Draft:Bill Grisolia

Bill Grisolia is an American singer, songwriter, and piano player, and is a voting member of The Recording Academy. Grisolia has founded several bands throughout his musical career including the New Blues Revolution, a Long Beach-based band. Bill headlined the Key West Blues Festival in Florida and is a House of Blues artist having played at four of their venues, including three on their main stages.

Early life and family
William Grisolia was born in Kansas City, Kansas on November 30, 1957. His father, Santiago Grisolía, 1st Marquess of Grisolía, and a native of Valencia, Spain, was a scientist who was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times in both science and medicine. His mother, Frances Grisolia (née Thompson), met his father who was her professor whilst she was studying her Ph.D in biochemistry at the University of Madison in Wisconsin. They married in Madison and had two children. Grisolia was born in Kansas City, Kansas and graduated from Shawnee Mission North High School.

Career
Grisolia went overseas for several months to study at the age of 18 in Valencia, Spain. While studying there, he met flutist Steve Richter and together they got their first paying performance act at a local nightclub called Tres Triste Tigres in the Barrio del Carmen. The duo performed at the Tres Triste Tigres two or three times as well as booking other venues around Valencia such as Pub Ghent. He returned to the United States and put together his first professional band in 1976, called ‘Ocean Wizard.’

After moving to Los Angeles, California in the fall of 1980 to pursue his Bachelor's degree in political science, Grisolia began to work as a musician in 1987. During this period,he formed a few music bands. With one of these bands, ‘300’, he had a breakthrough single “Video King”. During this time keyboard artist, John Thomas heard his music and later offered to help him mix the songs of his debut EP album “Blue Café.”

Grisolia's career as touring musician solidified through the 1990s with back to back touring acts in Southern California, mostly in Los Angeles. He eventually became a regular act at the House of Blues and performed over two dozen shows among four of their locations. He became a member of The Recording Academy in 1993. He produced several live concert series from the 1990s through the 2000s. Wish Upon a Song] was one such musical concert series, conceived and produced to benefit Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach, California. For the first installment of the series, he brought in singer Johnny Mathis, and for subsequent concerts had Dionne Warwick and Bert Bacharach headlining the concerts.

Grisolia toured independently until 2009 as the “Bill Grisolia Band” and in 2010, until 2021, he teamed up with guitarist Chap Cooper to form the band, New Blues Revolution in Long Beach. Their collaboration spawned 2 EP albums and resulted in a number of performances throughout California and nationally.

A review in Bman’s Blues Report called The New Blues Revolution 2016 album ‘Hellendale and Back’ “diverse and interesting…with traces of Jim Morrison, Zack Wilde and Alice Cooper.”

The band played at venues around the greater Los Angeles area including House of Blues, Whiskey A-Go-Go and the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. They toured multiple times and headlined at blues and rock venues around the country including The Tin Roof (San Diego)], Blue Cat Blues (Dallas) and Knuckleheads (Kansas City). They booked gigs to play around Europe at the Black Note (Valencia, Spain), Cantina West (Helsinki, Finland), Rock Sta (Olu, Finland), and Bayerischer Hof Hotel (Munich, Germany). As New Blues Revolution, Grisolia has opened for Macy Gray, Starship, Lee Rocker, Los Lobos, Leon Russell, Tab Benoit, Canned Heat, Rick Derringer, Katey Sagal and Three Dog Night.

Grisolia also performed with noted musician and drummer Phillip E. Hardy when Hardy was a part of Grisolia's band New Blues Revolution. In 2021, New Blues Revolution disbanded and since then Grisolia continues to perform as the "Bill Grisolia Band" nationally, and headlined the Key West Florida Blues Festival in 2021. He started the New Blues Festival and has produced eight festivals in three cities. The festival won the Best Music Festival in North America (charity category) at the 2019 Fest Forums.

Grisolia founded the charity, the Long Beach Blues Society whose mission is to “educate the next generation about where blues came from” and “help artists from less well-off backgrounds achieve the greatness in the art of Blues they crave”. An article in the Press Telegram described the Long Beach Blues Society as "uplifting" and "provided inspirational learning opportunities, concerts and engagements for youth, seniors, veterans and undeserved communities."

Personal life
Grisolia has been married to Rosalba Gonzalez-Grisolia since October 13, 2021, and is his second marriage. He was previously married to Yolanda Grisolía (nee Pagano) and they divorced in 2005. He has two children from his first marriage.

Awards
Grisolia was selected by Music Connection in the top 100 bands in the USA for 2023 and again for the second year in a row for 2024. He was a nominee for Group of the Year, at LA Music Awards in 2012.

Grisolia was recently awarded two Living Legend awards by two separate organizations, Blues My Way and JazzZone Jazzabration, according to an article published by Programming Insider in December 2023. He was also awarded Entertainer of the Year by Blues My Way, as mentioned in an article in Discover Hollywood.