[78-L] Ray Bryant, RIP

[warren moorman]

Julian, you corrected Taylor quickly, and Cary was just adding a casual memory, but on the Gotham recordings of Tiny Grimes' band: they WERE in fact contracted by Grimes as leader, per AFM session rules. That any sides were actually issued under other names (as the Summers and Jay Hawkins were) doesn't change that. Most Gotham label session details are sketchy, and there was once debate about whether Freddie Redd played on all the Gotham sessions, but it has been generally settled that Ray played on at least some of the sessions around 1949-50. I believe the only still living member of that band is Herb Gordy, but he's in the  U.S. Pacific time zone, so ask him later.

 To say that a couple of casual posts on this list can create myths is to claim too great an impact for a venue that, for all its' usefulness, at times is little more than an adult-sitting service for shellac interested shut-ins. (ever seen what happens when there are simply no posts for more than a few hours?) A Cyber-tether, if you will. Even the 'net takes more than that to create lasting myths.

Warren        


--- On Fri, 6/3/11, Julian Vein <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

> So far this list has created two-and-a-half myths about Ray
> Bryant.
> 
> !. He was the brother of Marie Bryant.
> 2. He recorded "After Hours" with Buck Clayton!
> 3. He did record with Tiny Grimes in 1949, but that was a
> session under 
> singer J.B. Summers's leadership, although the it has been
> reissued 
> under Grimes's name.