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Liner Notes
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Interview with Grammy
Award-winning songwriter, producer, studio musician Jay Graydon Part 1
Jay Graydon is a Grammy award
winning songwriter and producer, as well as a successful studio guitarist
and songwriter for film and television.
He did the guitar solo on Steely Dan's
song, "Peg," had a role in Al Jarreau's success in the 1980's, and won Grammys
for co-writing George Benson's "Turn Your Love Around" and Earth Wind &
Fire's "After the Love Has Gone." Jay Graydon his own music label,
Sonic Thrust Records,
and is currently writing a series of books with Craig Anderton on recording
and mixing. His latest CD will be released in early 2006. Recently James
Auburn caught up with him, and here's the resulting e-mail interview.
JAMES AUBURN: If someone who
didn't know who you were asked "Who is Jay Graydon, and what has he done?",
what credits/achievements would you most want them to know about?
JAY GRAYDON: The fact that I was lucky enough to make a living
playing guitar, writing songs, and producing records with many Grammy
nominations and "wins" along the way. I humbly state I do my best to create
quality music. For all of you musicians that are trying to break into such
fields, do your best to play and write with as many people as possible. If
you have the gift, it will be obvious and the networking will be in play
leading you to a professional career in the business.
JA: What was a typical day like for you when your session/performing
schedule was at its busiest, and what period was this, exactly? (Perhaps it
is now...?)
JG: I was a first call studio guitarist in the 70's. Around 1978, I
had moved on to producing and writing songs. The typical session was three
hours but many sessions were booked as a double session Yeah six hours.
Typically from 10 AM to 1PM and 2 PM to 5PM. I typically worked four
sessions a day and the 2nd double session typically started at 7 PM. Most
sessions went the length and sometimes overtime (which occasionally could be
a problem for me arriving to the next session).
Regarding fast sessions, I did many sessions for Mike Lloyd. When
overdubbing for him, I could be in and out in like twenty minutes if just
playing a solo. I once overdubbed acoustic guitar (and doubled the part) for
Michael on a whole album in just over an hour - Simply tune up, read the
chart, double the part, and then the next tune. I loved working sessions for
him as totally painless and I dug in mentally big time knowing everything
would be first or 2nd take. There were others I worked for in which I could
get in and out quickly. One week knowing many sessions would be quick; I
crammed in 28 sessions in six days. That is four a day and four more stuffed
in the time cracks.
JA: The whole 70's/early-80's L.A.-hotshot-studio-cat scene received
some criticism at the time: charges that were frequently thrown around
included "soulless", "cynical", "calculated", hired chops-meisters churning
out formula radio product, etc. How would you respond to such charges?
JG: As the old saying goes, "Opinions are like as*h*les-- everybody
has one." <g> Dig, we all busted our as*es to interpret the music, play with
feeling, and for string instrument cats, play in tune. The stuff was usually
"tight" since incredible musicians that can lock in a "feel" playing
together as one. Is that not the point when playing with musicians? Should
we be penalized for that?
Regarding "Formula", how do formulas start? Writers and arrangers but also
studio rhythm section musicians! Dig, when playing sessions, after a player
becomes a first call cat, you know when it is time to offer arrangement
ideas. The session may not have an arranger and the chord charts may need
help. Such input is a good breeding ground for ideas. Every once in a while,
a style starts from such situations. There is no doubt David Foster started
a formula offering ideas on sessions and then really nailed this when he
started to produce.
So here is the bottom line with formula. When a formula is dictated by the
arranger and producer (let's say disco for an example), that is what they
want so as work for hire musicians, that is what we play. If not, new ideas
will emerge. Btw, I have played on many records that were very creative but
never sold well. Let's see formula records make money so we received such
work. When a formula gets tired, the studio musician must get with the new
formula program.
JA: Now, however, the "West Coast" sound has a very devoted
fan/collector scene, especially in Europe and Japan, where fans rabidly seek
and snatch up rare, obscure albums with reliable names playing on them. Why
do you think it has endured, particularly with those international
audiences?
Page 2
Part 2
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