 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(April 2012) |
Raphael Grinage | |
|---|---|
| Born | Les Grinage 4 January 1931 |
| Died | 15 December 1993 (aged 62) Oakland, California, United States |
| Other names | Rafiudin |
| Occupation(s) | musician, composer |
| Years active | 1950–1993 |
| Spouse | Rashidah Grinage |
Raphael Grinage was an American jazz and folk musician and composer.
Raphael Grinage (aka Les Grinage) was born in Cleveland, Ohio on January 4, 1931, the third of four sons. His father, Jose, was an African-American Methodist Episcopal (AME) minister, and his mother, Lathrope Tull, taught piano. His family moved to Kentucky when he was a teenager, and from there, after graduating high school, Raphael joined the Army and was sent to Korea. Upon his discharge, he moved to New York City to pursue a career in music. He had already participated in bands during high school, and decided to become a professional bassist. His formal music training was obtained at the Manhattan School of Music.
As a bassist, Grinage accompanied many of the jazz greats of the era such as vocalist Carmen McRae and legendary pianist Bill Evans, among others. He increased his versatility by playing cello and learning to play the Japanese Koto and the Dilruba (a bowed version of the Indian sitar).
In the 50s, he was a member of the musicians who accompanied the Alvin Ailey Company, and joined them in several international visits, on behalf of the US State Department. In the 1960s, he joined folksinger Odetta, and accompanied her for over five years, travelling around the world. It was while he was in Japan with Odetta that he met the woman he would marry, and that decision changed his life’s trajectory.
Returning to the United States in 1969, Raphael joined with Hamilton Camp and two other musicians to form the group, The True Brethren. The four composed the music for Paul Sills' Story Theatre, which previewed at Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Later it was taken to Broadway where it played for a year before it went on tour and became the basis of a TV series. [1] The show was nominated for best Broadway show of the year in 1971. [2] [3] Grinage also played and composed music for the Broadway Show, Paul Sills adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. [4] [5]
Grinage played at many Bay Area venues, including the musical based on the famous song "Stompin' at the Savoy", which ran in San Francisco for several months. He also played with many Bay Area musicians, including Earl Hines.
In 2012 four live recordings of the True Brethren from 1969 were released for the first time by one of the members of the original group. [6] In these rare recordings, Grinage plays two of the instruments he spent a lifetime playing: the cello and dilruba.
Raphael fathered four sons. His career was impacted by his having become a double amputee as a result of diabetes. On December 15, 1993, at Raphael's home in Oakland, California, the Oakland police animal control attempted to quarantine his son Luke's pitbull, which had bitten 3 people and was behind on rabies vaccinations.
After a brief conversation and Luke's initial resistance to surrendering his dog, he finally agreed to get the dog. But scuffling with OPD ensued and eventually, Luke obtained a shotgun and killed Officer William Grijalva. Two other officers on scene returned fire which killed Luke. Raphael was caught in the crossfire in his wheel chair as well as Luke's dog. [7]
A centaur, occasionally hippocentaur, also called Ixionidae, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version of the myth, the centaurs were named after Centaurus, and, through his brother Lapithes, were kin to the legendary tribe of the Lapiths.
The Metamorphoses is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his magnum opus. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar in a mythico-historical framework comprising over 250 myths, 15 books, and 11,995 lines.
Victor August Herbert was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I. He was also prominent among the Tin Pan Alley composers and was later a founder of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). A prolific composer, Herbert produced two operas, a cantata, 43 operettas, incidental music to 10 plays, 31 compositions for orchestra, nine band compositions, nine cello compositions, five violin compositions with piano or orchestra, 22 piano compositions and numerous songs, choral compositions and orchestrations of works by other composers, among other music.
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was an Austrian composer, violinist, and silvologist. He was a friend of both Haydn and Mozart.
Paula Alma Kelly was an American actress, singer, dancer and choreographer in films, television and theatre. Kelly's career began during the mid–1960s in theatre, making her Broadway debut as Mrs. Veloz in the 1964 musical Something More!, alongside Barbara Cook. Kelly's other Broadway credits include The Dozens (1969), Paul Sills' Story Theatre (1971), Ovid's Metamorphoses (1971), and Sophisticated Ladies (1981), based on the music of Duke Ellington, appearing with Gregory Hines and Phyllis Hyman.
Michael Cerveris is an American actor, singer, and guitarist. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including several Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Road Show, and Passion. In 2004, Cerveris won the Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Assassins as John Wilkes Booth. In 2015, he won his second Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for Fun Home as Bruce Bechdel.
Hamilton Camp was a British-born actor and singer, who relocated to the United States with his family when he was a young child. He is known for his work as a folk singer during the 1960s, and eventually branched out into acting in films and television.
Lee Rocker is an American musician. He is a member of the rockabilly revival band Stray Cats.
The Ambassador Theatre is a Broadway theater at 219 West 49th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1921, the Ambassador Theatre was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed for the Shubert brothers. It has 1,125 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. The auditorium interior is a New York City designated landmark.
Metamorphoses is a play by the American playwright and director Mary Zimmerman, adapted from the classic Ovid poem Metamorphoses. The play premiered in 1996 as Six Myths at Northwestern University and later the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago. The play opened off-Broadway in October 2001 at the Second Stage Theatre. It transferred to Broadway on 21 February 2002 at the Circle in the Square Theatre produced by Roy Gabay and Robyn Goodman. That year it won several Tony Awards.
Raphael Sbarge is an American actor and filmmaker. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Jake Straka on The Guardian (2001–04), Jiminy Cricket / Dr. Archibald Hopper on Once Upon a Time (2011–18) and Inspector David Molk on the TNT series Murder in the First (2014–16). He is also known for voicing Carth Onasi in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), RC-1262 / "Scorch" in Star Wars: Republic Commando (2005) and Kaidan Alenko in the Mass Effect trilogy (2007–12).
Ahmed Abdul-Malik was an American jazz double bassist and oud player.
Arnold Weinstein was an American poet, playwright, and librettist, who referred to himself as a "theatre poet".
Paul Sills was an American director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City.
Romeo Montague is the male protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The son of Lord Montague and his wife, Lady Montague, he secretly loves and marries Juliet, a member of the rival House of Capulet, through a priest named Friar Laurence.
Paul Sills' Story Theatre is a play with music, adapted from fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm and Aesop's Fables.
David Jonathan Pittu is an American actor, writer and director.
Zev Buffman was a Broadway producer who served as president and CEO of Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida. He produced more than 40 Broadway shows. He partnered with Elizabeth Taylor to present her in her Broadway debut, The Little Foxes. Buffman was also the co-founding general partner of the NBA champion basketball team the Miami Heat.
Metamorphoses (Transformations) is a Latin narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. Comprising fifteen books and over 250 myths, the poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. Although meeting the criteria for an epic, the poem defies simple genre classification by its use of varying themes and tones.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a play by Simon Stephens based on the novel of the same name by Mark Haddon. During its premiere run, the play tied the record for winning the most Olivier Awards (seven), including Best New Play at the 2013 ceremony. The play is a National Theatre Production, in association with Frantic Assembly, who specialised in the movement direction.
