Born in Munich, Germany Carola Grey started out as a very motivated classical pianist at the age of 6. When she discovered the drums at 14 it put an abrupt end to those carrier plans and she decided to study Jazz at the famous college for music" in Cologne where she received her masters degree in music and music education.
The next 6 years Carola Grey spent in New York, where, besides working with numerous artists from all kind of musical directions, she also right away started her own band and began touring.
In the next couple of years concerts and drum clinics brought Carola Grey all over the globe. Her cds made it into the Top Ten of the U.S. Gavin Jazz charts and she received several awards as a drummer and composer.
Recently most of Carola Grey's energy goes into her reactivated group ‘noisy mama’. To have total creative control over her art Carola founded her own record label: Noisy Mama Productions. She released her cd ‘Drum Attack!’ in March 2007.
Carola Grey has performed in reknown clubs and festivals such as Blue Note in New York, Birdland, Jak Jazzfestival (Indonesia), Thailand Jazzfestival, Jazzopen Stuttgart, Burghausen Jazzfestival, Musicfestival Madras (Indien), Jak Jazz Malaysia, Indonesia Open Jazz, London Jazzfestival, Music China, Shanghai and Krakau Jazzfestival.
Carola Grey has collaborated with Mike Stern, Ravi Coltrane, Lonnie Plaxico, Craig Handy, Rocco Prestia, T.M. Stevens, Stu Hamm, Wolfgang Schmid, T.V. Gopalkrishnan, Kadri Gopalnath, and Gisele Jackson among many others.
Carola Grey has received multiple awards, including Burghausener Jazzpreis, Staatlicher Kulturfoerderpreis Bayern, Gouvernment Grand (DAAD), Nomination for the SWF Jazzpreis for "Noisy Mama", Nomination for US. Jazzrockalbum of the Year (for 'Girls Can't Hit').
Bob Gatzen
