Bright Moments Posted January 20, 2011 Report Posted January 20, 2011 My latest interest is tenor great Wardell Gray. I am curious as to whether the true circumstances of his death were ever discovered. Reportedly he was found in the desert with a broken neck. This does not sound like a "drug related" death. He was also reputed to be involved with Meyer Lansky! Can anyone please shed some light on these matters for me? much thanks!! Quote
Dave James Posted January 20, 2011 Report Posted January 20, 2011 I don't believe the reasons for Gray's death were ever determined. Lots of speculation with respect to drugs and/or the mob, but nothing definitive. There is a fictionalized treatment of his death in one of Bill Moody's Evan Horne jazz mysteries. It's called, Death Of A Tenor Man. Worth reading. Quote
Larry Kart Posted January 20, 2011 Report Posted January 20, 2011 He was also reputed to be involved with Meyer Lansky! Yes -- they were caught up in a mad, passionate love affair. In the forthcoming movie "D.O.A. In The Desert," Gray will be played by Will Smith and Lansky by Richard Dreyfus. Quote
Bright Moments Posted January 20, 2011 Author Report Posted January 20, 2011 He was also reputed to be involved with Meyer Lansky! Yes -- they were caught up in a mad, passionate love affair. In the forthcoming movie "D.O.A. In The Desert," Grey will be played by Will Smith and Lansky by Richard Dreyfus. but seriously. . . Quote
JSngry Posted January 20, 2011 Report Posted January 20, 2011 The latest "conventional wisdom" is that Wardell OD'ed in Vegas and was carried/dumped in the dessert by "friends" so the circumstances would not be discovered.The broken neck is said to have occurred somewhere along the way. Hey... Quote
brownie Posted January 20, 2011 Report Posted January 20, 2011 (edited) Material for a noir film Mysterious death of a tenorman Also note this is noir not grey. Wardell was Gray! Edited January 20, 2011 by brownie Quote
Bright Moments Posted January 20, 2011 Author Report Posted January 20, 2011 oooops! my bad on the spelling! :blush2: Can a moderator please fix for me - i can't figure out how to edit it! thanks brownie for the article! Quote
Larry Kart Posted January 20, 2011 Report Posted January 20, 2011 oooops! my bad on the spelling! :blush2: Can a moderator please fix for me - i can't figure out how to edit it! thanks brownie for the article! Fixed throughout. (My post, too -- Ye Gods!) Quote
Big Beat Steve Posted January 20, 2011 Report Posted January 20, 2011 The OD story has been refuted by others because according to various accounts and confirmations Wardell Gray was one of the few of his calibre and in this environment who was NOT a junkie. Maybe he caught the habit very late in his life but still there are those who doubt it. Quote
BeBop Posted January 20, 2011 Report Posted January 20, 2011 The OD story has been refuted by others because according to various accounts and confirmations Wardell Gray was one of the few of his calibre and in this environment who was NOT a junkie. Maybe he caught the habit very late in his life but still there are those who doubt it. As much as I love Wardell, I tend to believe the junkie stories. His playing changed markedly in the last years, with greatly reduced mental and physical facility, IMO (obviously not proof of anything). And, as I recall from the Ravett film, Clark Terry alludes to Wardell using. (If I'm wrong about this latter point - it's been years since I've seen the film - my apologies.) In what might be a rare display of discretion on my part, I never asked his widow before she passed. ("One of his widows/ex-wives", I suppose...) Quote
Quasimado Posted January 21, 2011 Report Posted January 21, 2011 Certainly the more you research this, the more it appears that it was drugs, that he OD'd and was dumped in the desert by fellow junkies. Teddy Edwards has a pretty revealing interview in Cadence magazine of April 1994. I read somewhere Benny Carter was convinced he was using in his(BC's)band at the Moulin Rouge ... Q Quote
chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez Posted January 21, 2011 Report Posted January 21, 2011 someone gotta post the cadence intiv. w/ teddy edwards Quote
Hoppy T. Frog Posted January 21, 2011 Report Posted January 21, 2011 carried/dumped in the dessert That's how I want to go. Dumped in dessert. Quote
Chuck Nessa Posted January 22, 2011 Report Posted January 22, 2011 The OD story has been refuted by others because according to various accounts and confirmations Wardell Gray was one of the few of his calibre and in this environment who was NOT a junkie. Maybe he caught the habit very late in his life but still there are those who doubt it. As much as I love Wardell, I tend to believe the junkie stories. His playing changed markedly in the last years, with greatly reduced mental and physical facility, IMO (obviously not proof of anything). And, as I recall from the Ravett film, Clark Terry alludes to Wardell using. (If I'm wrong about this latter point - it's been years since I've seen the film - my apologies.) In what might be a rare display of discretion on my part, I never asked his widow before she passed. ("One of his widows/ex-wives", I suppose...) FWIW, JR Monterose told me Wardell got high in his hotel room, started jumping on his bed, fell off and broke his neck. Friends in the room drove him to the desert so they wouldn't be involved. Quote
clifford_thornton Posted January 22, 2011 Report Posted January 22, 2011 someone gotta post the cadence intiv. w/ teddy edwards Here you go. Cadence 4/94 p. 16. We played the first show and there was a girl, had been Frank Morgan's girlfriend, she somehow hooked up with Teddy Hill with the drug thing. So Wardell and Teddy were waiting for her to come into Vegas with the drugs. So standing backstage was Wardell, John Anderson and Jewel Grant, waiting on the girl, reminiscing about how great a time we had in Detroit, this band was like a family. So Teddy Hill came back and beckoned to Wardell. So we all started to walk out, Teddy asked me if I had fifty cents. We walked out and the last I saw them they were walking around this Fata Freeze (ice cream store) with John Anderson and Jewel Grant. We went on over to the housing for awhile. We came back and no Wardell, his horn sitting there on his seat. In Las Vegas at the time Black people weren't even allowed to go up on the strip, we called it the Iron Curtain. I said, Wardell can only be dead or in jail, there ain't nothing else he can do if he's not over here. So after the third set I packed his horn up. So the next day my wife, she was dancing in the show, we went down on D Street, which was the main drag in the black neighborhood, and we saw Teddy and his girl. So I said, "Man, what happened to you all?" And the girl started to say something and I saw Teddy shut her mouth with his eye, the look he gave her. I said something is drastically wrong. Teddy said, "Oh Wardell, he's wild, we hung out with him and then we left." You could tell it was a lie. This was about 2PM, then later it came out he was dead and they found him in the desert. They say Wardell OD'ed, stood up, fell off the bed and broke his neck. What happened is when they dumped him out of the car they broke his neck. If they had taken him to the hospital he might have lived but they were afraid because they were dirty so they dumped him. I believe he was alive when they took him to the desert. But it wasn't foul play like gangsters, it wasn't that. Quote
Larry Kart Posted January 22, 2011 Report Posted January 22, 2011 FWIW, JR Monterose told me Wardell got high in his hotel room, started jumping on his bed, fell off and broke his neck. Friends in the room drove him to the desert so they wouldn't be involved. That's why we were all told by our parents, "Don't jump on the bed!" Quote
Bright Moments Posted January 22, 2011 Author Report Posted January 22, 2011 The OD story has been refuted by others because according to various accounts and confirmations Wardell Gray was one of the few of his calibre and in this environment who was NOT a junkie. Maybe he caught the habit very late in his life but still there are those who doubt it. As much as I love Wardell, I tend to believe the junkie stories. His playing changed markedly in the last years, with greatly reduced mental and physical facility, IMO (obviously not proof of anything). And, as I recall from the Ravett film, Clark Terry alludes to Wardell using. (If I'm wrong about this latter point - it's been years since I've seen the film - my apologies.) In what might be a rare display of discretion on my part, I never asked his widow before she passed. ("One of his widows/ex-wives", I suppose...) FWIW, JR Monterose told me Wardell got high in his hotel room, started jumping on his bed, fell off and broke his neck. Friends in the room drove him to the desert so they wouldn't be involved. jeez! was there any truth to the story that he was involved with meyer lansky? Quote
JSngry Posted January 22, 2011 Report Posted January 22, 2011 Anybody who gets high on smack and has the energy to start jumping on their bed should have had their body donated to science, not dumped in the dessert. Quote
chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez Posted January 22, 2011 Report Posted January 22, 2011 its a very sad story- ive heard the gangster bit too but what JR and teddy said is plausible and probably exactly how it went down..... Quote
Big Beat Steve Posted January 22, 2011 Report Posted January 22, 2011 (edited) Uh oh ... Sounds like straight from the horse's mouth indeed. And rather amazing that they should go so far as to run candid pics like this in the press of the day (assuming the pic actually comes from this incident): This appeared in the July, 1955 issue of the Swedish jazz mag "Estrad". The header should be self-explaining, and the caption says a.o. "The police suspected murder but it was found he fell out of bed after a narcotics orgy and broke his neck and was then dumped out there." Edited January 22, 2011 by Big Beat Steve Quote
John L Posted January 22, 2011 Report Posted January 22, 2011 (edited) I believe he was alive when they took him to the desert. But it wasn't foul play like gangsters, it wasn't that. Edited January 22, 2011 by John L Quote
chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez Posted January 22, 2011 Report Posted January 22, 2011 NO WAY. NO WAY NO WAYWAYWYAWYAY. IS THAT REALLY A PIC...AND AN CAPTION, ABOUT....AND IN AN OVERSEAS PAPER? AND, THE CAPTION SAYS KIND OF WHAT THE INTERVIEWS SAID AS A CAUSE...AND THAT PIC...............WHAT IS THIS?!?!?! WHAT THE HELL? OH MY GOD, WHERE DID YOU FIND THIS? IS THIS WHAT I THINK IT IS? OMFG Quote
Big Beat Steve Posted January 22, 2011 Report Posted January 22, 2011 (edited) Keep cool Chewy, keep cool ... You and I, we are not going to rewrite history. I found this pic in that Swedish jazz mag because I have an almost full run (still missing 7 issues) of that mag from its start in January, 1939 to its demise in December, 1963. No doubt they published that pic after it had been run in U.S. newspapers/tabloids or wherever. Though this jazz mag was a bit more tabloid-like" (with a layout not unlike that of contemporary Down Beat) than the other Swedish mag, Orkester Journalen, no way they had a "scoop" or a first there. As for the caption, it says just what I quoted (I do read and understand Swedish well enough to cope with the contents of these mags). Edited January 22, 2011 by Big Beat Steve Quote
gmonahan Posted January 22, 2011 Report Posted January 22, 2011 carried/dumped in the dessert That's how I want to go. Dumped in dessert. OK, I know this is a serious thread about a very fine musician who died tragically, but damn, H.T.F., this was funny! Quote
AllenLowe Posted January 22, 2011 Report Posted January 22, 2011 (edited) he mighta been running with scissors - but seriously that's an amazing pic, amazing in that it even exists - Edited January 22, 2011 by AllenLowe Quote
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