Check Out Tiffany Gridiron’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiffany Gridiron.

Hi Tiffany, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born the youngest of three in Los Angeles, California. My father was the minister of music at my church and my mother was the church soloist. My memories as a child are of being in church 5 times a week and singing as early as I can remember.

By the time I hit college I wasn’t attending church anymore so I had stopped singing. Then in the year 2000, Jill Scott’s debut album was released and it felt like a personal dare… “What are YOU going to do with YOUR voice?” As an answer to that dare I thought I should get some vocal lessons so that I would be ready to sing at weddings and funerals. I went to the bulletin board on the first floor of the Music Building at Michigan State University (where I was studying Social Science) trying to find an advertisement of a graduate student who was offering voice lessons. What I found instead was an advertisement of the Jazz Vocal professor Sunny Wilkinson, who was auditioning non-music majors to take one coveted spot in her jazz vocal studio. I got the number, made an appointment and excitedly arrived for my audition. When I arrived Sunny introduced herself and promptly told me that the open spot had already been filled, but since I was there, she would be happy to hear me sing. I sang Anita Baker’s version of “The Look of Love”. When I was done, she very seriously said to me, “You HAVE to sing. I don’t have a spot for you but I would like to stay connected to you if that is alright.” I was thrilled! Someone as skilled and talented as Sunny Wilkinson believed in me. Two months later Sunny called me and said she had a spot for me in her vocal studio for the Spring semester but it would be jazz. I happily said, “YES!” I just wanted to sing. I didn’t care what. When I started the class I quickly began to care about jazz. I began to remember all of the jazz songs I had encountered over the course of my life and loved to have the opportunity to rediscover them each time with a playful spirit of improvisation.
It didn’t take long before I started gigging locally and then more expansively in the bigger cities in Michigan (Ann Arbor and Detroit). I loved everything about singing in my home community, but my mother encouraged to dream big. She said, if I REALLY wanted to this, I should go to a location where more people enjoyed jazz, like New York City, Paris, or Tokyo. Her preference was Tokyo, as I was working in the daytime in Michigan as a substitute teacher, she thought I could teach English in Japan and find a way to sing at night. I took her advice and in 2004 got hired as an english teacher at a Japanese Conversation school, and moved to a suburb of Tokyo.
It took me while to make it to my first jam session but once I did, It wasn’t long before I was gigging in Tokyo and not much longer before I met a Sony executive who told me I could stop teaching English. I married a drummer I had met at my first jam session and signed a contract with Sony Japan within 30 days of each other. While living in Japan I was able to record 5 albums with Sony, one of which was with pianist Hank Jones, a mere 2 years before he passed away. I am still pinching myself remembering that special experience.
After five years, I found myself artistically stifled and in the wake of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011, my then husband and I decided to move quite abruptly to Michigan. I thought at that time, that I would say goodbye to singing since I hadn’t been able to to make a living at music when I lived in Michigan. I got meaningful work using my Social Science background and began bringing folks together across different identities in a variety of settings. I am still doing that work amongst undergraduate students at a university in Michigan to help them to to build community and raise critical consciousness through dialogue.
In 2017, my 47 year old brother, Tyrone, passed away and my whole world unraveled. I really believe there are gifts in every challenge. My gift in that time of unbearable grief, was an undeniable pull to return to music. Near the beginning of 2019 I reached out to Sunny once again to help me find my singing voice again after years of neglect. A good friend of mine (producer, trumpeter, arranger, and composer) Kris Johnson, reached out to me that spring to say it was time for me to return to singing and THIS time I was going to write. Together we co-wrote “From My Heart to Yours”, my first song in years, which was inspired in part by my grief of losing my brother, Tyrone. Over the next few years, Kris and I built a repertoire of originals and re-imaged jazz standards until we had 8 tunes that we felt were a snap shot of where I was artistically at the time. We independently released the album, named after that first tune, in September of 2023, which is available on all streaming platforms.
Now, in addition to my community building work at university, I use my love of singing to bring people together in clubs at night and on the weekends. After 8 years of not singing, I am incredibly grateful every single time I get to perform.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
One challenge I have is making all of the things that light me up in my life fit. I am constantly trying to maximize the 24/7 I get as I navigate two very demanding careers while nurturing relationships with people who I am so blessed to have in my life.

I think one of the biggest challenges has been to let go of things that don’t fit. Especially when there is care there. Getting divorced after 18 years of marriage was one of hardest things I have had to endure (second only to living with the loss of my brother).

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I sing in clubs, restaurants, hotels and retirement facilities in Michigan and, when possible, in NYC. I am actively trying to expand my reach into the surrounding states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. I mostly sing jazz but, in my partnership with guitarist Neil Gordon, I have been expanding my repertoire to include other genres of music arranged with jazz elements.

What matters most to you?
Music is a force for healing. I use it to heal myself and I am humbled to offer that gift to others. I am equally excited to perform on a stage as I am at a senior facility, a wedding or a memorial program.
One of things that makes me super happy is to remember that through performing I can facilitate opportunities for loved ones to make appointments to be together in this busy world and to build memories around art and beauty.
Relationships are really what matters. For me, it is what everything is about. Our relationship to ourselves, to the people we know we love and the ones we don’t yet know. Also our relationship to the future. I try to stay in active relationship with joy and hope. This can be really challenging at a time when doom and gloom are so readily available for consumption. I try to be really intentional around crafting a life of joy, one song, one walk, one dance, one chat with a loved one at a time.
I make it a point to tell the people in my life that I love them…often. You really never know when is the last time you will see someone that you love. It is such a gift to reflect on your last interaction with a loved one positively.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tiffanygridironmusic.com
• Instagram: tiffanygridironmusic
• Facebook: tiffanygridironmusic