$15 / $10 students / 7pm / seated

Drummer Luther Gray was born March 10, 1972 in New Orleans, Louisiana. His family moved to Washington, D.C. where, as a teenager, he started playing drums in punk rock bands. Upon graduating high school he enrolled in Gettysburg college to study psychology but, after two years, transferred to the University of Miami to study music. While at UM, he studied with Steve Bagby and played local gigs with Ira Sullivan, Don Payne, and Tony Castellano.

In 1995 he graduated with a Bachelor of Music and moved back to Washington, D.C where he received mentorship from the legendary DC jazz drummer, Mickey Newman. He began teaching privately, playing locally, touring and recording with punk/indy rockers, Tsunami, Jenny Toomey, and The Delta 72, while also performing extensively with jazz legends, Butch Warren, Cecil Payne, Webster Young, and Buck Hill.

While very interested in Free Jazz and Avant Garde music, he couldn’t find many local musicians who shared that interest with whom to play. An avid record collector, he spent much of his free time (and money) researching and studying recordings of Free Jazz, Avant Garde European classical, and Improvised music.

Upon moving to Boston in 2000, he continued playing Indy rock and straight ahead jazz, but also found many musicians playing Avant Garde, Free Jazz, and Modern Jazz. He worked extensively performing, touring and recording in Free Jazz bands with Joe Morris, Taylor Ho Bynum, Steve Lantner, Jim Hobbs, and Raquib Hassan, among others. At the same time he toured and recorded with Indy rockers Jenny Toomey, Geoff Farina, and the band, Ida. Luther then began combining the Punk/Indy rock music and Free Jazz in various projects including his critically acclaimed band, Lawnmower. He also began playing with Modern Jazz innovators like Jerry Bergonzi, Phil Grenadier, and George Garzone, with whom he continues to play weekly engagements Monday nights at the Cambridge club, The Lilypad. He is a member of the legendary Boston avant garden band, The Fully Celebrated Orchestra, with whom he has performed and toured extensively. He also performs locally and tours with rock musicians Chris Brokaw, Clint Connely, Hilken Mancini, and the bands Tsunami and Scrawl.

Along with the aforementioned musicians, Luther has also performed with Anthony Braxton, Ken Vandermark, Henry Grimes, Nate Wooley, Joe Lovano, Greg Kelley, Cameron Brown, William Parker, Mat Maneri, Joseph Daly, Jeff Parker, Bill Pierce, Ben Monder, Andrew Lamb and countless others over the past 25 years. He has played festivals and concerts all over the world, and recorded for the record labels, AUM Fidelity, ESP, HatHUT, NotTwo, Clean Feed, Rogue Art, Atavistic, Relative Pitch, Driff, Simple Machines, Touch n Go, and many others.

In addition to his performing schedule Luther continues to teach privately at his home studio and at Buckingham Brown and Nichols school. He is often sought out for lessons regarding advanced musical concepts by regional, national, and international professional musicians, as well as students from local colleges and music conservatories. Luther has led ensembles at symposiums, clinics, camps, and workshops both locally and internationally. He has also instructed ensembles in an auxiliary capacity at New England Conservatory, MIT, BB&N, Shady Hill, Saint Mark’s, the Levine School of Music, Berklee, and Longy School of Music.

“It’s not unusual for jazz musicians of Gray’s generation to pull music from the rock and pop world into their universe. But Gray is especially adept at drawing from multiple influences in a single gig and making it part of a unified whole.” — Jon Garelick, The Boston Globe