Jean-Michel Basquiat was a well known plastic artist based in New York and sponsored by Andy Warhol. Music was very important in the life and work of this artist, and in 1979 he formed an experimental band with the artist and actor Vincent Gallo.

They named the band “GRAY” as a tribute to the book of anatomy published by Henry Gray in 1950.

The band arises in the middle of the punk explosion of New York, but especially to a more experimental branch known as No wave.  No wave has a very industrial sound where the electric guitar is used not as a musical instrument, but as a tool that generates noise. He was also interested in the frenetic and eclectic rhythms of the seventies and eighties, like the incipient rap of the hip hop movement.

Basquiat played the clarinet and the synthesizer and the band frequented famous venues like CBGB where Blondie and The Ramones made their debut, the Mudd Club, etc.

The music from “Gray” can be heard in several films including “Downtown 81,” starring Basquiat, talking about his life as an artist in New York.

Nerea T. Ruiz