Lionel Grigson
| Lionel Grigson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
12 February 1942 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK |
| Died | 14 June 1994 (aged 52) London, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Jazz pianist, composer, writer, educator |
| Known for | Professor of Harmony and Improvisation at Guildhall School of Music (1983–93) |
Lionel Grigson (12 February 1942 – 14 June 1994) was a British jazz pianist, cornettist, trumpeter, composer, writer and teacher, who in the 1980s started the jazz course at the Guildhall School of Music. As Simon Purcell wrote in The Independent, "Whether he inspired or inflamed, Grigson's energies often acted as a catalyst and his interest in, and support for, young jazz musicians contributed significantly to the growth and consolidation of jazz education in Britain....Within the context of a leading international conservatoire, the Guildhall School of Music, in London, Grigson did much to demonstrate and explain the underlying principles common to jazz, classical and indeed all music, and as a result produced a generation of jazz educators possessing a thorough grounding in an area where much educational work is left to chance." Among his published books are Practical Jazz (1988), Jazz from Scratch (1991) and A Jazz Chord Book, as well as studies on the music of Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong and Thelonious Monk.
The only son of poet and critic Geoffrey Grigson, Lionel Grigson died in London at the age of 52.
Lionel Jermyn Grigson was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, to poet and critic Geoffrey Grigson (1905–85) and his second wife Berta Emma Kunert (1916–2001). Named after one of his father's brothers who was killed aged 19 in World War I, Lionel was educated at Dartington Hall School and at King's College, Cambridge University (where he contributed writings on jazz to the university magazine Granta under the editorship of Alexis Lykiard). Grigson's first wife was the publisher Margaret Busby, co-founder of Allison & Busby.
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