WEMU's John Bommarito spoke to Tiffany Gridiron about her appearance at this weekend's Detroit Jazz Festival.
John Bommarito: You're listening to The Song Break on 89.1 WEMU. We're doing a Detroit Jazz Festival highlight on each of the programs, the music programs anyway, throughout the week. I'm welcoming a guest to the program today. Perhaps you caught her at the Michigan Jazz Festival in Livonia in July. She's playing the Detroit Jazz Festival this weekend on Monday, September 1st at the Absopure Waterfront Stage at 1:30 p.m. where you can catch Tiffany Gridiron and friends. Welcome Tiffany! How are you today?
Tiffany Gridiron: I'm doing great, John! Thanks so much for having me!
John Bommarito: My pleasure! Who are the friends that are joining you on stage on Monday?
Tiffany Gridiron: We'll have Kris Johnson on trumpet, Brendan Davis on piano, Noah Jackson on bass, and Nate Winn on drums.
John Bommarito: I saw Brendan play at the Blue LLama, right after he graduated from school. He really blew me away. He's a great player.
Tiffany Gridiron: Yeah, he's phenomenal! I'm so excited!
John Bommarito: Have you been to and or played the festival in the past, or is this your first time for both?
Tiffany Gridiron: I've been to the festival many times but this will be my first time playing there. I'm very excited and I'm also going to get the chance to play with Jason Moran and the big band on Sunday at 6:30 on the main stage. I'm really excited. This is brand new information!.
John Bommarito: Well, congratulations. That's really cool. Congratulations on all of this. Getting a chance to play the festival in the first place is a big deal. And then getting added to another stage. That means they're paying attention. They see the talent that I see. So, awesome.
Tiffany Gridiron: Oh, thank you, John.
John Bommarito: Who are you most excited about seeing this year that you're not playing with?
Tiffany Gridiron: Oh, goodness. So many. I would love to see Chucho Valdez and the Paquito D’Rivera Reunion Sextet.
John Bommarito: That sounds cool. Well, tell me a little bit about you and your background. When did jazz become your life? I mean, it seems like this is what you do, right? You don't have another side gig.
Tiffany Gridiron: I actually do. I actually work at Michigan State University and I work with young people.
John Bommarito: How long has jazz been your focus, vocally speaking?
Tiffany Gridiron: Vocally speaking, the early 2000s, Sunny Wilkinson formally introduced me to the world of jazz. Once formally introduced to me, then I could look back in my life and see that there were some informal places for introduction. Yes, she became my mentor. I took to it. I loved it. Started singing as much as I could in Michigan, and then I moved to Japan, where I sang professionally for a number of years.
John Bommarito: Well, that might explain one of the things I was going to ask you about that many, most of your albums, in fact, are not available in the United States. Just the current one, From My Heart to Yours, is available, but you have like four or five other ones that came out in Japan. Wow, that's kind of cool. And a big deal to me as somebody who collects music. To see that as part of your story is pretty cool. For you, that that's where you were based. So that kind of answers the, why did you only release those records in Japan? Did they ever come out in America in any form?
Tiffany Gridiron: They never did and they never did. It was just a Japanese pressing. I lived there for a number of years from 2004 until 2011. When I came back to Michigan, I thought I wasn't going to sing anymore. So I took an eight-year hiatus. After 2019, I felt the call back and was blessed enough to have a good friend of mine, Kris Johnson, who was on the gig and is the producer, arranger and co-composer of the material on From My Heart To Yours album. And he pulled me aside and said, “Tiff, it's time for you to be serious about music and for you write and I'll help you.” It’s so gratifying to have it out there. And I also have it available for folks on all streaming platforms.
John Bommarito: Right. Well, what, let's just say, hypothetically, this does, it's been out for a couple of years, but you're starting to get more gigs and you're getting great opportunities like this weekend's festival. What if your career takes off to a phase where you're doing this more regularly? You don't have to worry about the extra job that you're doing and you are doing this full-time. Would you go back and try and get the rights to release those records locally, or at least in the States here, or you're okay with them being out of print?
Tiffany Gridiron: I'm not really sure about that.
John Bommarito: You have to see what time does, right? See if the opportunity presents itself.
Tiffany Gridiron: I'm just grateful for every moment, you know. Not singing for such a long time. Every time I get to sing, I'm just so grateful that I still have a voice, an opportunity to connect with the parts of myself. Love that so deeply, and to connect with audiences around the music.
John Bommarito: Any familiar names on those first few records that are not available here that people might've heard of?
Tiffany Gridiron: Yeah, I did an album with Hank Jones. Omar Hakim is on that album. That would have been my second album. Uno Tarataka is a brilliant piano player. He moved to New York for a number of years and we did a number albums together. Yeah, it was really a great opportunity.
John Bommarito: Whenever I hear Omar Hakim's name, I always hear it in Sting's voice, because on his live record, he shouts his name out as he's announcing the band that was playing with him. So I always hear Sting saying his name. That's weird, but it's just how I consume music, I guess, it sticks in there.
Tiffany Gridiron: I love it and I love Sting. I'm such a big Sting fan.
John Bommarito: He gets featured on the program, whether he's the songwriter or the singer. I find ways to work him into this show that features a mix of the standards and the modern standards. He kind of falls into the modern standard category for me.
Tiffany Gridiron: Absolutely.
John Bommarito: Who's another favorite or two of yours growing up that might have turned you towards jazz as a youngster?
Tiffany Gridiron: I would say probably Anita Baker would have been kind of a bridge from what I was listening to because of some of her albums she has jazz standards that she reinterpreted. Chaka Khan probably. And my stepfather who just passed away, he was an avid jazz listener. So that was a passive introduction to jazz. I would be around while he was listening. He loved Nancy Wilson and he loved Sarah Vaughan as well as Motown and he loved Miles Davis. Oh, so many Miles Davis documentaries we would watch!
John Bommarito: Certainly a good foundation for what you are today, and just a funny aside, I used to be a head buyer at a record store, and I still remember the catalog number for Anita Baker's Rapture album, because I used to have to order it over and over.
Tiffany Gridiron: That's a perfect album like from start to finish
John Bommarito: It really is, but why do I still remember the catalog number? Can that get purged from my brain so more important things can be put in? Probably not. Do you have a favorite experience as a performer in your career as a singer?
Tiffany Gridiron: Gosh, there's a number. Every time I play at Smalls in New York, it's super, super fun. The history is so deep. And I get to play with Tommy Campbell, who is such a brilliant and really exciting performer to play with. I love playing at Blue LLama. I've only got a chance to do it twice, but both have been really, really magical for me.
John Bommarito: I believe you are playing there on October 1st, is that not correct?
Tiffany Gridiron: I am really, really excited!
John Bommarito: So, if people enjoy your set this weekend at the Waterfront Stage at the Detroit Jazz Festival go look at the Blue Llama’s website and point yourself to October 1st. Maybe you will also see this name on the 5:01 Jazz Series as we have not announced it yet but maybe, just maybe, it's there too. Who knows? Hint hint. Other gigs coming up besides that and the Detroit Jazz Festival you want to let me know about?
Tiffany Gridiron: I'll be at Shields on Saturday, September 6th with Sean Dobbins.
John Bommarito: Is that the one on Telegraph near eight mile-ish?
Tiffany Gridiron: Yes. From 1:00 to 3:30.
John Bommarito: What is your website so folks can find out more information about you, your music and your upcoming gigs?
Tiffany Gridiron: Tiffanygridironmusic.com.
John Bommarito: That's too easy. Tiffany, I look forward to crossing your path again soon. And congratulations on appearing this weekend at the Detroit Jazz Festival. We've got information on how to get yourself there. There's shuttle information at WEMU.org, and that's a very convenient way to come from Washtenaw County to get to Detroit without having to worry about parking in Detroit. So, I think that makes it much easier for folks to get down and see your 1:30 set this coming Monday.
Tiffany Gridiron: I look forward to it! Thank you so much, John!
John Bommarito: Pleasure talking to you! Have a great weekend!
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