[5] Named after one of his father's brothers who was killed aged 19 in World War I,[6][7][8][9] Lionel was educated at Dartington Hall School[10] and at King's College, Cambridge (where he contributed writings on jazz to the university magazine Granta[11] under the editorship of Alexis Lykiard).
[16] During the early 1960s, he was co-leader of the award-winning Cambridge University Jazz Band[17] that included Art Themen (who has acknowledged Grigson's "off-the-wall" influence,[18][19] saying of him: "He kind of sprang from the womb knowing the rudiments of bebop"),[11] Dave Gelly, John Hart and Jonathan Lynn.
"[25] In a 1963 short drama film called Duet, Grigson is credited as a performer in the Music Department, alongside, Brian Gascoigne, John Hart and Jonathan Lynn.
Notable among these are conductor/ arranger Neil Ardley (Bristol), tenor-saxist Dave Gelly and pianist Lionel Grigson (both from Cambridge), trumpet players Ian Carr (Durham) and Mike Phlllipson (Nottingham), and, from the London music colleges, altoist Barbara Thompson and trombonist Paul Rutherford.
"[28] In the later 1960s Grigson was resident at The Troubadour coffee house in Old Brompton Road, London, with a regular Sunday afternoon gig[29] – his quintet, in which he played piano, featured Chris Bateson (trumpet), Pete Burden or Paul Zec (alto), Spike Wells or Joe Oliver (drums) and John Hart or David "Happy" Williams (bass)[30] – and led his own jazz groups with musicians including John Hart (bass), Pete Burden (1941–2016)[31][32] and Paul Zec (altos), Art Themen and Bobby Wellins (tenors), Spike Wells (drums), Dave Gelly, Mick Pyne and many others.
Grigson was in the original line-up of the jazz rock/fusion group If (alongside saxophonists Dick Morrissey and Dave Quincy, guitarist Terry Smith, Spike Wells on drums, and Daryl Runswick on bass),[37] and a composition on their second album, If 2 (1970), is by Busby/Grigson.
[38] During the early 1970s, Grigson led a multi-ethnic "Afro-Latin-Jazz group" called Ujamaa,[21] "combining straight jazz with African, calypso, Latin and funk elements",[15] the band's line-ups variously including Art Themen, Harry Beckett, John Mumford (trombone), Pete Burden, Paul Zec, Phil Lee, Alan Jackson, Paul Whitten (bass), and singer Jeanette Tavernier, among others.
[42] Grigson also played with some of the most notable international musicians in jazz, including Freddie Hubbard, Philly Joe Jones, Johnny Griffin and Kenny Clarke.
[2][21][43] Many notable musicians studied at the Guildhall School under Grigson's tenure there, including Rowland Sutherland,[44] Huw Warren,[45] Steve Williamson,[46] Courtney Pine, Jason Rebello, Gerard Presencer, Phil Bent, Mornington Lockett, Cleveland Watkiss,[47] Tom Norris and others.