Jay Gruska started out with his first recording contract at twenty-one years old. From there he has seamlessly morphed from singer-songwriter to record producer to theatrical music composer to film and television composer–sometimes all at once.
He is one of the few composers who has enjoyed a Top Five movie in the country, Mo’ Money, a Top Ten hit on the Pop Charts, "Good For Me", and a hit TV series with an Emmy nominated theme, Lois & Clark, all within the same year.
As a result, his composing skills run an unusually diverse range–from Gregorian Chant to World Music– from Benny Goodman swing to the lyrical soar or crash of an orchestral piece– from the rawest of Blues to the Avant-Garde and back , again.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y, Gruska lived until the age of nine in Caracas, Venezuela. He then moved to Los Angeles, California . Influenced early on by the Latin rhythms he was surrounded by, and with the Broadway musicals played in his home, he developed a unique sensibility, and a constantly evolving mixture of musical styles and genres.
All this versatility has served him well. Recently, Jay was nominated for two more Emmy’s– one for his moody, affecting underscore for the highly acclaimed and therefore short-lived television series Falcone, and the second for the gritty main title theme for the same series.
During the same period he created a quirky, indigenous score for indie film Par Six, for director Grant Heslov. (Gruska also scored Heslov’s amusing academy short, Waiting For Woody, featuring George Clooney and Jennifer Aniston.
)Staying true to his broad range of interests, he recently scored an NBC Movie of the Week called War Stories, and he is currently writing the music for three television series, Wildfire, a one hour drama for ABC Family, Charmed for the WB and Supernatural for the CW.
In addition, he is collaborating on a musical version of The Front (the 1972 movie starring Woody Allen), with Paul Gordon (Tony nominated composer of Jane Eyre). Gruska and Gordon teamed up earlier to create the musical Greetings From Venice Beach.
(Gruska and Gordon have written many pop songs together, most notably, Friends And Lovers, which rode to the top of four charts, Pop, AC, Country, and R&B, and for which they received four ASCAP Awards for Among Most Performed Songs two years running.
)While Jay continued to write songs covered by such artists as Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Robert Palmer, Chicago, The Pointer Sisters, Patti LaBelle, and others, he yearned to try something new. Concurrently, he was recording a solo album for Warner Brothers and he decided to include an orchestral instrumental.
This in turn inspired him to go back to UCLA to study film composing. He originally broke into film by arranging and producing music for such films as Cocoon, and Commando. He also composed songs for the films Stella (One More Cheer, performed by Bette Midler), Shadow Dancing (his music was nominated for a Genie, the Canadian Oscar), Adventures In Babysitting, and others.
He went on to compose scores for feature films such as The Principal, Shadow Dancing and Mo’ Money. At the same time he has continued composing for television for such shows as Lois And Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Sisters, Thirtysomething, Beverly Hills 90210, That’s Life, and The Division.
He is constantly seeking to forge new sounds and master new styles. He is equally at home with a group of live musicians as in front of a bank of electronics, although he says he will always swear by the former…
