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Jerome Deupree & Luther Gray

  • The Lilypad 1353 Cambridge Street Cambridge, MA, 02139 (map)

$10 Cover @ the Door / Start 7:30pm / Doors 7pm / Seated Show

Jerome Deupree

Jerome Deupree is an American musician, based in Massachusetts. He is best known as the original drummer in the alternative rock band Morphine.

Deupree started playing drums at the age of six, with the help of his two older brothers. In the early 1970s he formed a band with his brother Jesse. After high school, he moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where he got to record for the first time. After a few years he again relocated to Santa Cruz, California, where he played with Humans, who toured with Squeeze and opened for Patti Smith and Iggy Pop.

In 1981 he moved to Boston, and has lived there since. His early Boston projects included stints in Sex Execs and Either/Orchestra.

In the late 1980s, songwriter Mark Sandman suggested that the two jam with saxophone player Dana Colley. As Morphine, the three composed material and performed throughout the East Coast, including shows in New York. They also recorded at Q Division Studios and The Outpost. In 1991 Deupree was forced to leave the project temporarily due to pain in his hand. Billy Conway took his place during that period.

He returned to the band in 1992 and played on the debut album Good. The band also toured through California. Although the project was successful, Deupree had personal differences with Sandman, and he decided to leave the band at the end of 1992.

Soon after that, Sandman called him and asked him to take part in a demo session that ended up being the band's second album, Cure for Pain.

In 1998 he made some appearances with Morphine, playing along with drummer Conway, shortly before Sandman died while performing in Italy in 1999, ending the band suddenly.

After Sandman's death, Colley, Conway, and Deupree formed the band Orchestra Morphine to tour behind Morphine's posthumous final album, The Night. Orchestra Morphine remained sporadically active thereafter, reassembling occasionally to perform Morphine material.

Deupree played frequently with jazz guitarist Joe Morris, appearing on several recordings. He participated in a formative version of the band Beat Circus in 2002, and joined the Boston group Bourbon Princess for an extended time. He has also appeared as a session musician on records by Eric Hutchinson, Merrie Amsterburg, Jen Trynin, and James McMurtry.

In 2009, Colley and Deupree began playing with New Orleans musician Jeremy Lyons as Members of Morphine, later renamed Vapors of Morphine. This trio performs classic Morphine songs and new material. Jerome left Vapors of Morphine in 2019.

jeromedeupree.com

Luther Gray

Credit Jessica Rinaldi

“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

Drummer Luther Gray, though largely self-taught, his musical training involved drum lessons from Kim Martin, Larry Bright, Steve Bagby, and Mickey Newman. In 1995 he graduated the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Music, after which he taught privately and performed in the Washington , D.C. area with, among others, Butch Warren, Cecil Payne, Webster Young, Tsunami, Liquorice, Peter Edelman, Jenny Toomey, Bob Butta, and Buck Hill. Since moving to Boston he has resumed teaching private drum lessons and has played with Joe Morris, Jay Hoggard, Joe McPhee, Timo Shanko, Cameron Brown, Allan Chase, Joseph Daley, Sabir Mateen, Roy Campbell, Ida, Geoff Farina, Andrew White, Rob Brown, Bill Lowe, Greg Abate, Raqib Hassan, Bill Pierce, Mitch Seidman, Steve Swell, Joe Beck, Fred Anderson, Ken Vandermark and many others. In addition to his performing schedule Luther teaches art and music at an after-school program for elementary school children.

Earlier Event: June 20
The Fringe
Later Event: June 21
Antonio Cocuzzo/Isaac Romagosa