Greg Grant

Biography

Greg Grant started playing music when his mother made him take violin lessons when he was 8, that didn't last long, however, and Zoot from the Muppet Show inspired him to start playing the saxophone at the age of 9, and he's been playing ever since. Born in New York City, raised in New York State, he grew up near one of the most diverse melting pot cities on the planet. He studied classical and jazz at Oberlin college/conservatory for a bit, but realized that he wanted to experience life and music outside the walls of an ivory tower. He admires and is inspired by many different styles of music from all over the world ranging from jazz to rock, folk to techno, classical to electronic, ambient, textural, flamenco and Arabic. This love of diversity caused him to travel around quite a bit, he has lived in Barcelona, Spain for 3 years but has been more or less nomadic, traveling around Europe, Canada, Central America, and the U.S.A. Now based in northwestern Montana, Greg has founded Strawbale Studio, but he is always traveling around, finding new influences and inspiration for his music.

After being mainly a saxophonist for many years, he has added guitar, voice, and drums to his musical palette. He came to the realization that his favorite musicians were the ones who could write well crafted songs, that serve as a springboard into improvised jamming. He has added his musical style to various bands, including jazz orchestras, world music groups, blues bands, rock bands, funk rock bands, and experimental groups. He has done countless solo performances as well at nightclubs, cultural centers, universities, festivals, concert halls at parks and on the street all over north America and Europe. Greg is a sonic adventurer who likes to explore unknown territory. The music that attracts him dives into deep places that pulls, both him and his listeners along. Some major influences on him are: King Crimson, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Cat Stevens, Greg Brown, John Fogerty, John Coltrane, Tracy Chapman, Joni Mitchell, Ani Difranco, Ali Farka Toure, The Beatles, Brian Eno, Wim Mertens, Steven Reich, Laurie Anderson, Keith Jarrett and Dead Can Dance.

When asked about himself, Greg replied, " I love developing my skills as a songwriter and musician, but it is only to serve the music. I'm not interested in huge amounts of technique that show off my abilities and stroke my ego. Technique is necessary, but only to the point that it allows the music to come through fluidly and powerfully. I think that if you approach music with this attitude then you end up doing things that you never would've been able to imagine. The music uses you and plays through you and what comes out of you is a surprise, even to yourself! I 'm not interested in playing something over and over again, even if it's at a high level of playing. I'm interested in using songs I am comfortable with in order to get to that place where I can go away from the song to an unknown, magical place that even I don't know about, and then come back to the song. I love musicians that have that proper balance of structure and freedom. Too much structure leaves me bored and stifled, and too much freedom leaves me wanting something more solid and well crafted... It's a difficult thing to achieve, but it's what I strive for."

Discography

Tour Dates

Greg Grant

Past Shows

2009 Journal

9/19/09 SalmonFest Eureka, MT
Yeah, that's right, a little festival right here in Eureka! Hopefully this one will grow and keep going. I had fun playing before the rain and wind ended the fest a bit short. Coffee and Cream once again attended the show and barked a lot at a smallish stuffed grizzly bear. We need more things going on in Eureka like this...

8/22/09. Whitefish Community Fair Whitefish, MT
Our first gig with Coffee and Cream (our puppies) along for the day. It was super hot on the metal stage, you could have made a grilled cheese or fried an egg on it by the time I was scheduled to play, so I played down low on the curb. A bit too mellow today, but hopefully next year will be a bit more well attended.

7/24/09, 7/25/09 and 7/26/09. Arts in the Park Kalispell, MT
This was the smoothest year ever in terms of power struggles, yes the vendors often squabble a bit over the right to electricity... But there was no incident whatsoever this year, and no one tried to unplug the sound system. It was fun playing as well as doing sound, I had a great time all three days and made some good trades on the last day right before a super intense rain storm with lightning was nice enough to wait until we were all packed up before drowning Kalispell.

7/14/09. Farmer's Market Whitefish, MT
It was cold and rainy on the drive down, but then it cleared up and warmed up and was beautiful. I'm used to getting rained on or blown away by gale force winds when I play the market, but not this year. A great day with a good crowd - thanks to Jay for having me back and keeping the music going.

6/6/09. Riley's Irish Pub Helena, MT
I had a good time tonight. I pulled up to the pub and put my flashers on and started unloading. Right away, someone offered to help carry gear in and did. That's a pretty nice way to start an evening. Really good food and beer and some interesting conversation tonight, got here early enough to be relaxed. Some very drunk locals came in and were falling off their stools until they were asked to leave. The first set was mellow but the place filled up for my second set and I was able to turn it up and really get into it. I drove home after the show - I got some coffee and put in some sugar and then realized as I was drinking it that it was cappuccino. So sweet... disgusting, but it got me home by 6am and I didn't hit an elk (I almost did).

2/14/09. Valentine's Cabaret, Trego, MT
The Trego Hall was decked out in sarongs, blankets, carpets and a tent made out of some kind of cloth. Incense in the air. Belly dancers in head wraps with henna tattoos serving middle eastern food and, of course, dancing. I played a set with my stripped down rig, tried to play mostly love songs. We did sound as well for a bunch of musicians and it was great to have something like this going on in Trego.

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