Errata: 2002 Edition

Additions and Corrections to
“Rat Race Blues: The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce” (2002 Edition)
by Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald

Credits:
The credits for the LP label reproductions on pp. 216 and 220 are interchanged and should read as follows:
pages 70, 216 and 239: labels reproduced courtesy of Columbia Records
pages 121, 150, 220, 274, 278 and 281: labels reproduced courtesy of Fantasy Inc.

The photograph of Charlie Rouse, Clifford Brown and Gigi Gryce at the Clifford Brown Sextet session, August 28, 1953, Audio-Video Studios, New York lacks the credit which should read: (Francis Wolff ©Mosaic Images)

The unidentified woman in the photograph of Art Farmer and Gigi Gryce (with bow and arrow) at Lenox, MA, July 10, 1955 is Renee Farmer. (Thanks to Renee Farmer)

The photograph of the Teddy Charles Tentet was taken at City College of New York not Cooper Union. (Thanks to Ira Gitler and Karen Taylor)

In the caption for the photograph of Gryce with two of his children, his daughter’s name is mispelled. It should read: “Laila”

Errata and New Information:
p. 16, line 8 from bottom: “Dr. Goose” should read “Dr. Goode.” (Thanks to Donald Shirley)

p. 55, line 7 from bottom: Gryce is quoted referring to a teacher of piano, instrumentation and counterpoint as “Mr. Lee.” This is very likely Alfred Lee whom Daniel Pinkham confirms was a piano teacher at Boston Conservatory. (Thanks to David Badagnani and Daniel Pinkham)

p. 73, line 7 from bottom: Gryce did not travel to Europe in 1951. Information obtained after publication of the book reveals that this trip occurred in 1952, after he graduated from Boston Conservatory.

p. 119, lines 6-7 from bottom: “…Quincy Jones’s ballad “Purple Shades.” – We had accepted the information given on Vogue CD 74321154672 (Street Scenes) which credits Jones as composer of this tune; however, “Purple Shades” was actually written by Phil Dooley, Lew Douglas and Frank Lavere. It is the song recorded by pop singer Joni James for the MGM label in the early 1950s. We should also note that Jones contributed an arrangement of “Purple Shades,” very similar to that recorded in Paris in 1953 (and issued on the aforementioned Vogue CD), to the 1955 LP Julian Cannonball Adderley (EmArcy MG 36043, recently reissued as Verve CD 422 830 381-2).

p. 160, line 11 from bottom: delete “Ira Gitler” (Thanks to Ira Gitler)

p.179, lines 15-16: “…and Art was married to Ernestine Anderson…” – We have been informed that Art Farmer and Anderson, apparently, were never married.

p. 200, line 17: “Thelonious Monk Trio” should read “Thelonious Monk Quintet”; line 20: delete “and the bassist backed Monk.” (Thanks to Kal Radin)

p. 215, table: A row (February 5 session) was omitted from the table summarizing the 1957 Jazz Lab recording sessions and the two titles thought to have been recorded on January 13, 1957 were actually recorded at the March 13, 1957 session. Therefore, the table should appear as follows:

1957 Jazz Lab Recording Sessions

Date Format Label Rhythm Section
February 4 Nonet Columbia Flanagan, Marshall, Taylor
February 5 Quintet Columbia Flanagan, Marshall, Taylor
February 27 Quintet Riverside Legge, Marshall, Taylor
March 7 Quintet Riverside Legge, Marshall, Taylor
March 13 Nonet and Quintet Columbia Legge, Marshall, Taylor
July 5 Quintet* Verve Jones, Marshall, Johnson
July 30 Quintet RCA Jones, Chambers, Taylor
July 31 Quintet RCA Jones, Chambers, Taylor
August 1 Quintet RCA Jones, Chambers, Taylor
August 9 Quintet Jubilee Jones, Chambers, Taylor
August 30 Quintet Columbia Kelly, Marshall, Taylor
September 3 Quintet** Columbia Kelly, Marshall, Taylor
September 5 Nonet Columbia Kelly, Marshall, Taylor

*Live Performance; **Vocalist Jackie Paris added

p. 215, line 6: “fourteen sessions” should read “thirteen sessions.”

p. 216, line 9: In view of the preceding corrections, the discussion of the Columbia recording session that produced “I Remember Clifford” and “Little Niles” is out of chronological order since these titles were actually recorded on March 13 and not January 13. Correct placement would be the first paragraph of p. 219. Despite the date error, our claim that this was the very first recording of Benny Golson’s tribute to Clifford Brown still seems correct since the March 13 date precedes Lee Morgan’s recording of “I Remember Clifford” for the Blue Note label by about ten days.

p. 226, lines 9-11: “…neither the tapes from that recording nor the live broadcast seem to have been preserved.” – We have discovered that 16 mm film of the Tonight! America After Dark broadcast of June 24, 1957 is stored at the library of University of California Los Angeles, call number T45617. The authors have not yet viewed the film, the library’s description of which specifically mentions the Gryce quintet segment.

p. 242, line 17: Our assumption that Gryce arranged “Sea Breeze” was wrong. This title was, in fact, arranged by Benny Golson for the Dizzy Gillespie octet session of December 17, 1957. This has been confirmed by Rob DuBoff of eJazzLines who gained access to the actual arrangement as well as the other three contributed by Golson to the session. This discovery also casts doubt on our attribution to Gryce of the arrangement of “Sea Breeze” for the Oscar Pettiford orchestra session of September 6, 1957 (see p. 237, line 4).

p. 249, line 3: “two days…” should read “three days…”

p. 249, second line from bottom: This may actually have been the first arrangement of “Sea Breeze” written by Gryce (see correction to p. 242 above).

p. 282, lines 20-29 are part of a quote (ref. 20) and should have been denoted as such by being set in smaller font.

pp. 284 and 295 – Sam Finch: It appears that Finch was a real person and not a Gryce alias.

p. 317, line 1, 320, line 5 and index, p. 426: “Edthia” should read “Fathia.”

p. 318, paragraph 2: We have been informed that Gryce (as Qusim) taught at Junior High School No. 192 in Hollis, Queens in addition to the schools indicated. (Thanks to Karen Taylor)

p. 339, line 13: “Don Sickler (2000)” should read “Don Sickler (1999).” To be more specific, the authors attended a three day recording session at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio August 31-September 2, 1999, produced and directed by Don Sickler. All the music involved was that of Gigi Gryce. The leaderless ensemble was made up of Bobby Porcelli (as, f), Ralph Moore (ss, ts), Richard Wyands (p), Peter Washington (b), Kenny Washington (d). Sickler himself did not perform on any tracks. To date, nothing has been issued from this recording session.