green Bennie
trombone (16/04/1923-23/03/1977)
During 1942 and ’43 he played in the band of pianist Earl Hines.
Bennie Green went on to play in bands led by saxophonists Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons as well Duke Ellington.
During the late 60s Bennie could be found playing in Las Vegas hotel bands.
Bennie Green was probably the first trombonist to consort with be bop musicians, and the first whose ear enabled him to adopt aspects of their harmonic approach.
Grey AL
trombone (6/06/1925-24/03/2000)
Al was known as “the last of the great plungers” and was renowned for his many memorable trombone solos during his years with the Count Basie Band.
Grey went on to make a number of recordings under his own name. He also toured extensively and appeared at numerous international jazz festivals.
A man who always had a smile on his face, trombonist Al Grey was a true communicator.
Grusin Dave
piano, arranger, composer (26/06/1934)
Grusin had a very solid musical education during his school years, and in 1959 he hit New York City where he enrolled in the Manhattan School of Music.
It was while in New York that he was given the opportunity to work as music conductor on the Andy Williams television show.
It was during this period that Dave Grusin debuted as an artist - recording two jazz trio albums.
In 1964 he left Andy Williams and pursued a career in writing original music scores for films.
The gifted pianist/composer wrote the scores for such successful movies as “The Graduate” – “Three Days of the Condor” – “Heaven can Wait”- “On golden Pond” and the award winning “Tootsie”.
Dave Grusin also formed GRP Records a very successful recording company with producer Larry Rosen.
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