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Paul Griffin
- Male
- Jeffersonville, NY
- United States
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Profile Information
- What is your profession?
- Musician, Songwriter, Singer, Producer, Promoter, Composer, Broadcaster, Manager, Agent, Other Jazz professional, Visual Artist, Writer, Journalist, Author, Poet, Actor, Listener, Educator
- What Instrument Do you Play?
- Trumpet
- Where Are you located?
- New York State
- How did you find out about TGJN?
- Ron Aprea
- About Me:
- I studied trumpet with: My father, Chris Griffin, (Lead Trumpet, CBS Staff Orchestra) Also studied with Bill Clark (Lead Trumpet, NBC Staff Orchestra) Carl Poole (Lead Trumpet, NBC Staff Orchestra) Murray Karpilovsky (Principal Trumpet with the Symphony Of The Air under Arturo Toscanini)
I attended the Naval School of Music in Washington, DC where I was also in the honor guard at the White House for the funeral of JFK. After Uncle Sam decided that I had been adequately reprogrammed, I arrived back home with little fanfare and even less remuneration in order to embark on life’s long anticipated journey. I spent some time at Fairleigh Dickenson University believing that after three years of chasing the Russian navy around the north Atlantic, I had developed an inner wisdom that merely needed some fine tuning and professorial nudging in order to complete the task that was begun twenty years and nine months earlier. Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology and a few other such ologies fortified me with the knowledge that I was unique, and I needed to share my uniqueness with the world.
After a couple of tours with Fred Waring as lead trumpet player, musical anrranger, and musical contractor, I moved to the UK in 1970 where I performed with the BBC radio bands.
Music has always been paramount in my life. Maynard Ferguson was a major influence, and he certainly inspired many generations of musicians. I remember the first time I heard one of his recordings; (Shorty Rodgers-"Infinity Promenade") he blew me away! I was just fourteen, and had arrived at a pivotal stage in my own developing trumpet style. I wasn't practicing nearly enough, and my dad (a studio lead trumpet player, himself) was threatening to pull the private lessons. I had been studying primarily classical music up to that point. Maynard inspired the jazz side of my development, and an upper register that I'm proud to say provided me with many years of pissing-off just about everybody within ear shot, (including a pretty grumpy Doberman down the road) and yet I still managed to find gainful employment in the studios of Europe, South Africa, and the USA, as a "specialist."
I lived in Manhasset, NY at the time, and although I was fourteen, many of my friends were CW Post college kids. They would take me along to some of the clubs where Maynard was performing. It was at one of these where a waitress asked what I was drinking? I figured I would see how far I could push this. I knew that I needed to order something that would have a ring of confidence; that would demonstrate a maturity beyond my chronological years. And so, as Maynard launched into his breathtaking cadenza in "Ole'," I launched into my first breathtaking extra dry martini, stirred not shaken, straight-up, with an olive! Well, after "Got The Spirit" & "Three More Foxes" and four martinis, I was sneaking in the door late that night and feeling very much younger, and uniquely vulnerable as my alcohol induced bravado abandoned me. The next day, my mother asked where I had been. I never held back. Mothers weren't to be trifled with in the fifties. Besides, my mom was cool! Just how cool, I was about to find out. How could I not share with her the excitement that I had so recently experienced in the presence of Maynard Ferguson! I proudly confessed everything! Ignoring the lingering bass drum doing an encore performance in my head, and the existential conflict taking place somewhere between my stomach and the great divide while threatening to redecorate our kitchen, I told her all about Maynard's prowess on the trumpet, french horn and baritone horn. She seemed to share my enthusiasm, and asked what I ordered to drink. When I confidently told her, "an extra dry martini, stirred not shaken, straight-up, with an olive!" she replied "good choice;" "let's you and I go for a drink!" Well! Timing is everything. Didn't that just shake up my little world! My mom and I. How cool is that? When we walked into Gino's on Plandome Road, (as in the book, "The Tender Bar") the bartender (whom I barely recognized from a previous "drinking encounter" of the "under-aged kind") asked what we would like. Mom ordered her usual rum and coke, and proceeded to introduce me as "her baby boy" who would from thence on, be having coke au noir! With a knowing look, and a firm nod, that was the last time I ever got served there. But, not the last time I saw Maynard. Not by a long shot!
Maynard is fondly remembered not only by his alumni, but by all who were privileged to have heard and recognized something very special. He was one of a kind! He didn't just push the envelope, he blew right past the Singularity. Yes, there have been others who have approached his abilities, but never with the raw excitement, I fear may never again be explored.
Sadly, with the passing of Maynard, I'm reminded that the trumpet appears to be nearing the end of its unique place in history. Brilliant trumpet players abound, yet the instrument by which Kings were heralded, regrettably may soon be relegated to museums and memories along with the Serpentine. We, who have pressed cold steel to our warm sensuous lips are a fraternity of the knowing. The addiction of an endorphin rush from the unique combination of physicality, and musicality is difficult to surrender. As will be the memory of Maynard Ferguson.
Well, it's certainly the end of yet another era. My father, Chris Griffin, (a music hall of fame trumpeter himself) who was there when Maynard first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1952, passed away on father's day 2005.
Over the years, I have performed with:
– Billy Maxteds' Manhattan Jazz Band-1967
– Jimmie Dorsey Orchestra-1968/Dianna Ross & The Supremes/ Syd Caesar & Imogene Coca/Joe Williams/Gregory & Maurice Hines/CBS Network Television:1966-1969/Ed Sullivan Show– Ella Fitzgerald/Tom Jones/CBS Robert Kennedy Special/Bill Evans/Fred Warings' Pennsylvanians:
Moved To Great Britain: 1970
1971-The Blackpool Tower Orchestra Of Sir Lou Grade/The British Broadcasting Corporation-Manchester/The British Broadcasting Corporation-Leeds/The British Broadcasting Corporation-London
/The British Broadcasting Corporation-Birmingham/Thames Television/Yorkshire Television/Granada Television/South African Broadcasting Corporation/Brook Benton/Tony Christie/The Clark Brothers/Lovelace Watkins/Howard Keele/ Frankie Laine/Al Martino/Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes/– Matt Monro/The Stylistics/The Four Tops/
1981-South Africa:
Lovelace Watkins- Johannesburg-Petermaritsburg-Durban-Port Elizabeth-East London-Cape Town-Harare-Zimbabwe (Presidential Palace)
Returned to USA-1982:
Lew Anderson Big Band Canadian Tour (1984)/ Ray Anthony Tour (1983)/Tommy Dorsey-Warren Covington Tour (1982)/Bob Crosby -Atlantic City (1982)/Skitch Henderson Tour (1982)/Duke Ellington Big Band/Broadway Shows-42nd Street (1983)-Dream Girls (1984)-Tap Dance Kid (1984)/Barnum & Bailey at Madison Square Garden (1983)/Disney On Ice at Madison Square Garden (1983)/Frankie Avalon/Dihann Carroll/Vic Damone/Sammy Davis Jr./Eddie Fischer/Sergio Franchi/Kathy Lee Gifford/Maurice Hines/Clint Holmes/Jack Jones/Jay Leno/Jackie Mason/
In 1984, I fell from a stage and seriously injured my cervical spine, and after seeing no fewer than a dozen specialists, I was forced to cease playing the trumpet. (Article in "Allegro, May, 1989") Oh well! I compiled a few things on cd's (on my web page) "Trumpets & Crumpets" and a jazz-fusion band that I formed called Force Ten "We'll Be Right Back" Irene, my wife still sings, and so we recorded a vocal duet cd "The Two Of Us" I recorded my own attempt at a semi-jazz vocal cd: "My Current Sea" I also created a web page dedicated to my father, Chris Griffin called "Young Man With A Horn" And so... music is still my heart and soul...just not on the trumpet anymore.
About
MEMBER NOTES
Dear Tamm E:
Just a note to tell you that it is nice to read about you!!!
You share so much great info about others and about the music, but nice to know that you are WAILIN' yourself and getting appreciation!!
Global Jazz Network is a really important way for all of us to keep hooked up and informed and to SLOWLY BUT SURELY SPREAD THE MESSAGE AND THE PHILOSOPHY of what Jazz is in its many different forms and what the styles are/is all about.
Just played for Paquito's honoring and received gold medal
John Faddis, save Brubeck, James moody and a bunch of KILLER YOUNG players and we all played and spoke about Paquito and jazz and all fine music
and Roberta Gamborini, who was excellent.
wish you had been there!
Through you, Donald Harrison hooked me up with Pittsburgh Jazz info and I feel like i am living there just reading about all the great happenings.
As Fall is here, I am back to my normal insane schedule, but wanted to write you back BEFORE The STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS goes into effect. I am my own secretary, so I am dedicated but SLOW!
And I can't fire myself as my own secretary or I might get hit with an Age Discrimination Lawsuit (in case I decided to sue myself for clerical incompetence).
As of this moment, a new documentary film is being made about me, to be released a few months after my 80th birthday, which is coming up next year Nov. 17, 2010. (12 months from now).
The film will end with the videoing of the big 80th birthday bash at Symphony Space in NYC and then have snippets of films from the past, with all kinds of fun stuff from the 50's thru today.
It will be called "David Amram: The First 80 Years"
Fortunately, I don't have to edit the hundreds of hours of footage or do new music the score, since the film maker, Larry Kraman is also the founder of Newport Classics recordings and knows all my symphonic as well as operatic, theater, film and jazz and world music work, so I am in good hands!!
The same people at Newport Classics Recordings are also making a Spoken Word series for I-Tunes, with me reading from my three books Vibrations, Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac and Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical Cat.
And they are also recording some of my chamber music compositions and a new jazz record,
Next Spring my opera "12th Night", with libretto by Joe Papp (all words of Shakespeare), is having its eighth production and being FILMED!! Even most dead composers aren't that lucky!!!
This last five weeks I have appeared all over the country at concerts of my music, conducting and playing, doing spoken word with music, jazz, folk and world music festivals, film festivals and readings from my books.
Just the first week of October, I played Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival in Lowell Mass, then the at midnight , following my last concert there , drove all night to Lagaurda Airport to catch the early Sunday mornng flight for the annual Farm Aid Concert in St Louis, where i played with Willie Nelson's band. The next morning (Monday the 5th , I flew bck to NYC in tme for my monthly concert at Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village.
The next night (Tuesday the 6th) the memorial at Symphony Space for Frank Mccourt, and the next day Wednesday the 7th) the celebration of the new authorized biography of Thelonious Monk with members of his family and musicians I have known since I first arrived in NYC in 1955!!
The 11th i flew off to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates,( i got at least get a few hours sleep) and tried to catch up on over 200 e-mails during the 13 hour flight, before arriving there and performing a concert of global music in conjunction with the score I composed for Teri McLuhan's new documentary feature film The Frontier Ghandi.
Then back in the USA in time to do programs centered around a performance of my Saxophone concerto Ode to Lord Buckley, in Loudoun Virginia ..
Then I went off to Toronto Nov 1st for a concert and appearance at the Diaspora Film Festival .
Now i am back at home hiding out composing and writing!
I am starting my fourth book "David Amram: The First 80 Years", (the same name as the new doc film being made about me), which will be finished at the end of next year and will end, like the film, with the monstro birthday bash concert for my Big 80... 12 months from now....(Nov 17 2010) in New York.
And every day, still finding time to continue composing a new orchestral work, having been doing it while on the run, and now every minute when I can hide out at the Farm in between travels.
And performing whenever possible with my three kids, each of whom have their own bands.
So as the BIG 80 approaches twelve months from now, (2010) while I may be still shy, I am not yet the retiring type.
Most of my ever-changing my schedule info. when i can get my elderly secretary (unfortunately myself) to type it up, is posted on my web page www.davidamram.com under Upcoming Events.
And my e-mail amramdavid@aol.com is always the best way to reach me as I carry my laptop with me everywhere, and Facebook, MySpace, etc., is hard to deal with and not always reliable!
You might find it fun to access an old performance of my 1971 Rondo a la Turca on the Internet for FREE!!!
The person who is conducting the Chicago Symphony and playing the middle eastern flute (who looks like my grandson) is actually a much younger looking me in 1977, recording for a PBS network TV show about my music. Pepper Adams and Jerry Dodgion are also playing.
In 1977, most of members of the Chicago Symphony who appear on the recording of this performance had never heard, much less ever played, very much music from the Middle East, and since I write everything out on paper accurately to indicate the way it should be played, that's what they were playing, and they actually began to sound like the Radio Beirut Orchestra, and suddenly as the piece went on, they started feeling something different than they had ever felt before, as they played.
It is really fun to watch their faces as they started getting ingo the old time magical groove that Middle eastern music creates and takes you into.
During the first few minutes of the piece, you can see the musicians all playing up a storm but looking as if they were thinking that I was an alien from another planet in outer space, and had brought some extra terrestrial music with me for them to play.
And then as the piece progresses, you can see, as well as hear, that by the end of the piece, the idiom of this music got them excited enough to be actually enjoying playing it!!
And playing it really well!
That's what music, like film, novels, poetry, painting, dance, language and good HOME COOKING does for all of us.
It takes you to that place from where it comes, and makes you feel that you now have a new home in a new part of the world.
I send cheers from that endless road and wish you joy and energy for all you do
David
I was just saying that you knocked this out of the park with TGJN. We have needed something like this for so long and I am telling my friends about this. I said that it is sort of like a myspace for jazz but it is actually so much more. This is real. The people here truly love jazz and we know people like that are not your average people.
I have felt for a long time that straight-ahead jazz has been slipping away from us. I have hope now that there will be a resurgence (or shall I say an insurgency:-) to bring this baby back full force!
You just knocked it out of the park. Thanks again.
xoxo,
Janie
Events
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Mel Brown Quartet
March 25, 2009 at 8pm to March 27, 2013 at 11pm – Jimmy Mak's
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Steve Cromity
November 27, 2009 from 8pm to 11:30pm – 966 Fulton St. Brooklyn, NY @ Grand Ave., 10 min. from Bklyn Br.
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Workout
December 3, 2009 from 9pm to 11pm – Casale Monferrato
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Luigi Ruberti Quintet
December 4, 2009 at 9pm to December 6, 2009 at 12pm – Naples
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“Grazie”
December 17, 2009 from 6pm to 9pm – Ivrea
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Tish Oney - The Peggy Lee Project
January 10, 2010 from 7pm to 8:15pm – The Triad
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Jazz On Edge Volume 2
February 6, 2010 from 6pm to 10pm – Garden Theatre
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