Lucas Erroll Grandy

*Erroll at the piano. Photo courtesy Indianapolis Jazz Hall of Fame.*

Lucas Erroll Grandy (1 Jan 1918 – 12 Jun 1991) was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and was already playing hymns on the piano in his father’s church at the age of three. The family moved to Indianapolis in 1936 when his father accepted the pastorate at Witherspoon Presbyterian Church. After graduating from Crispus Attucks High School in 1940, Grandy continued his musical education at the Jordan School of Music at Butler University.

To help pay for his education, he began to play in the various night clubs around town, especially on Indiana Avenue, where he reigned as “the godfather of Indianapolis Jazz” from the 1940s to the 1960s. Grandy was a mentor to Wes Montgomery, J.J. Johnson, Freddie Hubbard and others, and accompanied touring stars like Billie Holliday and Dinah Washington when they were in town. On May 6, 1984, a day proclaimed as “Erroll Grandy Day,” 14 jazz ensembles played a marathon benefit concert in his honor. Grandy was inducted into the Indianapolis Jazz Foundation Hall of Fame in 2015. He is buried with his parents in Section 98, Lot 986; GPS (39.8136527, -86.1716931). A piano is engraved on their small, shared headstone.