Jerry Gray (arranger)

Jerry Gray
Jerry Gray on the left
Background information
Birth name	Generoso Graziano
Born	(1915-07-03)July 3, 1915 East Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	August 10, 1976(1976-08-10) (aged 61) Dallas, Texas
Genres	Swing, jazz
Occupation(s)	Bandleader, composer, arranger
Instruments	Violin
Years active	1930s–1970s
Labels	Decca
Associated acts	Glenn Miller Orchestra, Tex Beneke Orchestra, Jerry Gray Orchestra

Jerry Gray (July 3, 1915 – August 10, 1976) was an American violinist, arranger, composer, and leader of swing dance orchestras (big bands) bearing his name. He is widely known for his work with popular music during the Swing era. His name is inextricably linked to two of the most famous bandleaders of the time, Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller. Gray, along with Bill Finegan, wrote many of Glenn Miller's arrangements during the late 1930s and early 1940s. In the latter part of Gray's career, his orchestra served as the house band at the Venetian Room of the Fairmont Hotel, Dallas.

Jerry Gray was born Generoso Graziano in Boston, Massachusetts. His father Albert Graziano was a music teacher who began training his son on the violin at age seven. As a teenager he studied with Emanuel Ondříček () and was a soloist with the Boston Junior Symphony. By age eighteen he had already formed his own jazz band and was performing in Boston-area clubs.

In 1936 Gray joined Artie Shaw, who was calling himself Art Shaw, and his "New Music" orchestra as lead violinist. He studied musical arrangement under Shaw and became a staff arranger a year later. During the next two years he penned some of the band's most popular arrangements, including "Carioca", "Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise", "Any Old Time", and the classic "Begin the Beguine." Many of his up-tempo arrangements show early evidence of the style that would eventually become his trademark: a melody broken into two- to four-measure phrases, usually carried by brass section, repeated with increasing intensity until the climax.

In November 1939, Shaw suddenly broke up his band and moved to Mexico. The next day, Glenn Miller called Gray and offered him a job arranging for his band. It was initially a difficult move because Shaw had generally allowed his arrangers great musical latitude, while Miller's commercial orientation often led him to second-guess his staff. Gray gradually found himself more in line with Miller's less–mercurial personality and was allowed more of the freedom that he appreciated. As Gray later told author George T. Simon, "To me, Glenn's band didn't swing like Artie's. ... But after I made up my mind to accept things as they were, things started to click. ... He was a businessman who appreciated music. ... I may have been happier musically with Artie, but I was happier personally with Glenn."