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Michael Gregory (born Michael Gregory Jackson) is an ambitious, guitarist/ singer/songwriter who began his career playing with many luminaries of the Avant Garde Jazz scene in the 70's. As the years progressed, he would slide back and forth into Rock, Pop, Soul, New Wave and back to Jazz. Over the years, he's performed and/or recorded with Mick Jagger, Carlos Santana, Nile Rodgers, David Murray, Jack Dejohnette, Bernard Edwards, Wadada Leo Smith, Steve Winwood, Walter Becker, Anthony Davis, Anton Fig, Melle Mel, Omar Hakim, David Sancious, Marcus Miller, Jerry Marotta, Nona Hendryx, Ed Blackwell, Tony Thompson, Karl Berger, Oliver Lake, Henry Threadgill, Vernon Reid, Anthony Braxton , and many others.

From Jazz.com, and allaboutjazz:


Born in New Haven, CT, 1953, Michael began to play guitar at the age of seven. In his teens, he often performed his own material during solo gigs and band appearances. Among Michael's early influences were Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Son House, Joni Mitchell and Igor Stravinsky. His father exposed him to Wes Montgomery, Mahalia Jackson, Les Paul, Mary Ford, and early George Benson, and Michael's musical destiny began to take shape.Gregory was playing local coffee shops and nightspots, primarily in a singer-songwriter vein, though he was listening to everything he could get his hands on: "I was into rock music, but I was into all kinds of music, especially Miles and at that time, electric Miles, Coltrane and Sanders, Webern and Stravinsky; radio wasn't so demographically programmed, and I always felt that I liked 'music,' and never separated it too much."


Progressive creative improvised music composer and trumpeter, Wadada Leo Smith, influenced Gregory to look beyond the boundaries of rock, folk and mainstream jazz, and soon Michael was playing avant-garde music with Smith and such other notables as pianist Anthony Davis, saxophonists David Murray and Oliver Lake. He recorded several highly unique albums from 1976 through 1979 for Bija, Black Saint, Improvising Artists and Arista- Novus. By 1979, though, Gregory had felt that the singer-songwriter aspect of his art was being neglected, and through both free improvisation and experimenting with the possibilities of electric guitar sounds and rhythmic structure, he had redeveloped an interest in playing rock music.

"That was what was calling me, and I shrunk the band down so it was just me, Pheeroan AkLaff on drums, and, and Jerome Harris on bass... and then I started the three-piece rock band Signal. We played every night and rehearsed every day for about two years and hit all the clubs and festivals nonstop between Boston and New York, DC and other cities. Obviously, there was a big circuit for rock music, and we were a band that people could dance to, though I played a lot of guitar solos".

Arista, however, was less receptive to Gregory's talents as a rock musician, even more so because it was not an idiom that African-American artists were regularly associated with: "I had this situation where the label was saying 'oh wow, this is great, these are terrific songs,' and I was also very prolific and writing five songs a day, and I'd say 'okay, can I record them?' and they would just keep me on hold. Basically, I was black and they didn't want me to do rock, though doing R&B would have been fine. I spent a year with Arista trying to make the move I wanted to make musically, and they wouldn't let me do it, so finally I asked for my release."

In 1982, As he began to move into more commercial music, Michael changed his name to Michael Gregory, to avoid any name confusion with Michael Jackson. However, the 80's led to a time of serious disappointment with the record business, and though Gregory was working with producers like Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic (and even briefly with Steely Dan's Walter Becker), attempts to record the music he wanted and have it be promoted to any capacity were almost nil, though he was able to record one album for Island (1983's Situation X).
In litigation for almost three years with Island to get out of his contract, Gregory became leery of the music business in general, and returned to Massachusetts to raise his family. However, in recent years, he has returned not only to playing regularly (including two solo releases, 'Red', and 'Towards The Sun') but also to the world of free improvisation, and has renewed his relationship with Oliver Lake - a fruitful partnership that, to Gregory, "feels like home."

Some examples of Michael Gregory's shifting styles:


Michael Gregory - Take Me Home





Michael Gregory - Heart Of Happiness (1987)





Michael Gregory Jackson - Cowboys, Cartoons, and Assorted Candy





Michael Gregory - Can't Carry You (1983)




Michael Gregory Jackson - Loving You (1979)




Michael Gregory Jackson - American Dream




Michael Gregory Jackson - We Will Always Know




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[Edited 1/19/10 16:30pm]

Thanks pali. He's very underrated. Saw him play in NYC back in the late 80's (r&b set) but he played a lot of heavy guitar solos in the mix. Got him on my 'My Space' page too.

SPYZFAN1 said:

Wow, Kool! I figured you were hip!!! I wish I had seen him live back then...
I like the stuff on his myspace page, too!




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paligap said:

His tune Clarity is included on a 5 LP/3 CD set that chronicles a Free Jazz "festival" hosted by Sam Rivers in 1976




...Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions


Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

theAudience said:

Aha, that definitely figures...

Actually, His Clarity album (1976) is one of the few CDs of his that's still in print...






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[b][Edited 1/19/10 16:06pm]

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have never heard of him or his music, but he's from new haven, so

purplepolitician said:

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