"...the last of a dying breed or the first of a new one...his improvisatory
skills remain fascinating indeed, impressive as aesthetics, pedagogy and
pure entertainment."
John Rockwell, Los Angeles
Times
"Outside the milieu of the avant-garde, only a precious few musicians
improvise before their audiences. Grayson...is certainly one of the leading
practitioners of the art."
Terry McQuilkin, Los Angeles
Times
"...the old art is alive and well in his skilled hands."
Walter Arlen, Los Angeles
Times
"Richard Grayson did wondrously and continuously imaginative things..."
Martin Bernheimer, Los Angeles
Times
"The art of improvisation is alive and well...Richard Grayson, pianist,
took themes suggested by members of the audience everything from High Noon
to Peter and the Wolf
and after three or four seconds of deliberation, transformed them into
stylistically consistent, harmonically sophisticated works by, as it were,
Bach, Gabrieli, Mozart and
Beethoven."
Karen Monson, Los Angeles
Times
"Many years before the irreverent Mozart dazzled his lesser contemporary
Salieri in the movie Amadeus, an almost as irreverent professor of music
at Occidental College began a yearly ritual in which he dazzles his students
with similar virtuosity."
Douglas Smith, Los Angeles
Times