58 Facts About Gigi Gryce

However, Gryce abruptly ended his jazz career in the 1960s.

Gigi Gryce's playing, arranging, and composing are most associated with the classic hard bop era.

Gigi Gryce was a well-educated composer and musician, and wrote some classical works as a student at the Boston Conservatory.

Gigi Gryce spent most of his early life in Hartford, Connecticut.

Gigi Gryce's parents were of modest means: his father owned a small cleaning and pressing service, and his mother, Rebecca Rials, was a seamstress who helped her husband run the business.

Rebecca Gigi Gryce was forced to raise the children as a single mother, relocating the family in order to rent out the house.

The under-resourced, and at this time, 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.

At school Gigi Gryce was able to study music theory, which he very much enjoyed and continued to explore on the piano at home.

Gigi Gryce graduated from high school in 1943, working at the shipyard and playing in Raymond Shepard's professional band for a time before being drafted by the navy in March 1944.

Gigi Gryce continued to pursue music during his two-year term, making his way into the navy band and earning the rank of musician second class.

Gigi Gryce moved to Hartford to live with his sister Harriet and her husband in 1946, and the following year enrolled at the Boston Conservatory.

At the Boston Conservatory Gigi Gryce developed his theoretical background and studied classical composition, writing three symphonies and a ballet in addition to other works.

Gigi Gryce was very much inspired and influenced by the work and philosophy of Boston Conservatory composer Alan Hovhaness, a musical eclectic whose passion was for melodicism and lyricism.

Gigi Gryce traveled between the two cities, and arranged for local bands including those of Sabby Lewis, Phil Edmonds, and Bunky Emerson.

Gigi Gryce developed a reputation as a well-trained and talented artist, and became relatively well known in the local Boston and Hartford scenes.

Gigi Gryce began to explore the New York scene, where he would eventually find himself in the early fifties.

Gigi Gryce is rumored to have traveled to Paris on a Fulbright scholarship in 1951 to study with Nadia Boulanger and Arthur Honegger.

Gigi Gryce did take two semesters off to study in Europe, but little is known about his travels.

Gigi Gryce was influenced by Tadd Dameron, with whom he played in 1953 at the Paradise Club.

Gigi Gryce had not yet reached his peak as a musician or soloist, but was developing a reputation as a versatile and talented composer and arranger.

Later in 1953 Gigi Gryce contributed a tune, "Up in Quincy's Place" to Art Farmer's Prestige recordings.

One of the most important connections Gigi Gryce made in New York was with Quincy Jones, who encouraged Lionel Hampton to hire Gigi Gryce for his band in the summer of 1953.

In Hampton's band, Gigi Gryce played with Anthony Ortega, Clifford Solomon, Clifford Scott, Oscar Estelle, Walter Williams, Art Farmer, Clifford Brown, Quincy Jones, Al Hayse, Jimmy Cleveland, George "Buster" Cooper, William "Monk" Montgomery, and Alan Dawson.

Gigi Gryce became particularly close friends with Clifford Brown, with whom he found much in common.

The recordings Gigi Gryce made with Clifford Brown and others on the tour were often hurried and done on the fly, yet they were instrumental in building his career, particularly as a composer.

Gigi Gryce formed a quintet with Farmer in March 1954, which first recorded for Prestige Records in May of that year.

The record made in May 1955 by the Farmer-Gigi Gryce quintet featured pianist Freddie Redd, bassist Addison Farmer, and drummer Art Taylor.

Later in 1955 Gigi Gryce played for Oscar Pettiford's octet, and got the opportunity to play alto in Thelonious Monk's session with Percy Heath and Art Blakey for Signal Records.

The final ticket to Gigi Gryce's success was his third recording with the Farmer Quintet in October 1955 and his nonet recordings for Signal Records immediately after.

Silver largely credits Gigi Gryce with inspiring him to found his Ecaroh Music company and the Silveto label.

Gigi Gryce stayed on the cutting edge through 1956 until his career peaked in 1957.

Gigi Gryce worked on several projects as composer and arranger with the Teddy Charles Tentet and the Oscar Pettiford Orchestra.

Gigi Gryce's arrangements were fresh but accessible, tailored for educational purposes.

Gigi Gryce continued to play with the Jazz Lab, as well as writing for Betty Carter, Art Farmer, Jimmy Cleveland, Curtis Fuller, and Max Roach.

Gigi Gryce put together his own quintet, which he renamed the Orch-tette after adding vibraphonist Eddie Costa in 1960.

Gigi Gryce worked on a handful of other projects in 1960, including a film score to On the Sound by Fred Baker and a final studio recording on Randy Weston's Uhuru Afrika.

However, by this time Gigi Gryce was becoming preoccupied with business troubles associated with his publishing companies, as well as some family issues.

From childhood Gigi Gryce was always marked by a private and formal disposition.

Gigi Gryce followed a strict moral lifestyle, abstaining from alcohol, drugs, and other vices common among his colleagues.

Gigi Gryce is known to have had other romantic relationships before his marriage to Eleanor Sears in 1953.

Gigi Gryce had a brief relationship with Evelyn "Baby" Dubose in Pensacola during his Pensacola and Navy years, for whom he named his piece "Baby" which was recorded in Europe in 1953.

Gigi Gryce had a casual relationship with vocalist Margie Anderson, with whom he worked during his time in Boston.

In 1972, Gigi Gryce, now known as Basheer Qusim, married Ollie Warren, a school secretary in the Bronx.

Gigi Gryce had always been described as having a strict moral sensibility.

Gigi Gryce may have been interested in Islam as early as 1950, and as a student became interested in religious history.

Gigi Gryce reveals little about who or what urged his conversion, but Islam was an increasingly popular faith among black jazz musicians in the fifties, particularly Ahmadiyya, Nation of Islam, and Sunni Islam.

Gigi Gryce is believed to have converted during or shortly after his travels in Europe during his college years.

Gigi Gryce's faith was a source of some tension in his marriage to Eleanor, who remained a practicing Christian.

Many of Gigi Gryce's compositions had Islamic titles and his first two children were given Islam-inspired names.

Gigi Gryce revealed very little about his business hardships, but what is known is that his publishing business encountered financial troubles in the early 1960s, with many musicians withdrawing from Melotone and Totem.

Many of his colleagues believe that powerful interests considered Gigi Gryce's publishing activities a threat, and were forcing him out of business.

Gigi Gryce dissolved his publishing companies in 1963 and gave up his music career, thereafter adopting his Islamic name entirely, Basheer Qusim.

Gigi Gryce was somewhat interested in education throughout his life, and was said to be an excellent music instructor.

Gigi Gryce received a master's degree in education from Fordham University in 1978 and developed an incredible passion for teaching.

Gigi Gryce left a lasting legacy at Elementary School No 53 in the Bronx, which was renamed in his honor after his death.

Gigi Gryce died on March 14,1983, of a heart attack after becoming increasingly ill.

Gigi Gryce's death was a shock to many of his former music career colleagues, as well as students, teachers, and parents of the students whom he had encountered over the years.

In "Up in Quincy's Place", one of his very early tunes, Gigi Gryce was rather ahead of his time in his frequent use of quartal harmony, a practice that would be popularized during the cool jazz era.