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Bebop Play-Along Book
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 Photo © Kerstin Olofsson 2002 Jay Graydon may not be known to each and everyone, but to all lovers of quality music he is known as one of the greatest guitar players and songwriters of all time in music history. Together with super producer/songwriter and long time pal David Foster he is also known to die-hard fans in Europe and Asia as the co-founder of "Westcoast Music". This music genre has its roots in the late 70s, and is also labeled Adult Contemporary Pop Music or AOR for short. Between the late 60s and the late 70s Jay played on practically every "A" list session in Los Angeles, acquiring a glowing reputation as an ace studio guitarist/ solo specialist on numerous albums with Barbara Streisand, Dolly Parton, Diana Ross, The Jackson Five, Cheap Trick, Christopher Cross, Ray Charles, Cher, Joe Cocker, Marvin Gaye, Hall & Oates, Olivia Newton-John, and Albert King just to name a few. It is almost easier to enumerate those artists he hasn't played with or produced or written songs for, than those artists whose career he has participated in. His discography is massive and includes both fairly unknown artists as well as mega stars like Air Supply, George Benson, Al Jarreau, DeBarge, El DeBarge, Sheena Easton, Art Garfunkel, Manhattan Transfer, Johnny Mathis, Patti LaBelle, Lou Rawls, Kenny Rogers and Dionne Warwick, just to name a few. |
As a songwriter he has written an enormous amount of songs. Many of the more than 220 songs he has written over the years
are included on gold, platinum and even multi-platinum albums. Here you can browse through
the songs that are registered at this point.
Jay Graydon started his musical career by playing drums(!) but soon discovered what would be the
love of his life - (and I am only talking about music now) - the guitar. He has developed
his own style of playing, letting the guitar sometimes basically explode in a technically
perfect aggressive solo and sometimes bleed in close harmonies and intense feeling -
really squeezing the best out of the guitar. Do you want to know what I mean? Just go and
listen to these samples and you will know..... Listen and Enjoy!
You may also find great sound bites by clicking the mini albums on top of this page.
Jay Graydon is a hard working guitarist, songwriter and producer. In 1979 he received
a Grammy Award for best R&B Song "After the Love Has Gone" which he co-wrote with
David Foster and Bill Champlin, and which became a number 1 hit with Earth, Wind & Fire. A new
version is included on
AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET released on his own label SONIC THRUST RECORDS in
2002. The new version is performed by the outstanding Chicago lead singer Bill Champlin.
In 1982 Jay received another Grammy Award for best R&B
song "Turn Your Love Around" which he co-wrote with Steve Lukather and Bill Champlin. He
has 12!! Grammy Nominations, whereof two turned into winners!
Grammy Awards, Nominations plus Other Accolades
His first "own" hit album was AIRPLAY in 1979. This album is known as THE Westcoast
Album! Together with David Foster and Tommy Funderburk he created a whole new sound
concept - rock with ingeniously beautiful harmonies.
 Jay handles the guitar following the "less is more" concept, playing with subtle intelligence and intense feeling as well as technical accuracy. He is maybe first and foremost known for two very special ... Ways of playing ..... the... One note mute rhythm guitar playing, like in Grammy nominated (Album of the Year 1981) Breakin' Away from BREAKIN' AWAY/Al Jarreau (246 K .mp3 file) ..... and the ... Wire-choir, like at the fading out of ! She Just Can't Make Up Her Mind from AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET/Jay Graydon (598 K .mp3 file) Apart from the wire-choir you may also enjoy some deliciously harmonic solo guitar structures as well. The tone of his solos is warm with a long sustain. He tells you more about it on the Studio & Gear section of the site. You will find more wire-choirs and outstanding guitar solos on other sections of this website, for instance the Play Like Jay page or the Listen and Enjoy page. This multi-talented musician is also a great singer. Just listen to Jay on the AIRPLAY album, where he is the lead singer of some of the songs, for instance She Waits For Me from AIRPLAY/Airplay (225 K .mp3 file) However, Jay often prefers to leave the singing to other artists he is working with in projects like e.g. PLANET 3 and AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET. The mp3 files are quite large so, please, be patient while downloading if you have a slow connection. They are compressed for faster download and the sound quality is reduced. Purchasing the "real thing", meaning the albums, will of course, give you top quality. Jay Graydon works a lot with other artists as a producer, arranger, songwriter, engineer, playing guitar and synthesizer and more.... For more extensive information on his output you are invited to check out the HUGE discography. Like so many other great artists these days, Jay decided in 2001 to start his own record label - SONIC THRUST RECORDS to have total creative and artistic freedom in his song writing and producing profession. The first album on SONIC THRUST RECORDS is BEBOP which is a musical manifesto of the versatility of this multi-talented artist. This album is filled with new classy instrumental jazz played by top-notch musicians. On the label page you will find more detailed info on all of the albums released on SONIC THRUST RECORDS at this point. For sound bites just click any of the albums at the top of the page. You will find a more intimate and detailed picture of him on the following section where Jay himself, his dad and friends are adding to the multicolored painting of Jay Graydon - the Music Magician. |
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