Editing Wardell Gray (section)

===Early years===
The youngest of four children, Gray was born in [[Oklahoma City]]. He spent his early childhood years in Oklahoma before he and his family moved to [[Detroit]], Michigan<ref name="proper">Joop Visser, "Dexter Gordon: Settin' the Pace", Proper Records, p23</ref> in 1929.

In early 1935, Gray began attending Northeastern High School, he was then transferred to [[Cass Technical High School]]. He left in 1936, before graduating. Advised by his brother-in-law Junior Warren, Gray as a teenager started learning the clarinet. However, after hearing Lester Young on record with Count Basie, he was inspired to switch to the tenor saxophone.

Gray's first musical job was in [[Isaac Goodwin]]'s small band, a part-time band that played local dances. When auditioning for another job, he was heard by [[Dorothy Patton]], a young pianist who was forming a band in the Fraternal Club in [[Flint, Michigan]], she later hired him. After a year there, he moved to [[Jimmy Raschel]]'s band (Raschel had recorded a few sides earlier in the 1930s but did not do so again), and then to the [[Benny Carew]] band in [[Grand Rapids]], Michigan. Around this time, he met Jeanne Goings; they had a daughter, Anita, born in January 1941.