Jay Graydon

All Music Guide:

Two-time Grammy winner/arranger/producer/songwriter/guitarist Jay Graydon's credits include hits by Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire ("After the Love Is Gone," co-written with David Foster and Bill Champlin), Steely Dan, Dionne Warwick, Air Supply, Chaka Khan, Al Jarreau ("Mornin'"), Breakin' Away, Heart's Horizon, High Crime, Jarreau, This Time, the Manhattan Transfer ("Twilight Zone"), George Benson ("Turn Your Love Around"), Cher, Christopher Cross, DeBarge ("Who's Holding Donna Now"), Barry Manilow (Even Now), and El Debarge, among many others. He also was involved with the soundtracks to Ghostbusters, Miami Vice, and St. Elmo's Fire. Graydon co-wrote "She's in Love," a track on Brenda Russell's Hidden Beach/Epicdebut album Paris Rain issued on July 18, 2000.

Born October 8, 1949, in Burbank, CA, to Grace and Joe Graydon, Jay Graydon made his professional music debut at the age of two singing with his father on his TV show. Graydon comes from a musical family; his brother Gary plays guitar nonprofessionally and his father was a singer and songwriter. As he grew up, his interest expanded to include electronics and bowling. In the early '60s, Joe Graydon had a Saturday radio show on KDAY and Jay would engineer his show, playing the records, running the tape machines, and airing commercials. His father recorded for various record labels and Jay would accompany him to the recording studio, asking the audio engineers questions. One Christmas, he was given a mono tape recorder, mixer, and two mics that he used to record local bands.

At the age of 14, Graydon started playing the guitar. With Dennis Kelly and Joe Lopez, he formed the Veltones with drummer Doug Wagner, who was later replaced by Bob Carrafield. They played pop/R&B and surf music and did some recording, but nothing was released commercially. During his high school years, Graydon took music classics and learned big-band arrangement from Robert Rose. While in college, Graydon got a call from the Seven Souls keyboard player Bob Hogins who was a former bandmate. Joining the band, Graydon learned a lot about "feel."

Trombone player Glenn Farris invited him to audition for Don Ellis's big band. Working with such top players honed Graydon's skills. During a early-'70s club date backing singer Maxine Weldon, Graydon met keyboardist David Foster. Foster came backstage and introduced himself. A couple days later, Foster called to invite him to a recording session and to bring along his ARP 2600 synthesizer, guitar, and amp. Graydon and Foster would work together on innumerable sessions in the years to come. Graydon's Grammys include: Best R&B Song Awards for "After the Love Is Gone" (which also nominated for Song of the Year) and "Turn Your Love Around." As the 21st century began, Jay Graydon was working on a book with engineer/musician/author Craig Anderton.

Wikipedia:

Jay Graydon is a Los Angeles songwriter, recording artist, guitarist, singer, producer, arranger, and recording engineer. He is the winner of two Grammy Awards (in the R&B category) with twelve Grammy nominations, among them the title "Producer of the Year" and "Best Engineered Recording". Jay Graydon has mastered many different styles and genres. In his career his recordings have been featured on record, film, television, and on stage.

History [edit]

Graydon made his singing debut on his second birthday on the "Joe Graydon Show," the first music/talk television show in Los Angeles, hosted by his father, Joe Graydon.

During and for a brief time after his college days Jay Graydon played in the Don Ellis Band, whose style can be described as experimental post-bop jazz. He can be heard on the live double album "Don Ellis at Fillmore".

L. A. session musician [edit]

From the late 60s to the late 70s he was a session musician in Los Angeles, working with such artists as Gino Vannelli, Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, Diana Ross, The Jackson Five, Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick,Al Jarreau, Christopher Cross, Ray Charles, Cher, Joe Cocker, Marvin Gaye, Hall & Oates, Olivia Newton-John, and Albert King. He is perhaps best known for his guitar solo for Steely Dan's "Peg".

In 1977, he appeared as a character in a number of Doonesbury strips as Jay "Wah-Wah" Graydon. Graydon played on the Jimmy Thudpucker album "Greatest Hits" along with Steve Cropper and "Duck" Dunn. Graydon was the subject of the track "Fretman Sam" and played its guitar solo. He also programmed the synthesizers for the album.

Producer [edit]

Jay Graydon's production credits include work with Air Supply, George Benson, Al Jarreau, DeBarge, El DeBarge, Sheena Easton, Art Garfunkel, The Manhattan Transfer, Johnny Mathis, Patti LaBelle, Lou Rawls, Dionne Warwick, Alan Sorrenti and the album They Don't Make Them Like They Used To by Kenny Rogers.

He started his own record label, Sonic Thrust Records in 2001 to give himself creative and artistic freedom in his songwriting and producing profession. The label features straight-ahead jazz, adult contemporary pop, AAA, AOR, classic R&B, smooth jazz, and genuine retro surf from the 60s

As a musician and recording engineer, he has often been called in as a consultant/beta tester of musical equipment and recording gear.

Songwriter [edit]

Graydon has written more than 220 songs. His catalog includes the Grammy winners "Turn Your Love Around" (George Benson) and "After the Love Has Gone" (Earth, Wind & Fire), as well as "Who's Holding Donna Now" (DeBarge), "Friends In Love" (Dionne Warwick and Johnny Mathis), many songs written with and for Al Jarreau (including "Mornin'", "Breakin' Away", "High Crime", "After All", and "Roof Garden"), and several hits with Manhattan Transfer including "Twilight Zone", "On The Boulevard", "Smile Again", and "Spies In The Night". Many of his songs were co-written with David Foster. [1]

Writer and educator [edit]

Graydon has written numerous articles in music magazines and has conducted seminars at Musician's Institute in Hollywood together with guitarist Tommy Tedesco for more than 15 years. He has been working on a series of books on recording techniques together with Craig Anderton - a writer of recording technique best sellers, columns in music magazines and gear manuals. The books will include recording the guitar, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards, vocals, horns, strings, and mixing.

Film scores [edit]

Graydon has participated as a musician and/or songwriter in over 50 film scores including The French Connection, Grease, Ghostbusters, St. Elmo's Fire, The Secret of My Success, Navy Seals, Lady Sings the Blues, The Greatest, Ghost Dad, and Mahogany.

Television [edit]

As for TV productions Graydon has played on or written songs for -The Andy Williams Show, The Jackson 5 Show, The Alan Thicke Show, The David Steinberg Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, Friday Nite Live, The Tonight Show, The Merv Griffin Show, The Soupy Sales Show, The Smothers Brothers Show, The Midnite Special, The First and 2nd Rock and Roll Awards Show, Miami Vice II, Thank God It's Friday, Starsky and Hutch.

With Richard Page, he also wrote the second theme song to Gimme a Break!, which was used from its third through sixth seasons.

Key collaborations [edit]

Al Jarreau [edit]

Perhaps his most noted collaboration has been with Al Jarreau. Graydon was the main songwriter/producer for Jarreau in the early 80s. Graydon produced the Jarreau albums This Time, Breakin' Away, Jarreau, and High Crime among others. Graydon also played guitar and synthesizer on these albums, as well as serving as songwriter, arranger and engineer.

David Foster [edit]

Foster and Graydon have worked together on countless album projects, including the band Airplay, a pop-rock group they formed in the late 1970s, and the JT Super Producer concert in Japan in 1994 with René Angélil and Céline Dion[1].

Randy Goodrum [edit]

Jay Graydon and Randy Goodrum formed a group named JaR. In 2008, they released an album titled Scene 29, described as "Steely Dan meets Airplay and Pages".

Grammy Awards [edit]

[1]