Johnny Gray: Albanus Guitar

[invisaman75]

Does any one know anything about the guitarist Johnny Gray? A friend
of mine bought an Albanus guitar that has his name on the label. He
knew a bit about him. He lived in Chicago for awhile and then moved to
the Los Angeles area. He played on a few Nancy Wilson recording from
the early '60s most notably "GuessWho I Saw Today".

Does anyone know anything else?

Thanks!

[Mark Cleary]

I know all about him worked with guitar builder Bill Barker and I owed
an Albanus for 10 years. I wish I had not sold the guitar. Get in touch
with me by e mail would be interested in which one you have. Johnny
probably owed at least 2 Albanus guitars and then when Carl Albanus
Johnson died, he went to playing Barker guitar. I did not know Carl
personally he died in about 1973-4 before I worked around Barker's shop.
I do know a fellow who owns all his forms and patterns... cool piece of
history.

These are great guitars no question!

--
Deacon Mark Cleary
Epiphany Roman Catholic Church

[dwabeslim]

I've never tried one but do have a yearning to own one one day. They
look great and as you 've read here
people speak highly of them.
Keith[who reads the group too] and I have been talking about them of
late.
Hmmmmm

[invisaman75]

On May 6, 4:02 pm, van <sg...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> A few people here with more highly refined taste, John Galich, the
> Deacon and I, have posted a great deal about him. Do a search.
> The Deacon can even give you information on the Albanus guitar he
> played.
> He was a great guitarist, a busy studio musician and a fine jazz
> player who died of a stroke at a young age (about 40?).
> He released one great LP under his own name called "The New Wave" with
> Herb Ellis and bass and drums. I was shocked to find that a musical I
> was playing "Swing!" ripped off his arrangement of "Caravan" on that
> LP.
>    He did a stint with George Shearing in the 60s with Gary Burton,
> and was headed for the top until his untimely stroke, which rendered
> him unable to play for a number of years.
> I can't tell if your friend has his guitar or his model guitar, but if
> it was Gray's, I'd be glad to take it off his hands if he wants to get
> rid of it!

My friend is in love with this guitar. You may not believe this but he
knew Carl "Albanus" Johnson. He had heard stories about Johnny Gray
but never met him.

[invisaman75]

I was told from reliable source that Albanus died in '77 but who
counting.

[invisaman75]

archtop.com has a lates '60 Albanus right now.

http://www.archtop.com/ac_albanus17_210.html

[Mark Cleary]

I never met Johnny but Bill Barker and him were best of friends. He told
me Gray was a decent reader and could do the studio thing but he had
tremendous ears, and went to the West coast. His chord work is some of
the finest and he did try at times to sound like a steel guitar player.
He was from Vinita Oklahoma and right from the Herb Ellis-Kessel school.

He use to worked the Breakfast Club in Chicago and played with Fred
Runquist. Freddie always had a story about how Gray would play behind
singers and they really like his playing. Worked with Shearing in the
60's also and these are the recordings I have of Johnny.

Another thing on the sad side was he had a stroke some years before he
died and was not able to play. Gray was also a singer too in his early
years but I am sure his playing just was so great that he had other
options. According to Barker he was almost entirely a chord player and
only later practiced his single line speed. Barker told me that him and
Fred would get together with Hank Garland when he was in town and
finally Hank's playing got Gray into playing more single line solos.
Barker told me that he decided to improve his technique for this and
spent some serious time getting it together to be able to keep up with
Hank. I guess he manage pretty well but of course these are antidotes
from the past.

He seem to battle a problem with alcoholism and from what I gather it
may have been some of his health issues. Johnny also brought my father's
Barker guitar to the west coast in 1965 and my dad bought the Barker
guitar new through Johnny. Maybe if I get some time this week I will put
a recording of it on my youtube page. I have not done anything with
youtube months. The very earlies Barker guitar the 1st 15 or so have a
different body style and much like the Albanus. Barker changed his body
style in 1970.

These bring up old memories and not many really care about this but in
fact in the jazz guitar world it important. I think it shows the midwest
part of the country that largely is ignored concerning the guitar. I
hope the information is helpful.

van wrote:

> Another interesting thing I just remembered about John Gray was that
> he was one of the first jazz players to use his pick and fingers (what
> some neanderthal coined as "hybrid picking") like Ed Bickert.
> I think he started off as a country player, and there's always a
> section of tasteful bending and blues scale riffs in his solos (along
> with long bebop lines, as a nice contrast). He swung like mad, which
> if you haven't figured it out by now, is what good jazz is all about.
> His chord work was great also, very distinctive.

[Bg]

I have George Shearing Quintet Jazz Concert at Santa Monica, Calif,
and John doesn't seem to have any chop problems playing and reading
Shearing's charts, and he definitely does some really fine Chord solos
for sure.

Bg

[david.bri...@gmail.com]

I believe you'll find that Freddie Runquist also played an Albanus guitar, I spoke with him by trans Atlantic telephone when I had the only known Albanus in the UK but of course I bought it from the son of a guy in the mid -west who reputedly played mainly dance band stuff and when he died the guitar sat in its case in a cupboard for many years. Despite its neglect I took off the three remaining strings, cleaned the whole thing up carefully, restrung it with some 13 - 56 half round d'Addarios and it played like a dream. It was so good that I sold my L5CN after a short while. The Albanus was fitted with a deArmond 1100 on a short rod attached to the bass side of the neck extension. The only other one I saw for sale was on Ebay and it was a seven string , possibly the only one he made. I spoke to Bucky Pizzarelli about this guitar and although he never owned one, he told a lovely story about all the guys on the studio circuit going to hear the great champion of seven string George Van Epps. Bucky said that the following day all the guys rushed around to Manny's guitar shop and bought out the whole stock of Gretsch seven strings and went away to practice.
I wish I could find my old Albanus again.

Dave Bennett (England)

[ott...@hotmail.com]

On Friday, 7 May 2010 18:04:31 UTC-7, Mark Cleary wrote:
> I never met Johnny but Bill Barker and him were best of friends. He told me Gray was a decent reader and could do the studio thing but he had tremendous ears, and went to the West coast. His chord work is some of the finest and he did try at times to sound like a steel guitar player. He was from Vinita Oklahoma and right from the Herb Ellis-Kessel school.He use to worked the Breakfast Club in Chicago and played with Fred Runquist. Freddie always had a story about how Gray would play behind singers and they really like his playing. Worked with Shearing in the 60's also and these are the recordings I have of Johnny.Another thing on the sad side was he had a stroke some years before he died and was not able to play. Gray was also a singer too in his early years but I am sure his playing just was so great that he had other options. According to Barker he was almost entirely a chord player and only later practiced his single line speed. Barker told me that him and Fred would get together with Hank Garland when he was in town and finally Hank's playing got Gray into playing more single line solos. Barker told me that he decided to improve his technique for this and spent some serious time getting it together to be able to keep up with Hank. I guess he manage pretty well but of course these are antidotes from the past.He seem to battle a problem with alcoholism and from what I gather it may have been some of his health issues. Johnny also brought my father's Barker guitar to the west coast in 1965 and my dad bought the Barker guitar new through Johnny. Maybe if I get some time this week I will put a recording of it on my youtube page. I have not done anything with youtube months. The very earlies Barker guitar the 1st 15 or so have a different body style and much like the Albanus. Barker changed his body style in 1970.These bring up old memories and not many really care about this but in fact in the jazz guitar world it important. I think it shows the midwest part of the country that largely is ignored concerning the guitar. I hope the information is helpful.van wrote: > On May 7, 5:04 pm, invisaman75 <invisama...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On May 6, 8:08 pm, dwabeslim <gregclay...@videotron.ca> wrote: >> >>> I've never tried one but do have a yearning to own one one day. They >>> look great and as you 've read here >>> people speak highly of them. >>> Keith[who reads the group too] and I have been talking about them of >>> late.>>> Hmmmmm >> archtop.com has a lates '60 Albanus right now.>> >> http://www.archtop.com/ac_albanus17_210.html> > Another interesting thing I just remembered about John Gray was that > he was one of the first jazz players to use his pick and fingers (what > some neanderthal coined as "hybrid picking") like Ed Bickert. > I think he started off as a country player, and there's always a > section of tasteful bending and blues scale riffs in his solos (along > with long bebop lines, as a nice contrast). He swung like mad, which > if you haven't figured it out by now, is what good jazz is all about. > His chord work was great also, very distinctive.-- Deacon Mark Cleary Epiphany Roman Catholic Church

Here's a nice John Gray solo in his Shearing period
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNeAbx8K3qI>

Bg

[Bill Williams]

> Here's a nice John Gray solo in his Shearing period

Real nice! And you can hear some of the influences mentioned above.

[invisaman75]

What happened to your Albanus? Did you sell it?

[gracieg...@gmail.com]

Hey there,
I'm searching for a guitar (possibly your friend's) that was sold by Bill Cook. John Gray is my Grandfather, and before he died he told my father Tim Gray that he had a guitar he wanted to give him. This guitar was sold by Bill (with some of my relatives consent, unfortunately) before it could get to my dad. I just contacted Bill, and we are looking for this guitar now. He just emailed me saying that he is "going to do some digging and get back to me."

If my quest interests you at all, I implore you to please help me find the guitar that was sold, out of respect for John and my entire family. My family and I are all musicians, and never got the chance to meet him. This is crucial to us.
If you could give your friend my message or give me his/her information, I would be so thankful. Honestly, anything would help.



Thank you so much for your time!

Best,
Gracie Gray
gracieg...@gmail.com

[gracieg...@gmail.com]

[mcle...@comcast.net]

I might be able to help worked with Barker and Bill Hollenbeck who was a
guitar builder who also worked with Barker. I had and Albanus you need to
email me off line and I can see what I might come up with. I know Cook but
have not seen him in years but lives relatively close

Deacon Mark Cleary
Epiphany RC

wrote in message
news:48efaae2-01b9-4491...@googlegroups.com...

[John Galich]

Two of john Gray's guitars were recently sold by archtop.com in Seattle; one was from 1957, the other from the early 60s.Here are the links:

http://www.archtop.com/ac_albanus17_914.html
http://www.archtop.com/ac_57albanus17.html

They were both apparently previously owned by the estate of Dick Curtis, a jazz guitarist from Chicago, who eventually ended up in Phoenix.

I hope this helps you. I enjoy your late grandfather's playing immensely.

John Galich

[andrewg...@btinternet.com]

Does your friend still have the guitar? Any pictures?

Thank you.