While Tucson’s famed artist Ted DeGrazia (1909-1982) is well known for his prolific catalogue of work, it may not be general knowledge that DeGrazia was also a musician.
“Not many people knew that he played music and I think even fewer knew that he wrote music,” said son Domingo DeGrazia.
Perform and write music he did, with a new CD coming out featuring six original songs. Those songs are over 70 years old, recently recorded from sheet music that was unearthed in the artist’s archives a few years ago.
"Our former director of collections and exhibitions, Kristine Peashock, discovered it,” said DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun Marketing Director Susan Vance. “Most of the scores were written in the 1930s and performed by the DeGrazia Orchestra, a big band led by the artist, who also soloed on trumpet at performances at the UofA and night clubs in Tucson,” Vance said.
Peashock recalled the day she found the music. “I was moving things around in the vault and saw an oversized box, splitting at the seams. I doubt I would have opened it then had it not obviously needed to be replaced.”
The fortuitous happenstance led to collaborations with the Tucson Community Music School and Tucson Jazz Institute, as well as with the artist’s Spanish guitar playing son, to produce the 9-track album Please Remember Me.
The recording features six beautifully charming and timeless jazz compositions by the elder DeGrazia, performed by the likes of: Scott Black, arrangements and bass; Jason Carder, trumpet; Domingo DeGrazia, guitar; Sam Eagon, guitar; Max Goldschmid, alto and baritone saxophone; Michael Harrison, trumpet; Gibb Mandish, drums; Matt Mitchell, guitar; John Ronstadt, vocals; Mike Ronstadt, cello; Arthur Statman, piano; Doug Tidaback, trombone; Brice Winston, arrangements and tenor saxophone; Eleanor Winston, vocals; Arthur Vint, drums.
The last three tracks were composed by Domingo DeGrazia, who said he “was lucky enough to get to play on one of the tracks and write three new songs to go on this disk. So, I have some brand new material that has never been heard that was written specifically for this CD.
“It was cool writing something a little bit more in the jazz realm and writing literally all the guitar parts, arranging all the guitar parts, writing the bass parts and just taking the songs through from start to finish,” Domingo explained. “It takes an amazing amount of time to get them right.”
The musicians on Domingo’s tracks include Aaron Kirk on rhythm guitar and Jim Pavett on drums and percussion.
Reflecting on Ted DeGrazia’s compositions, Peashock notes, “DeGrazia’s foray into writing music is another example of how truly creative people aren’t just creative in one medium or aspect of their lives.”
A CD release party takes place on Jan 21, 5pm-7pm, with live performances of the songs in conjunction with the exhibit opening of “Musical Compositions of Ted DeGrazia” at DeGrazia Galley in the Sun, 6300 N. Swan Rd. The exhibit showcases DeGrazia’s musically inspired paintings, plus the complete collection of abstract paintings he did for his 1945 Master of Arts thesis titled “Art and its Relation to Music in Music Education.” The CD will be available at the gallery and DeGrazia.org.
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