1. Just an update of what is happening. Randy and I are going to finally mix the JaR album entitled CODE. That
is happening now!
2. After keeping notes for many years, it is time to finally do an autobiography on video. I'm going to talk
like I typically do and that will be in a book form as well along with many pictures.
3. In a few months time I will start a YouTube educational channel in which I will share my best tips and
tricks in recording and guitar land. I have been into electronics as far back as I can remember and at age 11,
my dad bought me a mono tape
recorder and gave me some mikes, a mixer, and a power amp with speakers he got from a night club, in which
he was part owner, when the night club closed. When I was in my early 20s, I bought a 4 track recorder,
more mics, a better mixer, etc. Then, while I was doing record sessions for a living, I bought a 3M 8 track
reorder, a 2 track Ampex recorder, then a 16 track recorder, then a 24 track recorder, better mixers along
the way and so on. In 1979, I had a real recording studio built from the ground up that I still have, which
is a pro recording studio. Two 24 track recorders, two 2-track recorders, major outboard gear, so many
synths/samplers, ADAT recorders, and finally Pro Tools systems.
Along the way, I figured out so many recording techniques. After coming up with the idea, I would then figure
out how to make the idea work using electronics. I had also learned ideas from other engineers and I would
then figure out if I could improve such ideas, which typically happened. There is so much to teach!
That is when my PA Kerstin said we should set up a business YouTube Channel, so I have been keeping notes
for the past year as to not forget such ideas.
I will start from the beginning so everything makes sense as when I read articles that does not explain
the full electronic path, I realized every step needs to be noted and shown recording video of every step!
This information will be very important for the beginner in bedroom/house studios with minimum equipment
through pro engineers/pro studios!
I will also teach guitar stuff as well and will do many interviews with so many people in all fields
meaning musicians, recording artists, etc.
I am also working on a guitar book (with Kerstin's sons, Stefan and Peppe) as I don't want to spend the
time learning a notation program, plus the cats have thought of ideas that should be included! I will
also video the guitar stuff along with a few surprises guitarists will love!
We will then do a book for keyboard, drums, and bass.
Last thing for now. If you have not purchased
the Famous E Electric Piano it is the best sounding
Rhodes ever! The full story is noted on my website!
Chris Poehler, Greg Schlaepfer, and I started a sampling project a few months ago that will be around 10,000 DX7/TX7,
and maybe more of the DX synth series, samples! I was amazed that the midi on DX7s did not use the full 127 step
velocities! We will explain when the program comes out. It is time for those sounds to make a return in pop music
since it has been many years since the sounds have been available!
That is all for now. - Your pal, Jay
JAY GRAYDON - plus a Few More First Call Guitarists
Jay's comments:
Ray Parker has a pal named Ola, who is Norwegian and when Ola comes into town Ray sets up a big hang with
some of the cats. This time it was major as like probably 30 people were there.
Nate East took that picture as Nate was sitting right across from me. I spent a lot of time talking to
Freddie Washington, who is the bass player in Steely Dan and a great cat.
Sylvester Rivers was there as well and all kinds of other cats and it just so happened that the five of us in the
picture ended up in that area where Nate took the picture!
Can you imagine how many albums have been sold with all of us five cats, who played guitar on so many records?
Obviously someone said something real funny since were all laughing. Whenever any of us get together, there's
always so many stories and we also get into technical stuff, etc.
It was a very fun hang and it's clear that we're all like brothers! We all have so much respect for each other!
- Jay
November, 2021
JAY GRAYDON - New Version of Mornin'
Jay groovin' hard with Mark Kibble (Take 6), Janis Siegel (The Manhattan Transfer), Lauren Kinhan (New York Voices), and
others, playing guitar on a new version of his own song MORNIN'.
"Join Janis Siegel (The Manhattan Transfer) and Lauren Kinhan (New York Voices) as
they welcome Mark Kibble (Take 6), La Tanya Hall, Liane Carroll, Raul Midón, young artist Georgia Heers
to the Vocal Gumbo kitchens. Backed by incredible instrumentalists (Jay Graydon, Andy Milne,
Martin Bejerano, Addison Frei) - this all-star line up of vocalists will astound you!" - Vocal Gumbo
October, 2021
JAY GRAYDON - Recent Guitar Work
Jay has recently finished doing guitar work on a few songs for an album, where he will be featured along with
The Manhattan Transfer and a German Pop
Symphony orchestra. Jay did new versions of "Twilight Zone / Twilight Tone" and "Nothin' You Can Do About It" for this
project and the album will be released next year.
He has also collaborated with Mark Kibble (TAKE 6) on a project, which will be presented in a video on
the Music-with-a-Mission platform
Virtual Vocal Gumbo - November 11th at 8PM ET /5PM PT.
This Online Music Festival website is maintained by Janis Siegel, Lauren Kinhan, and Laurie Green.
September, 2021
JAY GRAYDON - Interviews and More
Yes, it has been very quiet here for quite some time, but that does not mean that Jay has been inactive. On the
contrary, Jay has been very busy with various projects lately, which we will tell you more about once we can reveal
them. Further, he has been doing several interviews via Zoom and over the
phone and continues to do so, as well as doing guitar work for an album, which will be released in a few months.
On the to-do-list now is hopefully the release of the second JaR album - CODE - by the end of this year, and apart from
compiling material for his autobiography and for another book on music Jay is also preparing content
and topics for his upcoming YouTube educational channel. We will announce here as soon as we launch the channel.
So keep hanging around as there is sooo much more coming!
"The legendary Jay Graydon has a conversation with Tom about winning two Grammy Awards for "After The Love Has Gone", as
made famous by Earth, Wind & Fire, and George Benson's "Turn Your Love Around" respectively. He lifts the lid on
the sessions for Al Jarreau's classic record, "Mornin". He also discusses his incredible sample set, The Famous
E Electric Piano, available now at jaygraydon.com. Jay will be starting an instructional Youtube channel in
the near future, drawing on his many years of experience as a guitarist, songwriter and engineer at the
very highest level." Tom Cridland - singer songwriter, podcaster and fashion designer.
"This episode's topic is the creation- and sampling-process of the virtual instrument Famous E Electric Piano. Our
guests are Jay Graydon and Stefan and Peter Olofsson. Musician and producer Jay Graydon sampled the original hardware
instrument and takes us through the steps of bringing it into the digital world." - Christoph Strauss for KEYS - Musik und Computer and Recording Magazin.
October, 2020
BARRY CROCKER - NO REGRETS - For the First Time On CD!
Message from Toshi Nakada - Cool Sound
COOL SOUND is proud to announce that we release Barry Crocker's "No Regrets" album
first time on physical CD!!
It's an album that Jay Graydon produced the whole tracks for the first time in 1977.
We have just started the mail order today, the 8th of October, and it's the 71st birthday of Mr. Jay Graydon!!
At this time, my studio was 16 tracks and a simple mixer with 22 inputs. I had a BX20 reverb and some outboard
equipments along with some good mikes. In between sessions I would write and demo songs and I knew I wanted
to be a full time record producer at some point. My good friend John Farrar (Olivia Newton John's producer)
had a friend he knew in Australia who was a good selling artist in Australia wanted to come to LA to make an
album. Even though the budget was limited, I wanted experience as a producer so I took the gig so this
was my first record production.
I was still doing record dates full time so I had to fit in the sessions for Barry's album in-between sessions and probably
worked on the weekends. I worked quickly on the album but since I am a perfectionist, I had to do a good job as always. You will
notice all of the musicians are mostly the "A" studio players and everyone played very well as expected!
Since I only co-wrote a few songs, Barry's songs had simple chord changes and I always do my best to make the songs as
classy as possible so I came up with hipper chords changes where they would work but not to hip as we always must
respect the songs and audience. When writing out the arrangements, since again I needed to move quickly, I used the
first ideas that came to mind and most likely wrote out most of what was going to be played on the tracking date that
included some hook lines. I was not concerned with the guitar parts when writing out the arrangements since I would overdub
the guitar parts and did my best to come up with hooky sounding lines.
Barry has good pitch so recording the vocals was fairly easy. Also, Barry is a very nice guy so easy to get along with.
In conclusion, you will hear how we all played during that time and the beginning of my production work. I remember
we had fun and as always, a learning experience. I hope you like the album and have fun reflecting as to the era. - Jay
B-DAY MESSAGE FROM JAY!
Hey guys!
I hope you are doing well! I really appreciate your kind birthday wishes and I’m glad to still be on the planet and fully functional!
Sadly musicians are obviously in the group of people who have taken a hard hit like it was not bad enough Spotify and like have
destroyed what was left of the music business! Here’s hoping when Covid 19 is under control, we can get back to normal making
people happy through our music!
There is a bit of good news, which is pop music is starting to return to quality music with melodies that are using more
notes beyond the pentatonic scale! Further chord structures beyond very simple stock progressions are making a return! The
best part for guitarists is the guitar playing is very similar to the rhythm guitar and single note parts almost identical
to last golden era of music (mid 70’s through mid 80’s)! Even the sounds are reverting to that era such as the new Maroon 5
song, which features a Fender Rhodes! The famous “E” Electronic piano was not yet released when they recorded the song but the
keyboard players in the band (such as Sam Farrar) now have the famous "E"! If I have not explained how the “E” was discovered
and what made this instrument in demand, let me know and I will tell the full story, which is fluke of events!
Here’s hoping 2021 will be a great year and us musicians will once again be able to play live and record with the rhythm
section in one room!
I thank you again for all of your kind birthday wishes as you have made my day!
Your musical pal, Jay
August, 2020
JARREAU MEDLEY SHOWCASING THE FAMOUS E ELECTRIC PIANO!
Hey everyone, check out this video with a Jarreau medley. I can't believe how great Stefan is playing! Also Peppe did an excellent job
on the programming! These demos are the best of the best as the songs are from the era! Stefan has become such an outstanding player
on all levels and plays the songs exactly like they should be played for pitching! Keep the demos coming as you cats are doing better
demos than anyone!!!! These guys are playing great and they're really really really great demos!
Hey Stefan,
OUTSTANDING MAN!!!! You and Peppe have done such an incredible job on all of the stuff and the Jarreau Medley is killer!!!!
No doubt your State Cows fanbase digs the E. - Jay
Musicians, keyboardists, gearheads, lend us your ears! Jay Graydon is back to tell us the story of the famous E Electric Piano
which was a sought after session instrument in the early 80s and how it's been sampled and is now for sale. He also discusses
a new Youtube channel is starting where he will share tricks of the trade and we hear stories about David Foster,
Ray Parker Jr. his approach to production, guitars, perfect pitch, and a million other things. Get to know how the mind of
a musical genius works!
Jay Graydon is one of rock's most wildly successful multi-hyphenates. He was a first call session guitarist in LA for most
of the 70s with one of his biggest claims to fame being the solo on Steely Dan's "Peg". He also wrote huge hits for artists
like DeBarge, George Benson, and Earth, Wind and Fire, formed the fantastic, but short-lived band Airplay with burgeoning
mega-producer David Foster, and then he produced huge albums by Al Jarreau, Patti LaBelle and Kenny Rogers. Not to mention,
if you've seen him in the great doc Hired Gun, you know what a funny, honest guy he is. In this loose and sprawling conversation,
we cover all of this and much much more including his interest in magic and bowling. Stories abound!
THE FAMOUS E ELECTRIC PIANO - RELEASE JULY 10, 2020!
Message from Jay:
Hey everyone,
After 3 years of working on the FAMOUS E ELECTRIC PIANO sampling project, we are releasing the sample program this morning
(7-10-2020) at 10am West Coast time in the states!!!!
You can hear a few demos on our specific page for the "E" - The Famous E Electric Piano as
well as many demos on the - Orange Tree Samples
page. BTW Orange Tree Samples is the company, which
is selling our product and for the first two weeks, it is on sale, so please tell anyone you think would be interested!
There are some testimonials on both pages and there will be more demos and testimonials, which we will post, when other
great players have played the E!
The main version is 96k 24 bit as that was the sample rate in which we sampled. The "E" uses Kontakt (version 5.7 or higher) or
Kontakt Player made by Native Instruments. Kontakt Player is free and can be downloaded on the Native Instruments site.
Kontakt will re-sample as per your session in your DAW but if your session is not 96k 24 bit, "aliasing" is in play so, since
we are perfectionists and want the user to have the best quality possible, we are also offering 3 other downloads for
all sample rates below meaning 88.2k-24bit, 48k-24bit, 44.1.k-24bit as to eliminate "aliasing".
I have done tutorials (and more to follow very soon) showing options and tricks to get the "E" sounding as good as possible. You
can find the tutorials here - The Famous E Electric Piano
and like I noted above, there are more to come so please check back with us from time to time.
If you would like to hear some records in which I used the "E" on albums I produced (with David Foster playing), no doubt
Spotify or the like has the following songs that feature the "E".
Mornin' (Al Jarreau from the album entitled, Jarreau)
Save Me (Al Jarreau from the album entitled, Jarreau)
For You (Dionne Warwick from the album entitled, Friends In Love)
There are so many other songs in which I used the "E" as well as other artists!
I always say any electronic instrument is as only as good as the weakest component in the chain. In this case, obviously
quite by accident, there are no weak components!
The odds are good all of you know of this instrument that was manufactured by Fender but we are not allowed to use
the name since after the designer, "Harold" (again, we can't mention his last name) passed away, some person copyrighted
the name and is suing anyone who uses the word! (What a strange situation for someone to do that). So Harold was told
this instrument was the best sounding of all of the (word we can't use) built, he found George and went to his home to
hear this electric piano. After doing so, he told George it is the most beautiful sounding (the word again) he has ever heard!
On behalf of my partners George Mamalakis and Greg Schlaepfer, we hope you enjoy the "E" as much as we do!
If you would like to know how the "E" was discovered, it is a good story! Read all about it George Mamalakis’ project
page - The Famous E Sampling Project - JAY GRAYDON
RANDY GOODRUM - RED EYE!
My JaR partner Randy Goodrum has recorded a solo album and I must say it is outstanding on all
levels!!!! It is called Red Eye and here's Randy's website - Randy Goodrum - Red Eye
- if you are interested in purchasing.
June, 2020
THE FAMOUS E ELECTRIC PIANO IS ALMOST HERE - UPDATE!
Message from Jay:
Hey Cats,
FOR YOU really does show the beauty of the E.
No Phase 90 as the effects are limited to what Kontakt has.
The release of the E is literally a few days away! NI is doing a quick check and then we will release!
I am going to do a video tutorial in a few days to make it easy regarding navigation and will note important stuff, but this video won’t be posted until the day of release! This video and others will be posted
in a new YouTube channel, which my PA Kerstin will set up. We will keep you posted as to when this new channel is set up and cleared.
Back to Kontakt (the program runs in Kontakt and Kontakt Player. It requires Kontakt 5.7 or higher!
There is another company that claims to have samples the Famous E but that is not true! That program has 5 velocity layers and ours has 18!
The other company did not rebuild the Rhodes and left in all kinds of clanks and bad mechanical problems! The first thing to do with any vintage instrument is to get it sounding as it did when it was new, which is what we did! This project took 3 years as we are all perfectionists!
I think there will be a discount offer for the first 2 weeks only so if interested, please check back with us every day! Also, please pass the word along as that would be most appreciated!
A few more things to note for now. All of the choruses are great and one is a special design we did called Logical.
Back in the day, I asked GML EQ, which is the best analog EQ ever making the E sound so delicious!
Since the Kontakt EQ and effects are not very good (they really need to update their plugs as old and the EQ sucks), I will note in the tutorial what I am using to record as to plug in EQ.
In closing, the best Rhodes ever is back and everyone will love the instrument as much as me and my 2 partners on the project.
Orange Tree Samples is the place to buy the E and Greg (the owner of Orange Tree Samples) is a genius as to his coding!
THE FAMOUS E ELECTRIC PIANO IS ALMOST HERE!
Message from Jay:
Hey everyone,
The Famous E Electric Piano will be released in no more than two weeks and more than likely even sooner!
There is no doubt this is the best Fender Rhodes ever! Harold Rhodes once came to GEORGE‘s house
(GEORGE MAMALAKIS owns the E Rhodes) and Harold said it’s the best Rhodes he has ever heard! No doubt he
has played and heard hundreds if not thousands of Rhodes!
Note that as soon as the E is released, I will do a video tutorial on the way I approach the settings along with tips and tricks that are important.
You may want to listen to the Al Jarreau track MORNIN’ from the Jarreau album self titled JARREAU. Most all
the tracks that have Rhodes are great examples of the sound, such as the song SAVE ME, which shows the absolute beauty of the Rhodes in the intro.
Another classic song with the famous E is from the Dionne Warwick album FRIENDS IN LOVE. Listen to the first track - FOR YOU - as that
once again features the Rhodes big-time!
As soon as the E is available for sale, we will post and note the link to Orange Tree Samples. I think for the first two
weeks only, there will be a discount. That is the last I heard so I bet that will be the case.
Orange Tree Samples is the company we partnered with and our partner GREG SCHLAEPFER, who owns the company, is an absolute
genius writing code that was extremely important.
Here below is a message from George Mamalakis.
----------------------------------------------
Hello Everyone from George Mamalakis, owner of the E Rhodes and the E Model Rhodes website.
All of you have contacted me in the past with questions and comments regarding the E Rhodes. And most of you are aware that I
have been working in collaboration with Jay Graydon and Greg Schlaepfer, owner of Orange Tree Samples, to produce a virtual
version of the E Rhodes. Most of you have also asked to be notified when the sample library will be released, and that is
why I am writing to you at this time.
I am thrilled to announce that The Famous E Electric Piano sample library will be available for purchase before the end of
June from Orange Tree Samples. I have updated my E Model Rhodes website with a special page entitled "Project Update" where
you will find a very comprehensive overview of the library. i have included graphics of the User Interfaces with descriptions
of the controls and settings as well as audio demos of some of the preset sounds that will be instantly available when you
open up the library for the first time. There are 15 demo tunes representing the 15 "factory" presets which I have created. When
the product is released, it will also include 15 "factory" presets created by Jay Graydon and 15 created by Greg Schlaepfer. These
45 presets will, of course, include many versions and enhancements of the sound that made the E Rhodes famous but will also
include presets that illustrate the wide range of tonality that the E Rhodes, and now The Famous E Electric Piano are
capable of. A special surprise treat is a recording of Al Jarreau's iconic tune Mornin' produced and performed by Johan Landqvist
of Sweden (along with friends on bass and drums). We thought it would be a surefire way to demonstrate that The Famous E Electric Piano
is truly the virtual equivalent of the E Rhodes.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions and I promise that I will notify you the minute that we know The Famous E Electric Piano
is released and available. (Please let me know if you do not want to be contacted.)
I have been privileged to own the E Rhodes since 1985 and now I am so excited that I can share its sound and magic with the world!
Hey all,
as we know, things will never be the same caused by the pandemic! We need to stand united as to do
whatever we can to get back to work so if anyone has ideas, they should tell the representatives
in their country noting we need financial help from the government! Unemployment Benefits is
a start but it seems musicians are left out on stuff like free loans and so on.
Musicians are clearly hit very hard as no live playing of any kind, no studio recording with multiple
people in the room, films can’t be made, and the list goes on and on! How are we supposed to make
a living in this business? The only thing we can do is to do home recording with someone creating
the basic track and then send the files around for overdubs. I am going to do a video on this along
with many educational videos in technical land for Pro Tools and the like, guitar teaching, and more!
I am also going to do an instructional video as to teach relative pitch and how to practice. I have
no doubt you will really love this stuff as I have been practicing relative pitch, since I was 14
when I found out I will never have perfect pitch so I wanted to get as close to perfect pitch as
possible. That will be for sale via a new YouTube channel, which we will set up in a few months
time. Yea, I already have an official YouTube channel for various stuff -
Graydon/Olofsson - linked from my website - so this
new second channel will be a subscription based educational club, and the relative pitch video will be for
sale, but all of the other stuff will be for free! We will ask you to please sign up to my club for
free (Jay Graydon and Friends) as to keep you informed of what is added as we go. You will also be able
to request I do videos on certain subjects.
All of this will begin in a few months, but first I will finish the JaR 2 mixes and we will also be ready to
finally launch the first version of The Famous E Electric Piano Sampling Project in just a few weeks.
In any case, enjoy this video my PA Kerstin created on an arrangement I did.
When I was in Japan promoting my album, "Airplay for the Planet", I was asked to do a video for a major
TV show. They asked that I play the "Star Spangled Banner" starting with a melodic chord melody rendition
and then break into a Jimi Hendrix thing. I spent a few hours in the hotel working out the chord melody
part. When I got back to L.A. the song came to mind and I finished the chord melody arrangement in
full. I never thought I would record it, but when I worked on my BEBOP album, a few of my guitar pals
said I should record and include this arrangement as well.
Further, since I could mix the BEBOP album leaving out one instrument, I did a few versions in that fashion
and published one of them - the Minus-Guitar version - on Hal Leonard. So, the BEBOP album is also available
as a "Jam-with-the-Band" book/CD package, which is a book with the sheet music and a CD with the music
minus guitar as to play with the band with top-notch session players. The book/CD package lets you learn
and perform 8 of my original bebop tunes, plus the Star Spangled Banner - a rare opportunity for young jazz
music students to perform with a real bebop band and a fun way of keeping your chops up, while playing alone
at home. After all, there has never been a better time than right now, to learn and hone your playing skills.
Here you will find more info on the BEBOP album and the recording process plus pics
and another video. Both the BEBOP album and the "Jam-with-the-Band" book/CD package, are available on e.g. Amazon and other online
stores, via my website. - Jay Graydon
Hey everyone, I did an extensive interview for the Al Jarreau documentary that will be aired tonight - April 12, 2020
UNSUNG / AL JARREAU Season 14 - Episode 16 (1 hour). Two showings back to back at 7 and 8pm. It may
also be available on streaming services like Netflix and Amazon but not sure so if you are in the states you can get access to
the channel TV1 (328 on Direct TV). I hope the editor used some of the good stories.
I hope they use the part about the songs and alternate versions that have never been released!!!!
As most of you may know, Jarreau was a jazz artist and would have probably remained so playing jazz clubs. When I
was asked to produce him, it was my goal to turn him into a pop, R&B, AC star, which obviously happened. The 4 1/2 albums I
produced for him were his best selling albums with major Grammy nominations and wins such as POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR. Here is
the list of Grammy nominations for the Jarreau albums.
Album Of The Year - BREAKIN' AWAY
Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals - MORNIN'
Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals - STEP BY STEP
Best Engineered Recording - for the JARREAU album
Producer Of The Year - for the JARREAU album
You will also find more info on the albums I produced on my website.
I would have continued producing Al, but a moron got in the chain that was a relative of
the manager. This is the perfect example that music is fun, BUT the music business is not fun! Anyway, the moron story will
be included in my autobiography. I will hopefully release the book at the end of the year! The book has many funny stories!
Regarding the moron story, Here’s a tip for anyone that is producing demos and ends up working as a record producer. Never
let anyone in the studio, who is not directly working on the record! Tell people who will be in the studio to work, do
not bring anyone with you! It’s a job, not a hangout! That reminds me Yoko should have had the sense to not go in the
studio when recording as no doubt the other cats in the band were bugged! If you want a band to break up, this will
surely help speed up that process. (g)
In any case, I bet the documentary will be good as I really liked the beautiful lady who interviewed me! She is very
intelligent and knew the questions to ask! I hope the editor included the best stuff from all people who were interviewed!
I’ll be watching with you! - Jay
JAY GRAYDON MUSIC NOW ON AMAZON!
CD Baby has decided to retire their store as of April 2020, so to purchase Jay's music please go to our pages
at AMAZON instead.
There is a bonus of being a studio musician when the musician is also a recording engineer such as in my case. I would
look at how engineers set up microphones on drums and all the instruments. During playbacks, I would look at the
recording console to see how the engineers set the equalization, the outboard gear they patched in such as
compressors and so on.
A few engineers stick out as the best of the best and KEITH was one of them! I would always ask engineers questions
when I liked their sound.
KEITH was one of the best I have worked with over the years and when I asked him questions he was always glad to
pass along his information. When I built my current home studio, I asked him what would be the best way to
position the drums, meaning on the floor or on a riser. He said a riser is much better because it’s not making
direct contact with studio floor if using rubber on the drum riser. I took his advice and had a drum riser
platform built with rubber on all the wood that was touching the floor.
We stayed in contact over the years and shared information and always learned from each other!
Anybody I know would agree with what I had noted regarding his work! KEITH was also a very nice guy! He is
surely going to be missed by many people! The best news is the records he engineered and produced stand the
test of time! - Jay Graydon
PLEASE SAVE THE SONGWRITERS!
Hey everyone, we received this image below from NMPA in the mail today with the caption below ...
"Songwriters: Spotify and Amazon are taking you to court on March 10. They are appealing your 44%
raise. Tell @Spotify and @AmazonMusic to #StopFightingSongwriters!!!"
PLEASE JOIN THE CAUSE TO SAVE MUSIC AND SHARE THIS ON YOUR FACEBOOK PAGES, BLOGS, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM,
AND ELSEWHERE APPROPRIATE!!!!
Jay Graydon and David Foster having a blast backstage at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, on January 23, 2020, when David
performed together with his wife Katharine McPhee and a few other artists, during his current concert tour in the States, titled
"An Intimate Evening with David Foster - Hitman Tour".
Joining them this evening were
Denise Marie Luko, Bill and Tamara
Champlin, as well as Rune Olsen and a visiting delegation of Norwegian fans running a new Facebook group - TWP The Westcoast Planet - for the "True Believers". Check it out!
January, 2020
JAY GRAYDON IS BACK ON INSIDE MUSICAST!
Kick off the New Year with a brand new interview with Jay. It's been ten years since we last had him on the show, so there's a lot
of ground to cover, including updates on the new JaR album, the 'E' Model Rhodes project, how he became nocturnal, and several
other topics. Jay even discusses a few of the guitars from his collection that he's wanting to part with.
You won't want to miss this lively chat with Jay Graydon on Inside MusiCast!
October, 2019
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAY!!!
Toshi Nakada (Cool Sound) posted this message on his Facebook page:
JAY GRAYDON Special Book, in stores on October 8th!!
Sorry for being written in Japanese, but this book covers his whole career!!
The title of the book is "Jay Graydon : a track record", which is issued from Shinko Music.
Jay-san provided us many photos, including almost of all his guitars & equipments,
and helped us for completing his session works list.
(We've found several stuff which have no musicians credit, but Jay-san actually played on)
I wrote many articles of it, and if you would like to purchase it, please let me know via
direct message.
I might help you.
Thanks, Toshi
August, 2019
UPDATE ON THE E ELECTRONIC PIANO PROJECT
After around three years, finally we are near the point of releasing the program! I figure no more than two months. I gotta
tell ya when you hear that thing it's going to blow you away. It's definitely the best sounding Rhodes of all time, not even
a close second. The full story will be noted when we release the product. - Jay
July, 2019
JAY SHARING SOME THOUGHTS ON MUSIC AND MATH
Cats, check out the link below as what is interesting is the math and how our ears are tricked!
Pass along the above and the following if you like, as I bet there are many stories regarding "Ghost Notes" and other strange
sonic anomalies!
"Ghost Notes" within a mix!
That got me thinking about another subject as when mixing, no doubt you Cats at some point over the years have heard a
strange "ghost note" created by harmonics of two or more instruments. The first time I heard this, I set up a locate spot
a few beats before the problem as to quickly start the test over and over. I muted an instrumental track. If that did not make
the ghost note go away, I un-muted that track and muted another and so on with all possible combinations of muting and soloing
tracks until finally finding what caused the ghost note. Then I started moving the level down in 1 dB intervals on one or more of
the tracks until getting rid of the ghost note. If no automation, manual moves needed to happen when recording the final mix to
the 2-track machine.
With Pro Tools and the like, much easier to fix with a quick automated downward level ride on one or more of the tracks
responsible for the ghost note.
Over the years, I seem to remember this happening 3 times and I seem to remember one ghost note was caused by 3
tracks. Not sure if any ghost notes were caused by the drums as part of the equation.
I wonder if any records were released with the ghost note as part of the mix sounding like a major clam? (g)
Obviously with Pro Tools and the like, much easier to fix with a quick automated downward level ride on one or more of
the tracks responsible for the ghost note. Also, more options such as changing the pitch very slightly on one of
the tracks using Melodyne.
Later Cats, Rake
June, 2019
IMPORTANT MESSAGES FROM JAY AND GREG MATHIESON!
Jay's lifelong friend Greg Mathieson posted this below on his Facebook page on June 19, 2019. It is a very important
message, which sadly captures the essence of the music business of today. With Greg's kind permission, we are reposting his
Facebook entry here below, but first Jay's comments on this situation:
Jay Graydon:
Hey all, the following was posted by one of my best friends, Greg Mathieson. His thought as to trying to eliminate free music
makes sense when noting something like people will buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks (probably 4 to 7 bucks) but won't pay 99 cents
for downloading a song.
Thankfully my era was the last in which, songwriters, record producers, and recording artists made a good living as to royalties. My
royalties have dropped big time starting when free music became something people expect and think is OK! Spotify is a total joke
as let's say a song gets 1 million plays. The total royalty is just under 5,000 that is to be split with the record company,
writer, and producer! When the new copyright law came (after near 100 years of no updating), Spotify filed an appeal! If the record
companies and artists pulled all of their music from Spotify, they would go from millions to out of business in one day, which
they deserve sucking up all of the advertising monies with very little consideration to the people that created and paid for
recording the music!
Now to the main point. Why would anyone want to be a musician, etc. in this era as it is next to impossible to make any money
is what is left of the music business! I worry about the young generation as such musicians, etc. must have a day gig to survive
instead of a shot at being paid what we were paid!
There is only one way to pull this off, which is they must unite as to stopping people from file sharing and ask they pay for
the music as we all did before Napster! It's all up to you so please spread the word to everyone you know! Also, if people stopped
using Spotify and the like, those blood sucking vampires would either charge the proper rate to users per play and pay royalties
like record companies and ASCAP/BMI pays!
(The musician's union is powerless and hardly any musicians sign up to the union anymore for obvious reasons. The union pension fund many
of us old guys paid into, is about to take a huge drop as to our retirement checks! This will really affect the musicians who can
no longer get work and can't play anymore. I have good friends that have debilitating medical issues who need their pension
monies! If the government steps in to help, they will have total control of how much of a cut will take place and the word on the
street is it could be half!)
It's up to you or things will only get worse!
How about someone starts a FaceBook conversation as to hopefully go viral. You may want to note stuff like some people think it
is OK for them to get music for free as I am just one person. Even worse is people simply expect to get music for free not even
thinking that doing so is causing people a huge loss as to income! It's like taking money out of the people's pocket that created
the music!
After all of that, I know most of you that like my music have bought CD's or album downloads of my recordings and I thank you
from the bottom of my heart and I am very proud of you respecting this is what I do for a living!
So check out what Greg wrote as to this subject along with the bootleg videos of his gigs that people post stealing the music. The
story about Vinnie is major proof of how pissed off he is regarding stealing music!
Your musical pal, Jay
***
Greg Mathieson:
I have to get one more thing off my chest. It's a little negative so if you don't want to read it STOP NOW!!!
I know that there was some illegal recording of the gig last week and that's not what bothers me because that
gig/party was a one-off. That band might not ever happen again. Or, maybe it will happen in in 10 years for the 60th B-Party.
The one that really hurt and effected my life was the the illegal recording of the band with me, Vinnie, Landau and Abraham Sr. You see
we had planned to do our own videos so we could make some money. The music world has been turned upside down now. Everybody thinks
that music should be free. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT? My royalties and publishing checks have gone down by 90%. Big bummer. (Now, I'm cool
because I lived through the golden days of sessions, but I worry about the next generation of musicians). File sharing and protools
has made it so there is no real session work anymore. Everyone is sitting in a room by themselves making records. I hardly ever
do a recording session with live players in a studio with all the cats there in the same room. I THINK WE'RE LOSING SOMETHING! (I have
a plan about this but I'll tell you about that next month when I'm ready).
So ... some cat comes into the club and illegally records the Vinnie band right behind Vinnie and posts it all over you tube. Vinnie
hits the roof!!!!!
Long story short ... Vinnie will never ever! ... do you understand the words "never ever" ... play with me at the Baked Potato again! This
cat ruined the band! The band brakes up. The band will never play again! THAT'S A DAMM SHAME!!! I miss that band……..DAMM!!!!!!
So you, Yea you!! ... you know who you are. Are you happy that you broke the band up? Did you ever consider the consequences
of your actions? This is BS and I'm bummed and I miss that band.
Now to my Facebook friends. I know that you probably give to a charity or to your church or maybe help out out a friend. Next
time you down load a song for free ... instead think about your local musicians. Go to iTunes and pay $.99 or $1.99 and support
your local musicians. You pay way more than that at Starbucks!
GROOVE HARD
GREG
THE RIVERA RAKE HEAD SOON SOLD OUT!
Hey everyone,
You people probably know Rivera makes a signature amp called the Rake Head. There are enough panels, circuit boards, and key parts
to build around 7 more and that will be it forever! Check it out here!
In the era of amp modelers the amp market has almost over, which is sad as molders will never sound as good as an amp and takes
the fun away since they don't have the punch and sweet warm mid range tone. The Rake Head was designed to allow the high E string
not "thin out" when playing up high on the neck as the amp can be loaded with sweet mids obviously the mid range control! The Focus
pot is so very cool as the more you add, the sound gets bigger when needed! The clean channel is sweet with more highs (for rhythm) AND
you can also use this channel for sweet distortion as well adding in the Ninga Boost!
When I played a few gigs at the Baked Potato a while back, my very good friend Dan Sawyer was there. Dan is an outstanding guitarist
and he was doing studio work in the same era when I was doing session work. I love Dan's tone as he likes the sweet mids!
After the gig, Dan e-mailed me stating the following. "I have heard Larry Carlton, Luke, Landau, and the rest of the outstanding
guitarists at the Spud (the nickname for the Baked Potato) and your tone is the best I have ever heard!" I thanked him big time
and simply noted when Paul Rivera and I were designing the amp (we would test different circuits and tone circuits) that led to
the final Rake head design so you should be telling this to Paul Rivera. (g)
When I power up the amp and play through it, it makes me want to play! In the past, when playing through other amps, they were
OK but since the Rake Head tone is perfect for me, I play better for sure as things become effortless as I am never fighting with
the amp (you get the drift).
I just remastered Past to Present - the 70s and as usual, the incredible
Fab Filter plugins and some others as well allow so much
flexibility! This album is interesting as it is an adventure through my history leading up to the point of before
becoming a 1st call studio guitarist up to the point when I made the move to producing and writing. - Jay
The Japan/Scandinavia Tours 1994 and 1996 with documentary bonus material
As noted above - A Region Free 4 DVD box set, having a few flashbacks from the 1994 and 1996 actual concert footage, a fun and
informational band reunion hang at Garden Rake Studios 20 years later, filmed by Todd Homme, and a lot of bonus material, such as
for instance a complete explanation by Jay Graydon on how to play his "Peg" solo, as well as a very cool jam
session in Jay's garden from 1989 with great musicians, including Steve Lukather, and so much more.
March, 2019
TRIBUTE ALBUM TO AL JARREAU!
Chris Walker - We're In This Love Together - Celebrating Al Jarreau
A musical tribute project produced by Chris Walker & Larry Williams, with special guests Jay Graydon, David Foster, Jerry Hey,
Dave Koz, Arturo Sandoval, Greg Phillinganes, Paul Jackson Jr., Gary Grant, Chuck Findley, Bill Reichenbach, and
many other greats.
Jay's comments on the project:
Larry Williams is one of my best friends. Larry called me noting he was working on a Jarreau tribute album and asked
me if I would play the guitar parts on Mornin', which I did. The track is great as expected and the bass player (Chris) in Al's
band is an outstanding singer and can sound like Al to the point it's scary!
Larry was Al's musical director for many years and Chris was his bass player and background singer for many years as well. I just
played the full album now and was amazed as to how the songs have developed regarding the arrangements over the years! Outstanding
musicians as expected. Well done guys! - Jay
The album will be released May 17 and is available for pre-order
at Chris Walker's website and
here below are the tracks and featured artists on the album.
Al Message
Mornin' feat. David Foster & Jay Graydon
Breakin' Away feat. Larry Williams
Roof Garden feat. Jerry Hey Horns
We Got By feat. Will Downing & David Caceres
Save Me feat. Randy Brecker & Larry Williams
We're In This Love Together feat. Regina Belle & Gerald Albright
Alonzo feat. Larry Williams
Agua De Beber
Not Like This feat. Gil Goldstein
Take Five
I Will Be Here For You feat. Kirk Whalum
After All
Flame feat. Arturo Sandoval
Spain feat. Larry Williams
Phenomenon
Jarreau feat. Dave Koz & Rick Braun
January, 2019
SIX STRING SHOW feat. LEE RITENOUR!
As you know Jay was one of the guitar judges in Lee Ritenour's Six String Theory
Competition 2018 and recently Rit hosted a great evening of music presenting the winners of his 2018 Six String
Theory Music Competition at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood.
It was an awesome night and Lee Ritenour was jamming with the winners - some incredible young talent
from around the world! Jazz, Blues, Rock, Classical.... they covered it all!
Check out the winners list 2018 on Lee Ritenour's Six String Theory website.
Jay's comments on the gig:
Rit, Wes Ritenour on drums, the main bass player and keyboard player are contest winners (I think) and with
Wes, they played with all the other guitarists, which all were outstanding! The winners are noted on the site for 6 string theory.
The classical guitarist winner is a chick who is unbelievable!!!!
Guitarists of my era that were there - Mitch Holder, Tim May, Thom Rotella, Pat Kelly. Me, Luke and Steve Vai sat together with our
chicks (or wives). My voice over 1st call pal Scott Rummel sat with us as well. I got Bill Evans in but did not see him as too much
was going on and just until the gig started, I was in the band room meeting the winners and hanging out with Rit, Luke, and Vai.
Everyone played great and good to see my pals Rit, Luke, Steve Vai, Tim May, Mitch Holder, and Thom Rotella. Foz was there with Chris Botti, but I did not
know until the next day when he called me. He saw me split with Scott and DML (about 15 minutes before the gig was over) and unfortunately I did not see him in the crowd.
The gig was fun!
Here below a few pics from the gig. (Click on the mini pic to get the full size).
Hey all,
wishing everyone Happy Holidays and a great new year!!! After having major tech problems this fall I am back to mixing the JaR 2 songs, as
well as working on other projects. Most recently I have been playing on a Jarreau tribute album for Larry Williams that will come out
next year. Further, we are getting close as to finishing mode of the first release of the "Famous E Piano" sample program.
As you may know I also produced, mixed and mastered the solo album by Phil deGruy. Check it out
at Phil's Website
I did an interview with Tim Pierce a few weeks ago, which was filmed and in it I am teaching him how to play
the PEG solo. If you are interested, you can watch it on his YouTube channel.
To get you into the holiday mood you may want to listen to my Dad singing his own Christmas song, which I recorded with him in a
pop style -
Jay and Joe Graydon - On This Christmas Eve
If you are interested in some more music for your Christmas gifts, you will find a few suggestions on my
... Christmas page
See you all next year with hopefully the NEW JaR album finally being released and also a few other projects waiting in the wings ...
- Jay
October, 2018
"The Mutual Admiration Society" for Your Grammy Consideration!
As many of you already know, Jay Graydon is a featured guitar player on the track "Strip Mall Gourmet" of this album below -
The Mutual Admiration Society.
"For Your Grammy Consideration: The Mutual Admiration Society, an album from Sterling Ball, @jim cox, and @john ferraro. Featuring
some of the world's greatest guitarists including @steve vai, @john petrucci, @steve lukather, @steve morse, @albert lee and Jay
Graydon. #grammys #FYC"
September, 2018
Airplay remastering 2018 with 3 extra bonus tracks!
Upon request from Sony International, Japan, Jay did this remastering of the AIRPLAY album (released in July 2018) involving several new techniques to enhance and
perfect the sonics of the album. It is available as a SACD and as a blue vinyl from various places, among them, these below ...
All data on the songs, releasing label and cat.# is noted in Jay's discography.
Here are a few notes from Jay on how he worked with the remaster this time around.
Hi all of you who like the Airplay album or may have not heard this album, most of you know I have remastered the album a few times over the years. Each time
I did so, there was always better electronic tools or Pro Tools plug-ins to use. For this current mastering, I spent 12 weeks as I wanted to reshape the whole
sonic concept! In the late 70's and first half of the 80's, recordings had more upper midrange than they do now. One reason Airplay had a lot of upper mids
(around 2k to 3k) was David and I thought we had over-produced the album as we had so many guitar and synth parts! The way to get a crowded album to have all
parts heard is to add the mentioned frequency on many instruments and vocals.
With the great Pro Tools 3rd party plug-ins such as the FabFilter EQ and Multi-band compressor (and many more plugs), I was able to totally reshape the
sonics! I moved the 2 to 3k feature by having the FabFilter multi-band compressor set to tame the 2 to 3k, I used the FF EQ to do the same when needed
automating all of the plug-ins as needed to get the sound I was looking for!
Many of the songs needed more bass since in when using vinyl records, the bass creates a wider groove in the record and if the attack is real
punchy, (the same for the bass drum), the "spike" could easily make the needle jump out of the groove! With digital audio, that problem does not exist!
Let's back up for a moment. Around 7 months ago, Sony and I thought it would be a good idea to remaster. I think this is the first remastering that used
the original 2-track tape instead of a tape copy since when pressing records in other countries, tape copies were made and sent to each country that would
release the product.
The original tapes are at Sony (I think in New York) and Sony Japan asked the tape be transferred to digital at 192k-24 bit, which occurred!
When I received the digital files, I was asked to re-master in 4 separate formats, which are ...
24bit / 96 kHz master as WAV file (including the 3 bonus tracks) for SACD portion of SACD/Hybrid release
16bit / 44.1 kHz master as one DDP file (including the 3 bonus tracks) for CD portion of SACD/Hybrid release
24bit / 96 kHz master as WAV file (WITHOUT the bonus tracks) for Side A (Track# 1-5) for Vinyl LP release
24bit / 96 kHz master as WAV file (WITHOUT the bonus tracks) for Side B (Track# 6-10) for Vinyl LP release
After experimenting with a few songs, I realized Stranded (the 1st song) vocal level would be too low after adding the plug-ins for the total reshaping. One of
my best friends is Bill Evans who is a total genius! As part of his PhD research, he created a new type of audio editing program called Belexes that uses
augmented reality to explore and edit sounds in three dimensions.
Every waveform you can see in a DAW such as Pro Tools can be broken down into millions of individual sine waves. Once this is done, sound can be edited in three
separate dimensions: frequency, time, and amplitude. He now works on a commercial version, invented by his partner Robin Lobel, which runs in two dimensions on
ordinary computers. It's called SpectraLayers, and includes a feature they added for my own work.
So back to Stranded. Since I needed the vocal to be as much 5 dB louder than it was, I asked Bill if he could remove the vocal from the instruments and send me
both tracks. Actually to do this as good as possible, since there are vocal parts that overlap each other, There are 3 vocal tracks and an instruments
track (all are obviously stereo tracks).
Working with SpectraLayers and Steve Oliver at Audioamix (TRAX), Tom (Bill's co-engineer) and Bill separated the three vocals to separate tracks.
Here's the audio of a section of the song before separating the vocals, then a version with just the vocals, and then the full track with the instruments put
back together with the new boosted level riding.
You are going to hear some of this sound kind of robotic and other little anomalies BUT when I tweaked the EQ and more, and then mixed back together to one
stereo track, almost impossible to notice the vocals were ever removed and added back!!!! - Jay
A few weeks ago Jay's very good friend and an excellent guitar player, Tim Pierce, visited Jay in the studio for an interview on how to
to play the iconic PEG solo, as well as chatting about the gear being used and the recording session with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of the Steely Dan.
Near the end of the video, I did not know Tim was going to use live guitar audio along with my recorded track of
the solo. If I knew Tim was going to use my "jam along" audio with the track, I would have tuned up and played a few
passes to make sure to get it in tune so please forgive the fact the pitch is not good.
Also, the solo is a remake of the original as I have used it a few times in films and TV interviews. Since it costs big
bucks to get a synch license from Warner Bros to use the original, I hired my very close friend, Jay Oliver (excellent
keyboardist and composer), who is also outstanding as to re-creating sounds with samplers. etc. Unless the listener pays
close attention, you might think this is the original Steely version!
August, 2018
JaR 2 AND NEVE 2!
Message from Jay:
Hey all, Jay Graydon here,
after many months working with the re-masters for Japan of AIRPLAY and AIRPLAY FOR THE
PLANET, plus mixing, mastering and co-producing, the new album by Phil deGruy, I finally
resumed working on the JaR 2 mixes. Guess what happens next ...?
Two Caps exploded on my Neve V2 (the insert card power rail cap on channels 18&20) and the smoke rising up from the console scared the shit out
of me! It sounded like 10 firecrackers and happened twice within 5 minutes of each
other! All of those Caps on every module will need to be replaced asap as too old and they
suck major current! More will blow up soon if not replaced!
Soon every cap on the console Neve V2-48) will need to be replaced as they fail! There are around 100 per module. This
will be the 6th time a full re-capping will happen in over 30 years! A new console would cost 500,000 bucks and
for the first six months, there would be problems so that idea is not practical, especially the price!
As soon as I get problems fixed in the studio I start the mixes. I hope no more than
a week from Monday as my tech Dave Clark will work this Monday and next Monday
as there are always a few problems. I am now heading into the control room to write out notes for Dave as to failed modules, etc.
This issue is major! Shit like this happens all the time with big consoles. The more modules, the
more the problems build up. Dave is the main Neve tech at Capitol and he is constantly working
on 3 Neves!
The trade off of using an analog console with Pro Tools is worth the hassle as the Neve V2
is the last console with the old style Neve EQ that sounds great!
So hang in there, folks, JaR 2 is on the way! - Jay
April, 2018
JAY JUDGING IN RIT'S SIX STRING THEORY COMPETITION!
It may seem very quiet around here, but the truth is Jay is working hard in the studio, and barely has time to come up for air. Here he is
with a brief message to you all.
Hey all, Jay Graydon here.
Long time since I posted anything, but I am slammed with work in the studio and not much time for anything
else. Just a few brief notes as to what is happening ...
The Japan gig with Foz is postponed due to scheduling problems.
So, right now I am
remastering the AIRPLAY album for Japan
mastering an album for Phil DeGruy
working on finishing the famous E-Rhodes sample program - probably 3 months before release
MARRIAGE BETWEEN RIVERA RAKE HEAD AMP AND LINE 6 HELIX USED FOR EFFECTS!
Jay notes:
In the video you just watched or about to watch regarding the marriage of Analog Amplification (my signature Rake Head amp & speaker bottom)
and digital (Line 6 Helix I mostly use for a replacement of stomp box effects), I forgot to mention the issue of latency (delay) of digital, obviously
the less latency the better.
Before I get into full detail, note that sound travels at approximently1 millisecond per foot. If you are 10 feet away from an analog amp, the sound is
delayed to your ears by 10 milliseconds when playing your instrument. We have gotten used to such delay.
The Helix is a digital processor that must use digital to analog and analog to digital converters. The Helix converters induce just 1.1 milliseconds so
no big deal. You may think since stomp boxes are analog so no extra delay is in play BUT in this era, many stomp boxes that used to be analog or many new
stomp boxes are digital, leading to the fact each digital stomp box induces at least 1.1 milliseconds and maybe more! Further, the converters will typically
not be high quality converts that hurt the sound!
The bottom line as to latency is the latency could add a lot of delay!
One more issue to address is noise caused by stomp boxes as well as cables and connectors that dull up the sound. Without getting too technical, impedance
loading is in play and more!
WESTCOAST MUSIC MAGAZINE READER'S AWARD!
"Congratulations to Jay Graydon from all the readers of 'West Coast' Music Magazine who voted "Airplay For
The Planet" the Best Reissued Album in our 2017 Award Winners Poll. We are delighted to see this particular album reissued as it is a real favourite
amongst west coast music lovers and we are equally looking forward to hearing new material from Jay in 2018 too." - Nick Mawson (Editor)
-----------
Hey all, Jay Graydon here.
I just found out about the great news as to Airplay For The Planet has won the Readers Award for "Best Reissued Album Of The Year" in the
West Coast Music Magazine!
I am once again reminded that even though the business part of the music business can be a drag, the bottom line in my job is to make people happy through my music!
Some of you may have seen the movie, Hired Gun. The studio musician sections were short and early touched on, which is good as before the timing of that movie, for a
few years, I had been thinking and writing an outline for a documentary of the 1st call studio musicians, background singers, etc. from the 70's through the
late 80's — that was the last era of musical songs where players had to be the best of the best! Other than the interviews with all the great musicians, singers, etc. there
will be interviews with the artists that were/are stars as to the importance of the studio musicians/singers. Now for the best part! We will record songs from the
era the same way we did before Pro Tools help! The viewing audience will be in the control room and studio hearing and watching everything that happens in such
sessions! There will be humor for sure and stories only we know!
Also, when you read this, I will finally be mixing the JaR album Code! The odds are good the album will be released by spring.
Further, I have been working on a book for years writing out stories as I think of them. Hopefully that will get released sometime next year.
Thanks again for the huge honor!
Your musical pal, Jay
SUPERIOR DRUMMER 3!
New message from Jay;
Hey all, I have been a beta tester for Toontrack since the first Superior Drummer program came out. I just set up Superior 3 and I must
tell you this is by far the best sounding and flexible drum program ever! The midi is perfectly accurate and no inverted phase issues. I am
extremely impressed!!!! Check out the program as I think you’ll love it!
If you did not know, George (the owner of the famous E Rhodes) and I have been working on sampling the one and only "E" for
nearly 2 years. The full story will be noted when we release the product, which will be as soon as possible. We are in
negotiations as to the deal and as soon as that gets wrapped up, we will release for sale!
George and I have listened to every sampled Rhodes we know of. None stand up to the "E". Spectrasonics released a video for their
program, Keyscapes. They claim to have sampled the famous "E", which is not true! We contacted the company and asked they stop
advertising their Rhodes as the "E" but I think the video still exists. No matter as again, the "E" will be released very soon!
We sampled at 96k 24 bit and will render down to 88.2, 48, and 44.1 so if using other than 96k, there will be no real time rendering
down, which helps save DSP power. We did not do any looping as each sample sustains in full!
We are perfectionists so we did not take any shortcuts! Again, the full story when released.
It is fact that any program is only as good as the weakest link in the audio chain - in this case, there is no weak link! Most
importantly is the sound source (the instrument sampled)! I have heard/played at least 100 Fender Rhodes over the years and there
is no doubt the "E" is the best ever!
No need to take my word as the person that has heard more Fender Rhodes than anyone is the designer, Harold Rhodes! Over the
years Harold was told by many people he should hear the famous "E" so he drove to George's home to listen to it. Harold said it
is the best Rhodes he had ever heard!
We have now set up a Facebook page for the B3PIO band which
will note all about the band, like the latest news, bios, and pics. Later on maybe videos and merch as well. There you will also
find upcoming gig dates and info on how to book tickets. Since the shows often sell out, best to go
to the Baked Potato site
and buy tickets in advance. There are two sets and if the 2nd set does not sell out, you can stay for the 2nd
set, but to make sure you hear both sets, it would be a good move to buy tickets for both.
JAY GRAYDON AND HIRED GUN!
Here below a link to a brief video clip with Jay talking about his PEG solo on
the Steely Dan album AJA.
This clip is taken from the highly acclaimed documentary HIRED GUN, by director/producer Fran Strine.
The live gig with B3PIO band on October 19, had a secret guest as noted below. Jay says "The Spud gig is so much fun!"
and Greg says on his Facebook page ...
"Hi FB Friends, man the band played great last night and "Jake the Rake" played his ass off!
So did everyone!!! I GOT ME A NEW BAND. ALSO, BILL CHAMPLIN sat in for two songs and tore it up. Man he is funky and soulful.
So here is the deal.....we're playing 11/9/17 and I'm gonna try to have a guest at every show but it's gonna be a secret. So, you're
just gonna have to come to the gig and see who it is!!!!! Come out and support your local musicians! - GROOVING HARD GREG"
Sooo, music lovers, don't miss out on getting tickets for the next gig at the Spud with this band - B3PIO (Jay Graydon, Greg
Mathieson, Ralph Humphrey, Jerry Watts Jr.) plus a secret guest!!! Again, the date
is November 9, the venue is small, so be sure to get tix in time!!!
LIVE GIG AT THE SPUD!
Time again for a live gig at the Baked Potato on October 19 with B3PIO - Greg Mathieson, Ralph
Humphrey, Jerry Watts Jr., featuring Jay Graydon. Best to book tickets
in advance since the venue is small and both shows were sold out the last time.
TITANS OF RADIO!
New message from Jay;
"Presenting TITANS OF RADIO - a film about the soundtrack to your life. Featuring, David Foster,
Ray Parker Jr., Steve Lukather, and myself. This film will be an all access pass to behind the scenes
and include re-records of a lot of the hits!
The exciting part of all this and why we are on Kickstarter is, YOU can be a part of this historic production!
Check it out here below!
Not only will you hear the stories of how we formed and shaped these songs from the ground up, but we will actually re-record and bring in super star guests to join in on the recordings!
Can you imagine some of these songs re-recorded on film with artists like Lady GaGa, Bruno Mars, Adam Levin or a host of other super stars to sing on the track?
By contributing to this Kickstarter program you will receive a unique perk and enable us to start production!"
September, 2017
UPCOMING GIGS!
New message from Jay;
"The AIRPLAY gig with Foz at Budokan has been moved to March or May of next year. I will post more details as
they become available, and when the date is set, I will be doing a seminar at a Yamaha studio (or a small
concert room) 1 or 2 days before the concert. The room will hold around 100 people. We will announce the details
as soon as we know when the concert will happen.
My next live gig will be on October 19 with the band B3PIO
at the Baked Potato. The venue is small so best get tickets in advance!"
CODE OFFICIAL VIDEO!
A message from Jay:
"Hey all, I know so many of you are waiting for the new JaR album, and as you know I am working on the final mixes at this
point, BUT there are soooooo many other things to do at the same time, like doing endorsement videos, teaching my fellow
guitarists how to play the solos on a few AIRPLAY songs for the gig at Budokan with Foz November 28, doing interviews, phone
calls, emails, writing new songs, working on my autobiography ... etc. etc. ... You get the drift.
Having said that, we will give you a little teaser of the new JaR album - a cool video based on the title song CODE, recently
filmed by Bennett Ryle, who did an excellent job!!! Hope you enjoy it!!!!"
WALTER BECKER PASSING!
"So very sad to hear Walter passed away as Steely Dan has helped keep quality music alive in a huge way! Donald says he will keep SD going, which
is great!" - Jay
"Ooops, the 96k remastered CD of AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET sold out quickly, BUT we have now pressed up a new batch, so not a problem any longer. The remaster
is available for purchase through my website. I know
that many of you already own this album in older versions, but this remaster is sooo much better, as many of you have already
discovered. Thanks sooo much for your support and great reviews!!!" - Jay
August, 2017
AIRPLAY AT BUDOKAN NOVEMBER 28!
AIRPLAY - David Foster and Jay Graydon - will reunite at Budokan, Tokyo, Japan, for a few songs in the "David Foster and Friends" show on
November 28, 2017.
Jay's comments:
"The Japan gig is a David Foster and Friends show and we will do 4 Airplay songs. I am working on
setting up a seminar the day
before (probably at a Yamaha center) which will include tickets for the gig (good VIP seats), Meet and Greet with me, everyone can ask me questions, and
the chance of coming to a rehearsal or sound check. I will probably have a bunch of hand burned 1st generation CD's of mine to sign for everyone. It may
be limited to around 100 people but could be more. I will note details as things unfold."
MORE PICS FROM THE SPUD GIG!
Here are a few more pics from the Spud gig on August 10. Thanks to Richard (Rick) Cuilty and Raffi Christopher Donoyan for
letting us use your photos. Thanks also to Toshi Yanagi, great guitarist, who plays in the Jimmy Kimmel TV SHOW band. He took
the 3 pics in the last row.
Your next chance to see and hear the band B3PIO live at the Baked Potato will be on October 19 or
possibly already in September. If so, we will of course keep you posted here on the site, so stay tuned music lovers!
(To see a larger image, just click on the pic.)
JAY GRAYDON PLAYING LIVE AT THE BAKED POTATO!
Jay played a live gig with the new band B3PIO with Greg Mathieson, Ralph Humphrey, and Jerry Watts Jr. on August 10 at The Baked Potato
in Studio City. The jazz club was crowded as both sets were sold out and a great time was had by all.
The photographs from the gig are used by permission of the guys who took them. Our thanks go to
Jerry Watts Jr. for the first two pics, and to David Goldstein for pic 3. We really appreciate
you letting us use your photos, guys!
(To see a larger image, just click on the pic.)
Jay's comments about the gig ...
I assume most of you know I have not played live in many years. Greg begged me to
do the gig so I practiced for a month every night and I must say it was worth
doing so as I feel I played fairly well and had a great time!
The band B3PIO consists of the following outstanding musicians: Greg Mathieson
(Organ and Clavinet), Ralph Humphrey (Drums), and Jerry Watts (Bass). One
would not expect the following — we did not have a rehearsal as a band!
Back to the gig at the Baked Potato. The next gig we have at the Baked Potato
(we call it, The Spud) is October 19th. Since both shows sold out quickly, if
anyone wants to come to the upcoming gig, best to book tickets on line.
It is possible we may play a gig sooner if any band cancels their gig in September.
Here's a quick story as to the history of the band.
Greg and I met in college and quickly became very good friends and worked so
many gigs together for a few years and when not working, we jammed often. We
jammed with a few different drummers and bass players. Ralph was one of those
drummers as I worked with Ralph in the Don Ellis band for a few years.
I remember when Greg first brought a chart for his composition entitled, LMNOP. That
was probably 45 years ago! That was the beginning of Greg's band so to speak.
Dan Sawyer (outstanding studio guitarist if you did not know that) was the next
guitarist in the band. Then I introduced Greg to Carlton and Carlton was next. After
a while, Steve Lukather was the next outstanding guitarist in the band, and then
Mike Landau (obviously another outstanding guitarist). So at this point, obviously
I am now the guitarist after nearly 50 years ago! As to drummers, I can't remember
who was first when Greg became serious as to the band but Jeff Porcaro soon became
the drummer in the band. After that I think Abe Laboriel Jr. was next and then
Vinnie. So similar to me, Ralph is back in the band! Very ironic the three of
us are playing together again!
Abe Laboriel Sr. was the bassist in the band around the time Jeff Porcaro
was in the band but no longer as Jerry Watts in now the bassist. I met him last
night on the gig and he is an outstanding bassist and a great person!
Now that I feel my playing is getting back to what it should be, I want to
play more often so once again I am available for hire to play solos and guitar
parts via files sent to me.
In any case, I am really digging playing guitar often these days!
July, 2017
HIRED GUN DOCUMENTARY ON DVD!
The HIRED GUN documentary will now be released on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD - available August 1!
If you missed your opportunity to see this film last month, follow one of these links to pre-order your copy at Amazon or
Barnes and Noble.
Rivera is reissuing the Rake Head May 2017! This is the Jay Graydon signature tone machine that was originally released
almost 20 years ago! Only 25 will be made!
From the Rivera website ...
The Jay Graydon Signature Rake Head is back! Resurrected for an ultra limited run. We're building only 25 pieces and
then they're gone. You want the Steely Dan tone and more, this amp is for you! And, don't think this amp is only a
late 70's early 80's king of tones. The Rake is also known for it's ultra smooth high-gain with thick-mids sonic
signature. Tuned by legendary Jay Graydon (LA session guitarist for Air Supply, George Benson, Al Jarreau, DeBarge,
El DeBarge, Sheena Easton, Art Garfunkel, Manhattan Transfer, Johnny Mathis, Patti LaBelle, Lou Rawls, Kenny Rogers,
Dionne Warwick, Barbara Streisand, Dolly Parton, Diana Ross, The Jackson Five, Cheap Trick, Christopher Cross,
Ray Charles, Donna Summer, Cher, Joe Cocker, Marvin Gaye, Hall & Oates, Olivia Newton-John, and Albert King, just
to name a few).
Here is a video interview with Paul Rivera Jr. in which Jay explains why he loves this amp.
Jonah (Dirty Loops) was in LA for a few days, so we got together for a dinner hang the other night and then went to my studio
and took this pic. Always great to hang out with him talking about music and other fun stuff.
Tommy was a very kind person with a great attitude!! I remember the first meeting I had with Tommy and David Foster
in the late 70's. I think David and I were asking for a record deal. Tommy passed on the deal as we were not really
ready for such a deal, but that was good in the long run as David and I fell into the RCA AIRPLAY deal by accident.
When Tommy was doing A&R at Warners, it was Tommy's idea to hire me as to co-write and produce songs for the George
Benson Collection album, which lead me to co-writing and producing TURN YOUR LOVE AROUD! I really owed Tommy big time
for thinking I was the right producer/co-writer for the huge #1 hit!
As for Tommy as a producer, I don't think he was a musician and most of the time, such producers do not have a clue
on the musical end BUT he had a sense to what worked well or not and was so easy to get along with regarding producing
the artist. I bet every artist that Tommy produced was always pleased with the process! That is a huge compliment! Over
many years Tommy and I ran into each other almost once a week in a restaurant we really like and always had a great time
talking about most everything. We had many laughs and got along so very well!
I will miss Tommy so very much! So sad he is gone as he will be missed by so many friends! Rest in peace Bro!
February, 2017
AL JARREAU PASSING!
A message from Jay:
Hi All,
Needless to say I have been receiving tons of e-mails and posts on Facebook regarding the passing of Alwin Jarreau and I do
thank all of you for your kind messages and for offering your condolences.
Al will surely be missed by all! Al was a good person and no need to mention a extremely talented singer!
I had spoken with Al less than a year ago as to get together regarding some unfinished business as well as
ideas I had for his live gigs. We tried to schedule a meeting but sadly the time frame did not work out. It was on my
to-do list and I was going to call him this week!
During our conversation on the phone, we were laughing about some stories and the conversation was very good!
I have been working on an autobiography for years writing down stories as they come to mind and there will be
so many stories as to recording sessions, etc.
If there is any good news at this point, there are many songs we recorded that were not released along with alternate
takes. This music needs to be heard so I will contact Warner Bros and Rhino noting I am the only person who knows the
information as to put together the audio for all to hear.
In closing, Al had a great life and made so many people happy as to his records and concerts!
Rest in Peace Alwin. - Jay Graydon
February, 2017
AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET - Remastered at 96k - Thanks!
A message from Jay:
Thanks to all of you for purchasing the 96k version of the AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET album on my Bandcamp page
and thanks also for all of your great and appreciative comments on this enhanced remaster! I really worked hard on making it sound as great as possible
and I am very happy with the result.
Right now I am denoising, tweaking, and mixing audio for my very close friend, Phil DeGruy, who is an outstanding solo guitarist in chord melody land! He
plays a 17 string guitar and if you have never heard his stuff, go to his website as to check it out.
When done with that project, the next move is to truncate the samples for the incredible "E" Rhodes used on so many recording
sessions as the owner George Mamalakis and I partnered up to do the sample library. We are both perfectionists so for the past
year the "E" has been tweaked to sound better than ever! George is sampling every note. We will have 19 velocities for each note
and no looping meaning the notes sustain until they are silent! George should elaborate as to this.
After truncating all notes, we will work out a deal with a major software company as to release for sale.
The next move will be to finally finish the JaR mixes. BTW we have also updated
the sessions page on my website with tons of information on recording sessions over the years, with all of the musicians involved and you will surely
have fun checking that out!
January, 2017
Screening of HIRED GUN!
Hey all, here is a short message regarding a film, that I am featured in. It is called HIRED GUN and is about studio musicians.
Join director Fran Strine and cast member Ray Parker Jr for a
screening of Hired Gun. Jay Graydon is featured in the film and
shares really funny stories on the George Benson hit "Turn Your
Love Around" with Steve Lukather as well as Jay’s legendary
guitar solo in Steely Dan’s "Peg"…
Hi Jay,
Downloaded the 96k. Great job! Silky mids and lows, fab eq. Was this entirely in the box or was it via your Neve? A credit to you!
---
Thanks for the kind words! I am now remembering the full story. All but 2 songs (maybe 3) were recorded analog 48 track (two MCI
(modified) 24 track machines linked via time code). The other two
songs were recorded via ADAT (a total of 48 tracks).
All songs were mixed through the NEVE 2- 48 (this is the last NEVE manufactured with the very musical warm EQ). SHE JUST CAN'T MAKE UP
HER MIND ended up being a rough mix through the NEVE to a DAT 2 track recorder.
Other than SHE JUST CAN'T MAKE UP HER MIND (recorded to a DAT recorder) all other songs were recorded to an Ampex ATR 102 (1/2" tape)
analog recorder.
As mentioned, I transferred the analog 2 track master to Pro Tools at 44.1k and 96k 24 bit.
So none of the songs were mixed in the box! I never mix in the box always using the Neve!
---
As always Jay you are a mine of wonderful information.
AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET - Remastered at 96k!
AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET has been selling well and we are running out of stock so when almost out of stock, CD
BABY requests more. That opened a can of worms since the program Kerstin used for the original artwork is out
of date so she needed to start over using a new program. Since she needed to redo the artwork, I thought it
would be a good idea to re-master the audio.
When I first set up Pro Tools about 14 years ago I wanted to transfer all analog tapes to Pro Tools as to preserve. The
problem with old analog tapes is they won't play as they become sticky as the chemicals used to make tape are part
petroleum based. The solution is to have the tapes baked! At that point the tapes will play for about a month. I found
all of the analog tapes I could find so after having the tapes baked, I transferred everything into Pro Tools at that
time.
I typically recorded the transfers at 44.1k but in some cases, I also recorded at 96k. I asked Kerstin to find out if any
company allows 96k audio files to be sold. One of her sons (Stefan) mentioned he uses BANDCAMP for his State Cows albums as they allow 96k files to download!
I thought the re-mastering gig would take a few days BUT it ended up taking 6 weeks, since I am a perfectionist. The
concept was to "sculpt" the mastering by automating EQ to make sound as good as possible. I did my best to make the
bass sound more "even" as well as bringing up the vocal level on a few songs via EQ, adding some sweet high end frequencies
to "open up" some meaning to give it air. Some guitar solos and lines had a bit too much in the 2.5k area so I rode EQ
in those spots.
Keep in mind most of the songs were recorded on analogue 2" Scotch 996 tape (at 30 ips), which is the best sounding
analog tape ever manufactured! The mixes were recorded on 1/2" Scotch 996 tape (at 30 ips),
Back to the re-mastering, I am just scratching the surface as to describing all of the automated EQ moves I did BUT
I must say it was worth the hassle as the album sounds delicious! - Jay
December, 2016
JAY GRAYDON - CROONER SONGS!
"My very good friend Tim Hosman writes many songs for library companies that place the songs on films, TV shows, jingles, etc. Tim
was asked by one of the companies he writes for to do 4 songs in the Sinatra, Ella, etc. style. Tim knows that style is so easy for
me to write so I composed the melody/chord changes and Tim wrote great lyrics! Tim hired a good friend of ours (George Stone) to
arrange for big band and strings. There are small group versions (trio) as well.
Tim had little time to record the stuff but it sounds great! The male singer on the songs is Rick Riso. I produced the vocal on
one song - I Fell In Love Today AKA My Heart Skipped A Beat with Kate Reid - and she is a great singer!
Since the tunes are being used by a library company for placements in films, TV shows etc. they all have 2 titles each as follows ...
Swinging For The Fences AKA Swinging For Love
I Fell In Love Today AKA My Heart Skipped A Beat
Hey Cupid AKA Cupid's Crooner
Autumn Breeze AKA My Heartstrings
We had just composed the songs and shortly after that is when I broke my right elbow in half! Ouch! If that had not happened, I may
have been more involved as to the production and would have played guitar on the songs in the Freddie Green style (I love to play
that style).
The songs have been used in several TV shows, such as PARENTHOOD (Cupid's Crooner), REVENGE (Cupid's Crooner; Swinging For Love; My
Heartstrings Trio), ARROW (My Heartstrings Trio), GRACELAND (Swinging For Love Trio), MAGIC CITY (Swinging For Love; My
Heartstrings), RAY DONOVAN (Swinging For Love), HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER (Cupid’s Crooner), AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE (My Heartstrings), and
many more. Some of the songs have been used in movies as well.
The songs are released on a compilation album
called - Timeless Vocals: The Golden Years - and
the tracks can be downloaded at iTunes. The track numbers for our songs are 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the songs, arrangements, etc." - Jay
November, 2016
AUDIO PLAYERS THAT CAN PLAY 96k?
I have 96k files of Jay Graydon - AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET. Note
this album was mixed on Scotch 996 (the best analogue tape ever manufactured) and when transferring to Pro Tools to master, I recorded 44.1k files and 96k
files JUST IN CASE THERE WOULD BE FUTURE AUDIO PLAYERS THAT CAN PLAY 96k.
Do any of you know of such a player? Since 96k files with 11 tracks won't fit on a CD, I have no idea to the format to use. Maybe DVD's?
Hey all, for all of you interested in the beautiful sound of the famous legendary "E" Rhodes piano ... have we got news for
you!!! Jay Graydon and George Mamalakis, who owns this "Holy Grail" piano are working together on a project, which will knock
your socks off!!! Just read on, quality music lovers ...
September 16, 2016
THE LEGENDARY "E" RHODES SAMPLING PROJECT!
Eric and I go back many years. I wrote to him directly regarding his claim about sampling the actual "E"" Rhodes and I had no doubt
that he would willingly change the wording and video information as to his new program, Keyscape, noting the Rhodes samples are
not from the famous "E", but instead from another Leeds Rhodes that Eddy Reynolds modified.
Note, we are all friends here and we surely support all of Eric's plugs as all are great! No doubt Keyscape will be an outstanding
program (I am very interested in experimenting with the Yamaha C7 he sampled!). Eric was also very kind as to offer an NFR of Keyscape
for both George and me. Of course we will give Eric an NFR when our program is ready for release.
In my e-mail to Eric I noted my personal experience as to all of Leeds Rhodes stating the following:
"Please note when David Foster told me about the "E", from then on we used it on many sessions as you know, the Eddy mod happened later
and I noticed the mod improved the sound around 10%.
I had also heard all of the other Leeds Rhodes on sessions (before and after the Eddy mod) in which I was booked to play guitar. When going
into the control room listening to the first playback, I would pay attention to the Rhodes sound in order to find out if any other of Leeds
Rhodes modified by Eddy were better. I was hoping to hear one that was as good or close to as good as the "E" for my production work since
after I spread the word about the "E", booking it could take a month or more, so the sessions were booked around the availability. Man, I
must say none were even close to the "E"!
I think my own personal (stage model) Rhodes was manufactured around 1973 (maybe a 72) but no matter, as it was average at best. I hired
Eddy to mod my Rhodes (soon after the discovery of the "E") and like I noticed with all of the others, the sound improved only about
10%. After the mod, my Rhodes has been a dust collector, as I never used it again. It’s sitting next to my Arp 2600 that has not been
powered up for probably 30 years and I’m afraid to turn it on. (g)
Anyway, just noting my experience. I must say that until I play your Rhodes samples in my studio on the big monitors, I am wise
enough (maybe I should say "old enough" ) to reserve judgment!"
We will keep everyone informed as to the progress of our exciting sampling project of the famous E RHODES. Meanwhile, we plan to produce
some videos that should be of interest — especially to illustrate how the note strikes were struck using a device that George built. He
calls it V.E.R.A. (Velocity E Rhodes Actuator) and I am impressed that George designed this incredible mechanism, despite his corny acronym
for it! - Jay
September 10, 2016
THE LEGENDARY "E" RHODES SAMPLING PROJECT!
Please tell all of your friends and websites about the "E" program! Spectrasonics has noted misleading information that could
destroy the market of the Famous "E" Rhodes owned by George!
Note huge attention will be paid as to the chorus since as we know that is extremely important to the sound! Most people do not realize
the using a square wave as the modulator is the smoothest way to chorus! If you have an ALESIS QUADRAVERB, one of the chorus modulator
options is a square wave! The designer of the QUADRAVERB is Marcus Ryle and is a very close friend. When I was beta testing the unit for
him he mentioned to check out the square wave modulator — I was floored as to the smooth modulation!
Important! Anyone that knows me knows I am a perfectionist. The "E" will not have "looped notes" meaning every sample will sustain until
the audio is at -inf! Every note velocity sample will be sampled + 0.3 dB apart meaning the lowest level hit to the extreme hardest attack
are in increments of +0.3 dB from each other! This is almost overkill but we want to make sure every possible level of tone change is
covered!
We are sampling at 96k/24 bit and of course 88.2k, 48k, and 44.1k will be included in the program. Needless to say the files will be
huge! There is so much information to write about and George and I will do so in sections so please check back into my website for
upcoming details!
September 9, 2016
THE LEGENDARY "E" RHODES SAMPLING PROJECT!
We would like to congratulate Eric Persing on the launch of his extraordinary new virtual instrument Keyscape, which
is featuring probably the largest selection of collector keyboards in the world.
However, although Keyscape has a Rhodes sample, in the video, Eric states the Rhodes sampled is the famous legendary "E" Rhodes, WHICH IS
NOT TRUE!
There is only one specific "E" Rhodes electronic piano, which Harold Rhodes called "the most beautiful Rhodes I've ever heard!" - that
was the real "E" Rhodes, which was used by all the session musicians of the era on e.g. the Jarreau albums and so many others. After
discovering the "E", since none of the other Leeds Rhodes were even close sounding, I would not use any other Rhodes on a session,
period!!!!
The owner of this piano, George Mamalakis, and I are currently sampling the "E" and will be releasing the product probably in
January 2017. We will post news about this on our websites, so keep hanging around if you are interested in getting the genuine unique
legendary "E" Rhodes sound. George and I will note full details as things progress, which will be educational!
Feel free to share this info on your own Facebook pages!
Jay Graydon with a few of the musicians, who are featured in the documentary Hired Gun at the pre-screening of the movie at Ray's pad. From
right to left, Jay Graydon, Steve Lukather, Ray Parker Jr., David Paich, Sylvester Rivers, Fran Strine (director),
David Garfield, and a few others. Jay appears briefly here in the promo trailer at 4:01 -
Hired Gun Documentary Sizzle (in association w/ Foolish Kings)
STORYLINE
Hired Gun is a documentary film about session and touring
musicians that are hired by well established and famous bands and artists
like Metallica, KISS, and Billy Joel. These hired guns may not be household names, but are still masters of their craft.
Session Aces. Keepers of Time. Vocalists. Composers. The sidemen and sidewomen who play the riffs and fills we imitate
in the air. When we turn up the radio, chances are we are listening to one of these players. A-listers have them on
speed dial. International tour or recording session, who're they gonna call? A "Hired Gun." This feature length one-off
documentary introduces the prolific musicians who are virtually unknown to the public. Billy Joel, Whitesnake, P!NK and
Metallica are synonymous with their own artistry and success, but who is responsible for their instrumental solos? Who
tours with them live? It is the consummate side players who kill it show after show, often playing circles around the
actual band members. In "Hired Gun," viewers learn the firsthand stories from individuals who have mastered their craft
and perform on the world's biggest stages. This film details the highs and lows of touring life, the demands of hectic
session schedules, and the dedication required ...
April, 2016
HIRE JAY TO PLAY ON YOUR PROJECT!
Yea, it is really true! Apart from mixing the songs for the new JaR album Jay has now decided he will take on more guitar work for hire
from time to time, so if you think you have a suitable project for him to play on ... go for it!
The way I work is the producer, artist, or engineer sends me the session audio files. I create a new session in my Pro Tools HD 3
system and import the audio. When I have finished the work I send the guitar audio files. I work alone in my studio as that allows
me to work on the song(s) late at night. There are more details to note when needed. - Jay"
February, 2016
JAY HANGING WITH THE TOTO CATS
Left to right: Michael McDonald, Jay Graydon, Maureen McGillan Sklar, Steve Lukather, Lee Sklar. Thanks for allowing us to use your very cool
pic, Maureen!
(To see a larger image, just click on the pic.)
Jay having a great night out hanging backstage with the TOTO cats after their gig.
In my book, I think Prince had one major strength, which is he seemed to have a very deep well as to songwriting not
repeating himself. That is a gift for sure!
No doubt he was responsible for helping to shape pop music in the 80's (to me, that was the last era of artist musical freedom
before radio hired companies to test songs and supply radio with weekly play lists).
I have a story that may be of interest. I produced many albums for artists on Warner Brothers. Lenny Waronker was the president
in the 80's and I was close with Lenny. I was in his office for a meeting and somehow our conversation switched to talking
about Prince. At the time, "When Doves Cry" was a hit, Lenny noted Prince had a meeting with Lenny and played a rough mix of
"When Doves Cry". Prince was concerned that he did not use a bass on the song and asked what Lenny thought. Lenny's answer
was perfect as he said something like, "There is low end in the track as the bass drum is covering that frequency area." That
made Prince feel secure as to not having a bass instrument and the rest is history as the song was released without bass.
Kerstin just sent me the audio of "You're My Love", which is a song that Prince wrote under the pseudonym Joey Coco, for the
Kenny Rogers album "They Don't Make Them Like They Used To", which I produced.
The song is musical as there are a few hip chords. I can't remember if those chords were on his demo. Probably not as Robbie
Buchanan arranged the song and since Robbie is very musical, he probably added the hip chord changes.
I remember Kenny has good pitch so recording the vocals was fairly easy. I remember Kenny asked me to call El Debarge as to
sing BG vocals. El is a great singer and he did a good job on the track.
- Jay
March, 2016
A Message from Jay
For all of you musicians, over the years there has been two hit songs in which something occurred as to chord changes. In both
cases, I can't remember hearing such events.
Probably in the late 60's or 70's, there exists a song with many chord changes in which the "root" chord (the 1 chord) is never
played.
There is a song in which the #4 diminished is used for the 5 chord. When the song gets to the 4 chord and then to the #4 diminished
chord, the melody is the same note on both chords (common tone), which ties in the two chord changes as to not notice the #4 diminished
chord as being strange.
See if you can figure out the title to each song.
Now that I have baited you all, please note that on the next JaR album I am now mixing, there is
song in which to figure out the code within the lyrics.
Ran and I will not compress the mixes as the majority has spoken. At least 90% of people voted for no
compression leading to the fact our fanbase are clearly interested in quality audio!
Also, there are audio compressor apps for iPhones, etc. so if you want to put the audio in such apps for a
louder level, you can.
We also suggest the CD is a much better way to go as to the audio as it will not get any better than that
format at this point in time.
The only reason I can think of as to compressing mixes is if your audio system has a broken volume control
stuck on the lowest level. Yes, that is a joke but check this out! I have played CD's in my studio with
the monitor level down as far as it can go — the audio was too loud! Ouch! - Jay
February, 2016
JAY JUDGING GUITARISTS IN ONLINE COMPETITION
Lee Ritenour's
Six String Theory Guitar Competition
Jay has again been invited to be a a judge in the jazz guitar category of Lee Ritenour's SIX STRING THEORY competition 2016. The
competition is a great opportunity for aspiring musicians (in guitar, bass, piano & drums). This is your chance to win incredible
prizes and priceless professional opportunities!
First choice of One(1) Yamaha acoustic, classical, or electric guitar ...
Recording a track on Lee Ritenour’s forthcoming album to be recorded in Autumn 2016. Travel, lodging and stipend are included in the
prize. The recording will take place at the incredible Woodshed Recording Studio in Malibu, California. One of the most beautiful and
unique studios in Southern California, complete with state of the art equipment and ... the prize list goes on and on ...
Registration Opens for Applicants on January 15, 2016 and Closes on May 15, 2016.
The Tinseltown Tracks presents PRODUCED BY JAY GRAYDON brought to you by Massimo M.
Milano - critic / musicologist / researcher, who notes the following ...
"The program will be broadcast in live streaming on Friday, Jan. 8, at 9 PM (GMT +1) — the time of
Rome, Madrid and Paris — on "Radio Flash Live!" (www.radioflash.to) and will be repeated on
Sunday, Jan. 10, at 2 PM (GMT +1).
It will also be available in podcast by activating the RSS Feed Reader on the browser Google Chrome
- visit: https://www.radioflash.to/programmi/thetinseltowntracks/ and
click on "Podcast"). Radio Flash 97.6 can also be heard in live streaming through the app "TuneIn" or directly in FM if you live
in Italy."
GUITAR GIANTS HANGING OUT
Greetings to all of you from Jay Graydon, Lee Ritenour, Steve Lukather and Trev Lukather!
Jay, Rit, Luke and Trev were recently hanging out
at the vegan restaurant Gracias Madre in West Hollywood, having a great time together, with many laughs and stories shared.
Happy holidays to all of you good people who appreciate quality music!
Please know I truly appreciate your kind support as to my music and I hope when listening to the audio it makes you happy. I
realized many years ago my purpose in life is to make people happy through music. Here's a story that made me realize that fact.
Many years ago I was walking through a mall and Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone (from one of the Manhattan Transfer albums I
produced, etc.) was playing throughout the mall. I noticed a janitor that was sweeping the floor was also dancing! I watched
the guy for about a minute thinking I had brought happiness to him while he was working!
The business part of the music business can be a drag but the final product of making people happy overrides the sometimes
stressful business issues. I think of the above story often as a reminder it's all worth it!
Just finished the first JaR song mix! Since Ran and I want the stuff to sound great I take my time as to mixing. I will start
on the next mix tomorrow. - Jay
November, 2015
With heavy hearts we are posting this:
I am saddened to note Sherwood Ball has passed away.
Many times over the years I had told Sherwood he is on a very short list of the best singers of
all time! If Stevie Wonder had heard Sherwood sing, Stevie would agree!
Sherwood could sing in any style and only a handful of white singers can sing R&B and make it funky
and totally believable! Sherwood was also a very good guitarist!
Sherwood was like a brother to me! A very generous person with a heart of gold!
In 1994 and 1996 I put together a band to tour Japan, Sweden, and Norway. Sherwood was surely a key
factor as to the band as a guitarist and singer! So many fond memories of our time together.
As to celebrate Sherwood's talent, a few years ago I decided to do a musical experiment as to the
song, Day In, Day Out for a project we called Crank Sinatra. Sherwood sang the song and nailed the
vocal as always!
I'm not in the mood to note all of the details as to why and how the process went. This track has
been available through my website and CD Baby, This is not the time for a business pitch so here is
the mix for free. Pass along to anyone you like that would want to hear Sherwood singing in the
Sinatra Style with his own "feel". Sherwood Ball singing Day In - Day Out
Rest in peace Sherwood.
Jay
November, 2015
JAY BUSY MIXING THE SECOND JaR ALBUM
Yay, finally we can look forward to the second JaR album being finished!!! Jay is currently very busy mixing the songs and if we are lucky the JaR album may be ready for release
by the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016. Wohoo!!!
JaR is Jay Graydon and Randy Goodrum. Jay and Randy have worked together for many years and having written songs like e.g. GIVE IT UP for DeBarge, HAUNTING
ME for Dave Grusin, PLEASURE OVER PAIN and HEART'S HORIZON for Al Jarrreau, LOST WITHOUT HER LOVE for El DeBarge and the super hit WHO'S HOLDING DONNA NOW for DeBarge, they realized they should
become a band, to write more songs together and release on their own record label. So they formed the supergroup JaR and released their first album SCENE 29 in 2008, which received rave reviews
for the superb songs and stellar production.
Now it is sooooooon time for the next JaR album and you will not be disappointed I assure you. So many new great songs to enjoy!!
Stay tuned for more updates as things unfold!!!
August, 2015
JAY GRAYDON ALL STARS - 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
The Japan/Scandinavia Tours 1994 and 1996 with documentary bonus material
A Region Free 4 DVD box set, having
a few flashbacks from the 1994 and 1996 actual concert footage, a fun and informational band reunion hang at Garden Rake Studios 20 years later, filmed by
Todd Homme, and a lot of bonus material, such as for instance a complete explanation by Jay Graydon on how to play his "Peg" solo, as well as a very cool jam
session in Jay's garden from 1989 with great musicians, including Steve Lukather, and so much more.
Ooops, the DVD box sold out in less than 2 days, a second "emergency refill" in just 1 more day, but as of now, Aug. 20, there is a
larger restock available!!!
Wow! We sold out in two days BUT not a problem as I will ship more today. We have asked our distributor if pre orders are OK since we do not want to
stop the flow AND we will order many more from the pressing plant. With the pre orders we will know how many to have pressed up right away along
with many more to have in stock. Kerstin and I are very happy that all of you are excited about the project! - Thanks soooooooo much, Jay
The 20th anniversary 4 DVD box set is finally available! Here’s the link to buy it JAY GRAYDON
ALL STARS - 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Kerstin worked so many hours on the video editing, etc.! I did my best as to make the audio sound as good as possible.
During all of the work, every time I have watched to check edits, etc., the humor in the documentary is still funny. I'm glad the video from my 40th
surprise birthday party has survived as you will hear jamming with Luke, Sherwood Ball, Jim Cox, Ralph Humphrey, Sterling Ball, and me. Sterling
Ball headed up roasting me and some very funny stuff. It's so cool to see the late Tommy Tedesco roasting me and the stories we get into. David Foster
is involved in the roast as well as some of the other guys.
Note the bowling segment is kind of a joke so skip over it if you are not into bowling.
I finally did a full explanation of the Peg guitar solo for the guitarists that care to learn the solo.
When I hear the music from the concerts in Japan and Sweden I am reminded of how well everyone played! In the documentary we note how the guys learned
their parts and the idea I came up with as the way to rehearse the songs. All of the original parts and vocals that were recorded on the Airplay For
The Planet CD were played on the concerts hence the reason for 9 musicians and singers. I could have used less musicians but I really wanted to not leave
any parts out or cheating with using pre-recorded tape.
The bottom line is if you are into West Coast Pop and want to hear stories about how all of this went down, some really funny humor, get insight to the
guys in the band and how relationships formed from then on, I think you will enjoy the near 4 hours of video. - Jay
May, 2015
JAY GRAYDON FEATURED IN "HIRED GUN"
Jay Graydon is featured in the upcoming documentary movie HIRED GUN -
about the unsung heroes of the recording studios, the hard working studio session players during the mid 70s to mid 80s. It is all
about the session and touring musicians that well established and famous bands and artists would hire. These people may not be
household names, but are still top notch performers! Millions of fans have seen them and listened
to them play the music of the famous stars who hire them. They are the "First Call, A-list" musicians that have played for Alice
Cooper, P!nk, Metallica, KISS, Ozzy Osbourne, Bon Jovi, Cheap Trick, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, and more! They are the best session players
and back up musicians in the world. But who are they really? Most of them make a living in relative obscurity. They are a diverse lot
with vastly different backgrounds and experience in the music world. Some take the road less traveled, and some try to take the road
to stardom. Most do not make it but some do. Their stories are told for the first time.
The documentary also features Jay's musician colleagues Steve Lukather, Ray Parker Jr, David Foster, Steve Vai, and many more. Before
embarking on his long and successful career as a top notch songwriter and producer, Jay was an A-list session musician and played on
countless recordings with famous bands and artists, such as The Jackson Five, Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, Barbra Streisand, Diana
Ross, The Osmonds, Cheap Trick, Ray Charles, Paul Anka, Donna Summer, Dionne Warwick, Barry White, Cher, Don Ellis, The Miracles, Four
Tops, Steely Dan, Kenny Rogers, Donovan, Joe Cocker, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, and so many more. David Foster, known today as a genius
songwriter and master pop producer, was a hired gun as well in his early days, playing keyboards for Skylark and George Harrison. David
teamed up with Jay Graydon, to form the band AIRPLAY and from then on they have written gazillions of songs together, among them
the Grammy winner "After The Love Has(Is) Gone", which became a number 1 hit for Earth, Wind & Fire, and was co-written with Bill
Champlin, plus numerous top hits for DeBarge, George Benson, Al Jarreau, Manhattan Transfer, and many others.
The movie is now in the final editing stages and has received a lot of attention at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
May, 2015
JAY GRAYDON ALL STARS - 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
"It has been more than a year since Kerstin and I talked about doing a 20th anniversary for the 1994-1996 Jay Graydon All Stars tour
in a documentary style. I called the guys that played on the gigs and set up a date to video with the guys that were in town. My good
friend Todd Homme videoed the hang! We have at least three hours of us talking about the gigs and so much more!
Kerstin learned a video editing program and the grunt work began. On my end, I re-mastered the audio for the concerts and also
mastered all other audio use in the documentary. I would send audio files to Kerstin and she would synch into the video.
By now, most of you know that Kerstin is my incredible web master, personal assistant, Sr. VP of Sonic Thrust Records, and much
more! Kerstin has spent countless hours editing this stuff! She has made the concert video look better than the source video! We went
back and forth as to what to use and not use. Every time we thought we were finished, Kerstin would find a way to make the video look
better and we continued adding or pulling material.
I was hanging out with Marc Jordan and his wife Amy a few months ago and Marc mentioned he had video from my 40th surprise birthday
party videoed by Amy. They gave me a copy but it was only like 5 minutes. I then remembered that I had a VHS tape that was filmed for
the party. I transferred it to digital and sent it to Kerstin to edit. I think the full party video is like 1:20. We chose to use 27
minutes of the footage that includes a "roast" hosted by Sterling Ball (affectionately known as Biff). I was roasted by David
Foster, Luke, Tommy Tedesco, Tommy Funderburk, and Ralph Humphrey. Some of it is stories and not so much of a roast. We then "jammed"
and the band included, Sherwood Ball, Biff Ball, Jim Cox, Ralph Humphrey, Gigi (Sherwood's girlfriend of the era), Luke and myself.
Note the birthday party was a real surprise! My girlfriend of the time (Valerie) had pulled off the surprise as she had two other
parties the two previous days, so I suspected nothing! She really pulled it off and I sure was surprised! At some point Kerstin and
I will put up some more of the party on the web site. The documentary stuff is loaded with great stories along with some of the songs
filmed at the gigs and then the roast and jam stuff.
Kerstin is almost finished putting together the final edit and we are thinking we will be able to release the DVD package in June!
I hope you dig this as Kerstin and me spent countless hours to make this happen." - Jay
October, 2014
JAY GRAYDON RELEASES DANCE-POP SONG
Apart from working on the new JaR album, Jay has been very busy working on a few other projects lately and one of them is writing
movie music. Together with his songwriting partners Randy Goodrum and Timothy Hosman, Jay Graydon has written a dance-pop song in
the style of Beyonce, Lady Gaga, and the like, for the family motion picture GIBBY, which will be released in June 2015, but the
song is already available at Amazon. They are releasing the song HOTTER THAN HOT as the band JAKE & The Rum Man and it is
available as a digital download at Amazon as well as on iTunes and other digital distribution partners.
Label: Sonic Thrust Records
Cat. no: STRCD-011
Release date: October 2014
UPC 889211137251
Over the years Jay has written songs in so many genres, R&B, pop, westcoast pop, AOR, straight-ahead jazz, crooner jazz, bebop, smooth
jazz, surf, etc. This is a totally new genre for him, as you know, and no doubt he masters this style as well. The writer of the movie
story is Greg Lyon and it is about 14-15 year old kids as described below:
A young teenage girl, Katie, cannot snap out of her depression after losing her mother. Katie has lost interest in school, her friends, and
gymnastics. All that changes in the summer when she is asked to monkeysit Gibby, her science teacher's Capuchin monkey. Taking care of the
monkey changes her life in a big way. Gibby's happy-go-lucky personality renews Katie's zest for life. Gibby helps her with gymnastics,
renewing friendships (including finding a potential boyfriend) and overcoming her nemesis, a mean girl who is out to beat Katie at
everything.
The song HOTTER THAN HOT comes into the movie at a dance party just when the girls take over the scene and start dancing and singing. The
main character Katie is glad that she decided to attend the dance, hang with her friends, and is really enjoying herself. The climax of the
night is this song – HOTTER THAN HOT - reflecting how great life can be.
March, 2014
JAY JUDGING JAZZ GUITARISTS IN ONLINE COMPETITION
Jay has been invited to be a a judge in the jazz guitar category of Lee Ritenour's SIX STRING THEORY competition. The competition is a
great opportunity for aspiring musicians (in guitar, bass, piano & drums) as the winners will perform as Lee's opener at this summer's
Montreux Jazz Festival as well as Berklee scholarships and much more. This is your chance to win incredible prizes and priceless
professional opportunities!
I met with Jay the other day at Garden Rake Studios and can reveal the great news that he is finally getting better and could even play
his new Bossa guitar some which you can see from this picture. (click on the thumbnail pic to get a larger version).
Wohoo In Jay's own words ...
I'm sorry to have not responded to all that want to know about my broken elbow and shoulder fracture condition as I have been busy working
on a project you may be interested in. More on the project real soon. So as to my broken bones, my two surgeons say the bones are
healing properly. I go to rehab twice a week as to learn exercises and get stretched as to get back motion and muscle. The stuff can be
painful but it is a must. Swelling will continue for quite some time as that is the last part of the healing process. My right hand and
fingers have some numbness, which bothers me more than the pain. The good news is I can play guitar but there are a few limitations. In
any case, I notice improvements on all levels every few days, which makes me very happy!
I have started mixing some of the JaR songs even though Randy and I have two more songs to complete. Those songs are not yet complete
because I need to work out guitar parts and play solos and I want to do that work when I feel my guitar playing is good enough.
I really appreciate your concern and the kind words all of you have noted. You give me inspiration as to work hard to get back to being
fully functional! - All best, Jay
September, 2013
JAY GRAYDON HAS BROKEN HIS ARM
Not all our Hot News! are good news, unfortunately, and here is a message from Jay:
In the last week of August I was power-walking and must have tripped. I went to a local emergency room and X-rays were performed. Half
of my right elbow had broken off along with another fracture in the same area. Further, a fracture in my right shoulder. A temporary
splint was put in place.
My two favorite doctors at UCLA Hospital set up an appointment with the best hand/elbow surgeon. Two days later I went in for surgery
as to have my elbow bones put back together using plates and screws. The surgeon said the procedure went well.
A week later an appointment was set up with the best shoulder surgeon. He recommends surgery but says it will heal if no operation. If no
operation I risk less upper arm movement but should not affect my guitar playing. I don't want to go through more surgery at this point
so I will do rehab instead.
At this point, I have very limited movement in my arm and the pain is bad. The recovery will take at least two months and rehab starts
next week. I’m hoping I will be able to play guitar as before the accident.
In any case, such is life and glad to still be on the planet. - Jay
May, 2013
JAY GRAYDON IN "DOWN THE RHODES" WEBISODE
While we are eagerly waiting for the upcoming JaR album - here is finally the previously
announced "Down the Rhodes: The Fender Rhodes Story" webisode in which Jay elaborates around
the E-Rhodes, shares with us how he came up with the chorus for TURN YOUR LOVE AROUND, and a whole lot more. Enjoy!
February, 2013
JAY GRAYDON ON HIS LATEST ACTIVITIES
Jay has been busy in the studio working on the JaR album as well as testing out
his new Bossa signature guitar, which we will soon tell you more about. Hang around for pics and specs. Yea, one might
think that would be more than enough for one man, but on top of that, Jay has also been doing some exquisite guitar work
on other artists' projects. Here below are his own thoughts on what is happening in Jay Graydon land at this point ...
---
"The new JaR CD will hopefully be finished around summertime and possibly earlier.
The main problem with producing and writing stuff is I only play guitar about 5% of the time in the studio and
very little time to practice. My new Bossa signature guitar (two models) are now available and I have acquired
some other guitars as well and want to play guitar more often. As to make that happen, I have started making myself
more available as to play session overdubs in my studio for other people's projects.
A few weeks ago I played a guitar
solo for STATE COWS and played rhythm guitar and a solo for URS WIESENDANGER,
who is producing Thierry Condor.
I know it has been kind of quiet around here for a while but that does not mean Jay has been idle and twiddling his thumbs
during that time. On the contrary, apart from recording
songs for the second JaR album, he has been very busy writing songs in various
genres, e.g. a bunch of pop songs and most recently 4 new jazz tunes (Sinatra style) with Tim Hosman, which all sound superb.
But of course Jay has also had a night off hanging with these cats...wow, check out these great musicians all in one
picture at a party at Ray Parker Jr.'s house for Sylvester Rivers' birthday.
Click on the thumbnail for larger version of the pic. Left to right, Ray Parker Jr. Jimmie Haskell, Steve Lukather, Jay
Graydon (obviously), Lee Ritenour and in front Craig T. Cooper, who took the picture. The birthday boy himself - Sylvester
Rivers - was somewhere else in the house when this pic was taken, though.
Jay:
"Man, there were so many great first call musicians at the party! So many fun stories that night as to so many record dates
in the studios! Hey Craig, thanks for passing along the picture!"
Jay:
"I met Glenn Ferris in college and he is an outstanding trombonist He plays "outside" jazz like no
one else. Glenn was responsible for getting me in the Don Ellis band along with Jock Ellis, Jon Clark
and others.
Glenn has been living in Paris for around 25 years making a living playing jazz, which is no easy
task anywhere. When Jock knew Glenn was coming to LA, he set up the hang with the guys.
Jock (trombone) and Fred (alto sax) were in the Don Ellis band. John Heard is an outstanding jazz bass player and
has played with all of the jazz stars over the years. We were both in a band with George Duke in the early 70's
for an album and a few gigs."
Click on the thumbnails for larger versions of the pics. Left to right in both pics, Andrew Lippman, Harry Kim, Glenn
Ferris, Jock Ellis, Arturo Velasco, Fred Selden, John Heard, Jay Graydon.
JAY GRAYDON HANGS WITH DIRTY LOOPS AND THE CHAMPLINS
Jay:
"For those of you that have not heard Dirty Loops, do yourself a favor and google the videos! These guys
are simply amazing on all levels!
I recently heard them live playing a showcase in LA and was floored as I expected!
Jonah (vocals and keyboards) is beyond belief as his singing has no range limits and his "licks"
would get Stevie Wonder's attention! His keyboard solos clearly show he could be a jazz star if
he wanted to take that musical route!
Aaron (drums) clearly shows he can play current pop styles in an outstanding fashion and has
major jazz chops as well! The key to any drummer is the "feel" and "pocket". Aaron defines such terms!
Henrik (bass) is unlike any bassist I have ever heard! He can play the current pop stuff through
jazz as good as it gets and his solos are not typical bass solos — more like a sax player!
My good friends Bill and Tamara Champlin put together a dinner party at their house with the
guys and we had so much fun talking about music, telling stories and jokes. Bill and Tamara's son Will
came by later and joined the party. Btw, if you have not heard Will Champlin play keyboards and
sing, google him as he is amazing!"
Here below Jay is sharing with you a few pics from the dinner hang at the Bill and Tamara
Champlin residence. Click on the thumbnails for larger versions of the pics.
Dinner hang with the Champlins, Jay Graydon and Dirty Loops. Left to
right, Jay, Jonah, Will, Henrik, Tamara, Rocky, Aaron, and Bill.
Bill Champlin and Jay Graydon with the Dirty Loops cats - Henrik, Aaron, and Jonah.
Jay playing peek-a-boo... ehhh?... with the photographer with Dirty Loops wondering what is
happening in the background...
Jay (to the right) explaining how stuff works for the Dirty Loops cats, left to
right Jonah, Henrik, and Aaron.
As usual the Anaheim Convention Center in CA was packed with people enjoying the shows and exhibitions at the
annual NAMM show 2012. Jay met with many of his musician buddies
in the crowd and here below he shares a few pics with you. Click on the thumbnails for
larger versions of the pics.
Playin' new toy at NAMM 2012. Left to right, Bobby Cochran, Jay Graydon, Tom Hemby, Drew Montell (Ernie
Ball engineer) and Robert (Bob) Wolstein - also an engineer at Ernie Ball, who headed up the design of
the physical electronics in The Game Changer. All the cats want to play...
Bobby Cochran is trying to introduce to Jay Graydon a totally new way of handling the
fingerboard to achieve the ultimate guitar sound, but neither Jay nor Tom Hemby is really taking this lesson seriously.
Jay trying to play but Tom's sticky fingers seem to be glued to the fretboard... a complicated double handed chord
will be the outcome...
Yea, so many toys, so little time... the boys are havin' fun for sure. Jay laughing his a-- off with Tom
Hemby who is also slightly amused. To the right, Christoph (Chris) Kemper
(designer of the Kemper guitar amp sound modeler).
The second part of an interview Anders Rydholm of Grand
Illusion did with Jay Graydon at Garden Rake Studios. Here Jay talks about his philosophy as a music producer and how he works
with the artists and musicians in the producing situation.
October 2, 2011
JAY GRAYDON DINES WITH OLE BØRUD
"There are times when The Phantom leaves the jungle and walks the street like an
ordinary man"
... or rather ...
... as in Jay's case... leaves the recording studio and goes out to dine with
nice people, like e.g. the other night, when Jay had dinner at Toscana in LA with the superb Norwegian
westcoast/AOR/fusion singer (think Pages) Ole Børud and
his wife Hilde.
They had a good time and Ole asked questions about Airplay and Pages, and they also talked about studio
work, and about how they dig the bands Dirty Loops
and State Cows.
Since we are frequently getting questions regarding the difference between the various AIRPLAY
releases over the years, here is what Jay has to say about it...
For those of you that like the AIRPLAY CD, the most current version remastering is so much better
than any previous version. If you are interested, the latest edition is released on October 19, 2010, by
Sony, Japan, and here is the
link to Amazon... - Jay
October 20, 2010
Remastered AIRPLAY Released
Sony Music Entertainment, Japan, has re-released the original AIRPLAY album - the 30th Anniversary Special Edition, remastered by
Jay Graydon now in August, and with liner notes written by Jay, who is reminiscing the song concepts, stories and recording sessions.
Apart from Jay Graydon, David Foster and Tommy Funderburk, the musicians on the album are: Jeff Porcaro, Mike Baird, David
Hungate, Steve
Lukather, Ray Parker Jr., Steve Porcaro, Jerry Hey, Gary Grant, Lew McCreary, Bill Reichenbach, Steve Madaio, Charlie Loper, Bill Champlin, Tom
Kelly, Max Gronenthal.
The album is currently available at e.g. Amazon.com.
Anders Rydholm of Grand Illusion interviewed Jay in his studio in August 2010. Jay Graydon talks about
how the Airplay album came about and his work with David Foster.
September 4, 2010
JAY GRAYDON WORKS - compilation soon to be released
Sony Entertainment, Japan, is releasing the compilation album "Jay Graydon Works" with 18 great tracks by various artists, carefully selected by Toshi Nakada of Cool Sound. Some of the tracks are rare songs from albums that have been out of print for
many years, featuring Jay's versatility as a songwriter, producer, guitar player and more.
The tracks on this compilation are as follows:
AIRPLAY "Stranded" from Airplay (1980:RCA)
AIRPLAY "Should We Carry On" from Airplay (1980:RCA)
KENNY ROGERS "This Love We Share" from They Don't Make Them Like They Used To (1986:RCA)
DIONNE WARWICK "For You" from Friends In Love (1982:Arista)
AIR SUPPLY "I Can Wait Forever" from Ghostbusters(OST) (1984:Arista)
BOZ SCAGGS "Then She Walked Away" from Down Two Then Left (1977:Columbia)
EARTH, WIND & FIRE "After The Love Has Gone" from I Am (1979:Columbia)
HERBIE HANCOCK "Paradise" from Lite Me Up (1982:Columbia)
VALERIE CARTER "What's Become Of Us" from Wild Child (1978:ARC)
BILL CHAMPLIN "What Good Is Love" from Single (1978:Epic/Full Moon)
GEORGE BENSON "Turn Your Love Around" from The George Benson Collection (1981:Warner)
AL JARREAU "Mornin'" from Jarreau (1983:WEA)
STEVE KIPNER "The Ending" from Knock The Walls Down (1979:Elektra)
THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER "Twilight Zone ~ Twilight Tone" from Extensions (1979:Atlantic)
MARC JORDAN "I'm A Camera" from Blue Desert (1979:Warner)
EL DEBARGE "Someone" from El DeBarge (1986:Motown)
PETER ALLEN "Pass This Time" from Bi-Coastal (1980:A&M)
PAGES "Fearless" from Pages (1981:Capitol)
August 29, 2010
Two RHYTHM HERITAGE Albums To Be Released
Universal, Japan, will soon release 2 Rhythm Heritage albums - SKY'S THE LIMIT and DISCO DERBY. This is actually the first time these rare recordings are
released on CD. Rhythm Heritage was formed in 1975 by producer
Steve Barri and session keyboardist Michael Omartian, and included bassist Scott Edwards and drummer Ed Greene. Other musicians who played on
some of their recordings included Ben Benay, Victor Feldman, Jay Graydon, James Jamerson, Ray Parker Jr., Dean Parks, and Bob Walden.
Apart from being one of the session players, Jay Graydon wrote 2 songs which are included on each one of the albums - FLOAT ON BY and DO YOU
MAKE LOVE LIKE YOU DANCE. The genre is disco-funk and
Rhythm Heritage was best known for disco funk versions of themes from movies and television cop shows. Their maybe greatest hit was the
1976 U.S. #1 single "Theme from "S.W.A.T."
August 15, 2010
Remastered AIRPLAY plus a JAY GRAYDON COMPILATION To Be Released
Sony Music Entertainment, Japan, will release 2 Jay Graydon albums on October 13. One of them is a reissue of the original AIRPLAY album, remastered by
Jay Graydon now in August, and with liner notes written by Jay, who is reminiscing the song concepts, stories and recording sessions.
The second album "Jay Graydon Works" (title subject to change) will have around 18 tracks, carefully selected by Toshi Nakada of Cool Sound for
Sony, and will show Jay Graydon's versatility as a songwriter, producer, guitar player and more. Some of the tracks on the compilation are rare songs
from albums that have been out of print for many years. This compilation album will be released on the same date as the AIRPLAY reissue. Stay tuned for
more details as things unfold!
July 16, 2010
NEW JaR video on YouTube
The songs for the second JaR album are coming along nicely and while we all hunger for new listening pleasures, we may enjoy many great songs from
the first album - SCENE 29 - e.g. this lovely powerful
ballad - WORLDS APART - featuring
an impossible love story, as noted in the magificent lyric.
June 19, 2010
Check out Jay's NEW guitar solo
The STATE COWS album is now released and you will be happy to hear Jay's
awesome and truly inspired guitar solo and fills on the song NEW YORK TOWN.
April 25, 2010
NEW JaR video on YouTube
As you know Jay Graydon and Randy Goodrum are two hard working cats and right now they are deep into writing and recording songs for the second JaR
album, i.e. apart from doing a lot of other non-related JaR stuff. In any case, while waiting for the new album, we thought you might enjoy this
video, which is featuring the title
song on the first JaR album - SCENE 29. This song has a brilliant film noir lyric. You may
want to read the story behind the concept of the SCENE 29 album cover as well.
The DVD is partly based on the much sought after instructional video (VHS format) Guitar
Play For The Planet released in Japan only (1995) and out of print since many years. Jay talks about a few of the solos on his album Airplay
for the Planet and demonstrates
how to play them. He also elaborates on his favorite licks, what to consider when buying amps and talks about his signature guitar. The DVD
is released in an extremely limited edition so
keep hanging around for news on the release date, to make sure you won't miss out on this very rare item. Check
out a cool clip from the video.
September 6, 2009
Two of Jay's Top Jarreau Albums Re-released
Friday Music has remastered and re-released the two much sought after albums JARREAU and HIGH CRIME. Jay has produced,
arranged and engineered both albums and is playing guitars and synths as well. On JARREAU Jay co-wrote
the songs - Mornin', Save Me, Step By Step, Black And Blues, Trouble In Paradise, Love Is Waiting, + also
the bonus track - I Keep Callin'. On HIGH CRIME Jay co-wrote the songs - Raging Waters, Imagination,
Tell Me, After All, High Crime, Let's Pretend, Sticky Wicket, Fallin'.
Jay is featured in the latest issue (Aug. 2009) of PERFORMING MUSICIAN.
The first part of the interview is posted online, but to read the whole interview and see the pictures, you need to get
the magazine from your nearest store carrying international music press.
Please note there is a fact error in the feature. Jay's first solo album is called AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET and nothing
else.In the feature they are incorrectly mentioning one of the songs on that album - HOLDIN' ON TO LOVE - as the album title.
JaR - SCENE 29 is featured the Summer issue of
JAZZIZ in the ON DISC section with the song ESQUIRE. All magazines available in stores carrying
international music press.
The second picture shows Keith Olsen and Jay at the console when recording
the basic tracks of the AIRPLAY album at Davlen Sound Studios in Sherman Oaks, California.
As you all you know the final result is known as the Westcoast music BIBLE - AIRPLAY by Airplay. If you do not already have it - go get it!
Airplay recording photos taken by Andy Zuckerman. Thanks, Andy Great pics
April 13, 2009
Jay and Foz Dining
Just wanted to share with you this wonderful picture of one of those rare moments
when Jay Graydon and David Foster are able to find a time
slot, when they can get together and grab a bite at Jay's favorite Italian restaurant (last week as a matter of fact.)
Jay Graydon
Redefining Westcoast Music...One Hit A Time
One thing we know about West Coast Music is that its following is much, much bigger than the name implies. It’s more
like Global-Coast Music, due to the fact that diehard fans are found at every corner of the globe. At the heart of it
all you find a man who continues to stoke the fires of a sound that is a sophisticated mixture of R&B, Rock, Pop and
Jazz – Grammy-winning Jay Graydon. His name is found in the credits of tracks and albums that have gone gold, platinum
and even multi-platinum. With long-time collaborations with friends like David Foster, George Benson, Al Jarreau,
and Steely Dan, Graydon has positioned himself as one of the most creative songwriters, producers, and session
guitarists on the LA scene, while continuing to pave his own road with Nashville resident and writing partner, Randy
Goodrum. They’re the brains behind JaR, a collaboration of two of the best musical heads in the industry who have
released 'Scene 29', an album that any West Coast Music fan most certainly has in their audio collection. From
Airplay For The Planet to Earth, Wind & Fire’s After The Love Has Gone, Graydon has delivered just what West Coast
fans have asked for over the years. Inside MusiCast
welcomes Jay Graydon.
ENJOY!
February 15, 2009
Jay Graydon Goes Sinatra
Now what on earth do we mean by that??? Well, actually we mean just what it says, as Jay is releasing a NEW
recording - an excellent rendition of the
Bloom/Mercer song DAY IN - DAY OUT - as performed by Frank Sinatra and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but in Jay's version
with the amazing SHERWOOD BALL on vocals and JAY GRAYDON
playing all the horn parts on guitar. Yea, you heard me - all the brass, sax, and horn parts are played by Jay on
GUITARS! The title of this release is CRANK SINATRA - available as
a digital download at Amazon.
Here is what Jay is saying about his recording experiment...
So around the middle of 2008, I happened to watch a Frank Sinatra TV special filmed in the mid 1960’s. The opening
song is Day In – Day Out. As always, Frank sang great and the Nelson Riddle arrangement was perfect for the
era! What a great team they were!
I dug the musicality so much I watched over and over and then began thinking what it would sound like to play
the horn parts on guitar playing one part at a time as an experiment. With that in mind, I decided to take on the
task of being a one-man band. The experiment turned out to be much fun and the result is a sound of guitars I
had not heard before.
So why Crank Sinatra? Well, in guitar land, I cranked up the guitar amp volume for the brass sound hence Crank Sinatra.
- Jay
January 11, 2009
JaR - SCENE 29 Released in Japan with BONUS Track
Pony Canyon in Japan has now released JaR - SCENE 29 with a BONUS track!
The bonus track is a song titled - SOMETIMES YOU WIN - written by Randy Goodrum and Jay Graydon. Links to
sound bites
available here. The bonus song is track 12. Yes, a lovely ballad as you will hear!
December 23, 2008
AIRPLAY - Airplay Now Available on SHM-CD
Most of you do not need any further explanation about this CLASSIC masterpiece, which is now (2008) being released by
BMG Japan in SHM-CD (Super High Material CD - playable on all CD players) pressing, but for anyone new to the
genre, here is a fan review from Amazon on AIRPLAY.
The No 1 Westcoast Album
By Catherine Goltz "a music lover" (Washington DC)
By "west coast" I mean music from California that is more adult contemporary not as in west coast rap. Or
AOR (Adult Oriented Rock) as Japanese people call it. For starts two of the greatest producers of this style
David Foster and Jay Graydon play, sing and write most of the songs. Two should be familiar "Nothin' You Can
Do About It" originally on the Jay Graydon- produced Extensions and the EWF
classic "After the Love Has (or is it "Is") Gone sung here by all three writers including Bill Champlin. Also
joining in the fun is most of Toto, the horns from Seawind and Tommy Funderburk and Tom Kelly on vocals. It
comes with an exclusive interview with the creators who comment on each song in the style of a DVD audio commentary.
December 20, 2008
STR and JaRZONE Records Songs Now on iTunes
All songs released on SONIC THRUST RECORDS over the years, as well as all songs from Jay's current successful
collaboration with Randy Goodrum as the new supergroup JaR,
are now available as digital downloads from various third party services. We have provided you with direct links
from each song to iTunes, to simplify the search for you, i.e. no search needed
at all. Just click on the iTunes icon next to the song title and you will get to the downloading page on iTunes.
Jay Graydon's current highly successful collaboration with top-notch songwriter and artist Randy Goodrum as the
new supergroup JaR is getting rave reviews. Their debut
album SCENE 29 is available as a physical album
as well as an mp3 download at Amazon.
Stay tuned for a very cool video from one of the JaR recording
sessions coming up soooooon!!!
... and guess what, music lovers.... if we are really lucky we may get ONE MORE tasty recording from Jay
before Christmas -
an exciting experiment with guitars and a great singer and... naaah, my lips are sealed... keep hanging around
and all shall be revealed as things unfold...
If you typically rank your favorite albums according to the classic milestones - Airplay- AIRPLAY and Donald Fagen-THE NIGHTFLY, you will
now have a NEW standard to measure music by - JaR-SCENE 29. Go listen to a few sound bites
the songs and you will surely agree with Bill Champlin, who was totally stoked when hearing
the JaR songs. Here is his comment:
"JaR's new album, Scene 29, is gonna' be one of those albums that you can gauge your "I'm Hip" quotient by how much earlier you've heard it than
your friends. I think this album will eventually be considered the flagship of the new music. The new music is what is created after the "suits" gave
up on the "biz". Anyway, I've known these guys for years and I had no idea that this stuff was in there. Well, now it's out here and we're all happy
about it. Man, it's rare to play an album and still have your heart racing an hour later, especially someone
else's album. Good work, guys." - Bill Champlin
Visit JaRZONE for more info on the band and the new album.
September 25, 2008
JaR - SCENE 29 - now available for PRE-ORDERS
It is with utmost pleasure and pride we can now announce that the new long awaited album - SCENE 29 by JaR - alias JAY GRAYDON and
RANDY GOODRUM - is finally available for pre-orders!!!
Here is another enthusiastic comment on the JaR album coming from
guitarist/songwriter/producer and more - Tom Hemby...
"I use to compare everything recorded in the past 20 years to Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly". Now there's a new
industry standard for music, and it's called ... "JaR"! Jay's astounding guitar wizardry and Randy's
stunning keyboard prowess is the crux of a project filled with brilliant complex harmonic compositions, ear
candy smooth vocal performances, and thick transparent sounding mixes. This is soon to
be "legendary" recording!"
September 12, 2008
JaR - SCENE 29 to be released October 1st in the US
Yes, we are finally there... well... almost there anyway... JaR - SCENE 29 will be released on October 1st in the States and
you will be able to pre-order it shortly. Meanwhile you may enjoy yourselves cruising around the new JaRZONE
website where JAY GRAYDON and RANDY GOODRUM will post all news about the album and other interesting stuff.
The album has 11 outstanding songs which will make every quality music lover teary-eyed with joy.
Hey, how about Steve Lukather's raving about the album after having heard the songs...
"You guys have taken the torch from Steely Dan
and have run miles and miles ahead"!!!
Need we say more? You won't believe your happy ears! Keep hanging around for the latest news
on when SCENE 29 will be available for pre-ordering.
September 3, 2008
JaR Album Coming Soon
In case you wonder where we disappeared... the JaR album is now at the manufacturing plant and we are looking at a
release in a few more weeks. So, just hold on music lovers This is the ONE album you will want to get for Christmas
and we are currently working hard to make it possible, so keep hanging around for a pre-orders date being set very soon.
July 31, 2008
Jay Meets With Steely Dan
Taking a short break from the arrangements for the release of the new JaR album (due in a few more weeks) Jay went to
the Steely Dan concert at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on July 23. As expected the performance was spectacular
and here below are Jay's comments from the gig...
If you like melodic pop with a hint of jazz, do yourself a favor and go to a Steely concert when they play in
your area. As we know, such brilliant songs! Donald, Walter and the band is outstanding with performances
that would make for an excellent live recording! The band is tight and feels great! The
pitch was superb, especially the horns, which is not an easy
feat. Simply ear candy!
After the show, I spoke with Walter and Donald. We reminisced about
the time we worked together and other fun stuff. I love these guys as
they are so non-Hollywood down to earth gentlemen! - Jay
A few pictures from the gig:
Jon Herington
is the guitar player with Steely Dan and is perfect for the gig! He plays the parts like he wrote
them and never overplays Magnificent.
The eagerly awaited relaunch of Jay Graydon's 32 articles on Recording The
Guitar has finally happened and they are now up and running on
the Guitar.com web site
in their section Get Educated. Many of you have been asking for Jay's
superb article series on all there is to know about recording, so now finally..... go get the direct links on
the Gear & Studio page.
April 1, 2008
The JaR Album is FINISHED!
Jay Graydon and Randy Goodrum have now finished their first album as JaR!
Two years of hard work, writing and recording new material, has resulted in an incredible set of songs with
amazing melodies, subtle lyrics
and outstanding playing and singing by these seasoned musicians and accomplished songwriters. I assure
you - you will not believe your
ears! Take Randy's dazzlingly virtuoso keys - add Jay's magical inventive guitar playing, plus both cats'
voices in a perfect blend... and if you can
imagine Steely Dan meets Airplay and Pages with some jazzy flavors as well, a touch of humor, strong catchy
melodies with intelligent lyrical hooks - yea, there you have it!!!
The mixing and mastering is done - now time to shop a deal! Stay tuned for more info as things unfold!
February 22, 2008
Jay Graydon Recording Sessions
We have now added a new section to jaygraydon.net on which we will present all
of the recording sessions Jay Graydon has participated on
over the years... and let me tell you they are many many... On this page you will also find his fellow musicians
on these sessions as well as a listing of the tracks on which he played - if known.
February 10, 2008
Jay Graydon and the Allstar Band in Japan
Check out a movie clip from the JAY GRAYDON ALLSTARS BAND performing one of the encores - the TOTO super hit - PAMELA.
Watch Jay Graydon and Sherwood Ball dueling on guitars, Bill Cantos scat singing, Bill Champlin grooving
on his Hammond B3, Steve Porcaro dancing and more...
In brief... E N J O Y and feel the M A G I C that was in the air that first night in Japan.
January 17, 2008
The DVD is available at HMV Japan
Since many of you have been inquiring - yea, the DVD has not reached Amazon.com yet for some reason - it seems
importing the DVD takes tiiiime... but in any case both versions are currently available
at HMV Japan. The good news is that if
WARD Records finds a good
distributor in Scandinavia it will be even easier for all of Europe to get the DVD as well. Let's hope they will
find one soon!
Thanks for all of your comments and kudos regarding the DVD! Just a clarification regarding the sound and filming
quality of this totally live production. Like we said earlier this concert video was never intended for
commercial release, but after many requests Jay Graydon has finally agreed to
release it - after all these years. In other words, this video captures a very rare and unique concert with some of the
greatest musicians ever, in a raw and totally live environment, as filmed using one camera only and the sound emanating
directly from the live board mix.
Statement from WARD Records regarding the release:
When watching the product please bear in mind that the footage used was originally meant for personal archive
purposes and never was intended for a public release. Therefore it is a single camera shooting from the
audience (probably the FOH console area), and not a so-called "pro-quality" shot done by a professional camera crew.
Some of the Japanese press only mentioned about the quality of the video being poor, which is very unfortunate
because we believe that this particular video is a record of a very special and precious moment which may never
happen again and we only wanted the public viewers to enjoy the magic that Jay and his friends performed
for us. I personally believe that music lovers of Europe and the US would be able to appreciate the true value
of this product and not be concerned about little facts like how it was shot. We've done the best we can to
enhance the video and audio.
There will be 2 versions of the DVD - the Normal Edition - (1 DVD+12pg booklet) and
- the Special First Press Limited Edition - (1 DVD+2 CD+24pg booklet). The 2 CDs are the board mix audio from the concert.
Both DVD editions include an interview session with Jay and Kenji Sano (bass player) looking back at the
show.
While waiting for the release you might enjoy checking out
a few pics from the video!
BTW the tracks list on the DVD is as follows. As you can see there are many great songs, not only from AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET but also
a few TOTO and Bill Champlin tracks.
01. CRIMINAL
02. SATISFACTION
03. SHE JUST CAN'T MAKE UP HER MIND
04. HOLDIN' ON TO LOVE
05. WALK THE WIRE
06. AFTER THE LOVE HAS GONE
07. FIRST AND LAST
08. INSINCERE
09. IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
10. BABY, BYE BYE
11. STEVE PORCARO, BILL CANTOS, JOHN VAN TONGEREN, KEYBOARD SOLO
12. WHEN YOU LOOK IN MY EYES
13. ROXANN
14. NOTHIN' YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT
15. BAND INTRO
16. TURN YOUR LOVE AROUND
17. PAT MASTELOTTO DRUM SOLO and KENJI SANO BASS SOLO
18. SHOW ME THE MAGIC
19. PAMELA
20. STRANDED
November 23, 2007
Pre-order Your Copy Of The Jay Graydon Allstar Band DVD
The release date for the DVD with the 1994 concert (1st night) in Japan from the Japan/Scandinavia Tour with
the Jay Graydon Allstars
Band is scheduled to Dec. 18th in Japan by Ward
Records, but you may NOW pre-order your copy at Amazon.com
There will be 2 versions of the DVD - one is just the DVD and the other will also have an extra CD with the
audio from the gig as well. Amazon.com has not stated (yet) which is which of the 2 versions they have for pre-order, but
an easy way of finding out is to compare the price for the 2 different versions, when it becomes available, since the
one without the supporting audio will be cheaper - of course.
WARD Records are saying that "Our NTSC version is going to be released in REGION 0", meaning playable in all
regions. All region code flags are set, making the disc playable worldwide. The line-up on this tour was, apart
from the band leader, Jay Graydon, on guitars and vocals - Bill
Champlin (vocals, of course, guitar and Hammond B3), Bill Cantos (vocals and keyboard), Sherwood
Ball (vocals and guitar), Steve Porcaro (keyboard and synths), John Van Tongeren (keyboard and synths), Pat
Mastelotto (drums), Kenji Sano (bass) and Joseph Williams (vocals). More on this as things
unfold. The album released in conjunction with this tour -
AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET - is
available at Amazon.
September 23, 2007
Live gig on DVD to be released
While we are waiting for Jay's new album - approx. release around April 2008 - we will have the wonderful opportunity to
attend the 1994 concert (1st night) in Japan from the Japan/Scandinavia Tour with the Jay Graydon Allstars
Band as this gig will be released on video on Dec. 5th in Japan by Ward
Records. The line-up on this tour was, apart from the band leader, Jay Graydon, on guitars and vocals - Bill
Champlin (vocals, of course, guitar and Hammond B3), Bill Cantos (vocals and keyboard), Sherwood
Ball (vocals and guitar), Steve Porcaro (keyboard and synths), John Van Tongeren (keyboard and synths), Pat
Mastelotto (drums), Kenji Sano (bass) and Joseph Williams (vocals). More on this as things
unfold. The album released in conjunction with this tour -
AIRPLAY FOR THE PLANET - is
available at Amazon.
July 13, 2007
Part 2 of Ken Volpe's interview with Jay Graydon
In
Part 2 of Behind The Scenes with Jay Graydon - Ken and Jay discuss over the phone some of Jay's
favorite guitarists; Joe Pass, Allan Holdsworth, Ted Greene, Phil deGruy, and Lenny Breau. They move on to cover
what life is like as a professional musician and a producer. Lastly, they dig into the all important topic of
microphone placement to capture great guitar tones in the studio.
June 25, 2007
Listen to a LIVE telephone interview with Jay Graydon
Ken Volpe and Jay Graydon in a telephone conversation - April 2007:
In Part 1 of Behind the Scenes with Jay Graydon - the legendary guitarist, recording
artist, songwriter, producer and engineer - Ken and Jay discuss how he got started as a musician, his
mentors, preferred styles, and the details of how he wound up playing a classic guitar solo on Peg by
Steely Dan. Jay deconstructs the solo and takes you through how he approached playing over the changes that
others in the band weren't comfortable with. Jay also talks about the studio work and guitar solos that
he's proud of that can be heard on other big records.
April 14, 2007
Buy digital downloads
Individual tracks of Jay Graydon's music released on SONIC THRUST RECORDS are now available as digital downloads. Sound bites available for all tracks.
April 10, 2007
Jay working on a NEW album
Yes, it is REALLY TRUE! The rumors some of you have heard buzzing in the air for some time now, are in fact not
just rumors. Jay Graydon is currently very very busy in his studio working on a new album with TOTALLY NEW
MUSIC, written and recorded together with renowned songwriter Randy Goodrum. As I am sure you
already know, Randy Goodrum has written a bunch of hit songs over the years, including
IF SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN FAITHFUL (Chicago) with Steve Kipner, and WHO'S HOLDING DONNA NOW
(DeBarge) with Jay Graydon and David Foster.
This new upcoming CD is superbly crafted, loaded with original, sophisticated and catchy songs, with
interesting melodic hooks paying close attention to sonic detail as always when Jay creates music. Anyone into the
Steely Dan sound will surely love the subtle harmonic structures and clever lyrics.
At this point Jay has begun working with the time consuming mixing process, and there is so much work
to be done before
Jay and Randy will consider the album ready to be devoured by us starving music lovers. In a few months time we will have
come a lot closer to the release of some really GREAT music, that is for sure
So stay tuned for more news as things unfold!
March 3, 2007
Jay Graydon Interviewed In Upcoming Movie
Jay Graydon is interviewed in filmmaker John Vizzusi's documentary
movie - "ELECTRIC
HEART- the Man, his Times & his Music" about Don Ellis. Don was an American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer
and leader of big bands who consistently explored the area of unusual time signatures. He was the first to create a fusion
between jazz-rock and classical music.The Don Ellis music style can
be described as experimental post-bop jazz.
During and briefly after his college days Jay Graydon played in the renowned Don Ellis Band for a period of
time. Read more about Don Ellis and the Don Ellis Tribute
Band which did a tribute concert at the Whisky
A Go-Go in West Hollywood in December 2005, on the occasion of the 27th anniversary of Don's passing away.
In the latest issue (Nov.2006) of the Japanese music magazine "ADLIB" (covering Adult Contemporary
Music, Jazz, R&B...) Jay Graydon was voted the second favorite guitarist in the world by the readers and his
latest album
Past to Present - the 70s (2006) was ranked as number
9 of the favorite albums.
Welcome to our sister site jaygraydon.net which now is launched in full. Check out
lyrics, pics, sound bites, video
performances, sheet music, articles and other stuff that is interesting and Jay Graydon related. New features will be
added from time to time - so keep hanging around!
October 14, 2006
JAY GRAYDON WRITES FOR EQ MAGAZINE
After the appraised article series on Recording the Guitar for Guitar.com a
while back Jay will once again share his expertise
in all things recording with us in a new set of articles written for EQ Magazine.
Please join us for an exciting and educational journey into recording land guided by our host Jay Graydon. As most of you
already know Jay Graydon is twice Grammy awarded
with 12 top five Grammy finalist nominations, among them are for instance the winning R&B songs AFTER THE LOVE HAS
GONE and TURN YOUR LOVE AROUND and the nominations for e.g. the prestigious title "Producer of
the Year" as well as a Grammy top five finalist nomination for "Best Engineered Recording".
Jay's profound knowledge of recording, engineering, songwriting, arranging, producing and related areas, has rendered
him deep respect within the music industry and he has been called in as a beta tester of music gear a number of
times by leading music equipment developers. Jay's music expertise comes from a deep well of experience - recording
sessions from his career over the years and a desire to share his know-how with everyone who is seeking knowledge on
how to develop his/her skills within the quality recording area.
First article in EQ Magazine deals with
Recording Acoustic Drums Also available in the print edition of EQ Magazine for September 2006.
July 12, 2006
JAY GRAYDON MESSAGE FORUM LAUNCHED
Welcome to our message forum! Feel free to post a message, start new threads
and/or respond to music related issues of your interest and share your
thoughts in music and recording land. Jay has started a few threads for us and will also join the discussions when
time allows.
You are invited to join the forum and discuss music issues with others. From time
to time I will hang around and
join the discussions as well. Feel free to post new threads and hey, please keep it clean and music
related, guys. - Jay Graydon
July 11, 2006
Past to Present - the 70s - NOW with BONUS track
KING RECORDS, Japan, is releasing Past to Present - the 70s with an instrumental bonus version of IT'S RIGHT TO BE
IN LOVE. The catalog number is KICP-1176 and the release date for this album is set to be August 23, 2006, but you
may pre-order your copy at Amazon now...
Their database is sent to over 2400 retail stores around the
world and any store can buy albums through Super D. IOW even if you do not find your local favorite store listed
here, you can tell them to contact Gayland Morris at
Super D to set up an account.
June 1, 2006
GUITAR WORLD FEATURES JAY GRAYDON
JAY GRAYDON is featured in the July 2006 issue of the music magazine GUITAR WORLD (circulation: 200,000 and counting... at news stands June 6).
David Konow has written an article for GUITAR WORLD about the studio musicians scene of
the '70s and '80s and interviewed Jay about his career as a first call session ace guitarist. This is a story about
the great guitarists who came out of the studio scene, the albums they played on, the whole shebang, or in short, a
look back at a very important time in music history.
In this interview Jay says he hopes he "passed along some information that becomes educational for you future
studio guys." and concludes by saying "keep the fellowship of string benders alive in creative land!"
Enjoy the interview in full in the GUITAR WORLD July 2006 issue!
These recording sessions, original stuff from the 70s, are previously never released. Listen to
a few sound bites from the
album, featuring Jay singing on two of the
songs (IF THERE'S A WAY and YOU CAN COUNT ON ME) and Bill Champlin on one - an alternate version of
WHAT GOOD IS LOVE. Bill is also singing lead vocals on another never before released song - IT'S RIGHT TO BE IN LOVE - and like we told you
earlier the album features the session aces from the 70s era and from any era - just check out the list below on the
participating musicians and vocalists...
Musicians and Vocalists:
GUITARS: Jay Graydon
KEYBOARDS: Jay Graydon, David Foster, Greg Mathieson
DRUMS: Jeff Porcaro, Willy Ornelas, Mike Baird, Ralph Humphrey
BASS: Jay Graydon, Dave McDaniel, David Hungate, Mike Porcaro, (most likely David Shields)
VOCALISTS: Jay Graydon, Bill Champlin, Ed Whiting, Marc Jordan, Tata Vega, Lisa DalBello, Nettie
Gloud, Carmen Twillie
SONGWRITERS: Jay Graydon, David Foster, Bill Champlin, Harry Garfield, Marc Jordan, B. J. Cook Foster
Listen up music lovers - in mid to late February 2006 Jay will release a NEW album that will knock your socks off!!! All
songs on this upcoming album are transferred from analog masters, recorded by Jay and Co. in the 70s, into a digital
masterpiece of quality music and this is as close as it will ever get to another AIRPLAY album!!! How about that???
This new album - Past to Present - the 70s - features Jay Graydon on vocals, guitars, bass and some synth stuff; great
singers such as Bill Champlin, Marc Jordan, Tata Vega, Lisa DalBello, Ed Whiting and more. On all tracks other musicians
include such top names as David Foster, Jeff Porcaro, Mike Baird, David Hungate, Mike Porcaro, Greg Mathieson, to name
a few. The album will have around 20 tracks and this stuff has never been released before. Apart from the 10 main songs,
there are near 10 more bonus songs - fun stuff like TV themes, a jingle, and a few instrumental tracks of some of the
first 10 songs.
Jay says about his new album...
"If you are interested in hearing great singers, musicians, and songwriters that had surfaced as "top notch" in the 70s
during the beginning of their professional careers, you will enjoy the CD."
Keep hanging around the web site for the latest news on the release date and purchase info for Jay's amazing
new album - Past to Present - the 70s!!! This is the one album you will want to own in 2006!
The album is now released and in the liner notes there is an exclusive interview with Jay Graydon and David Foster together at David's Malibu
mansion. Toshi Nakada of COOL SOUND interviewed them both in March 2005 and Ian Eales (Grammy nominated engineer, one of Jay's best
friends and David's brother-in-law) took this picture. A new interview with Tommy Funderburk is also added.
BTW this 25th Anniversary album sometimes has the title ROMANTIC.
Jay Graydon VIDEO CLIP from HIRED GUN!
Lee Ritenour's
Six String Theory Guitar Competition
