Grover Washington Jr.

[BlueMiles]

Looking for a few comments on Grover Washington.

I must confess that I often thought of him as Kenny G. before Kenny G.--well a notch above anyway. But then again I know that Grover came up in a more true jazz manner, that he earned the respect of jazz fans, and that he made some mainstream records. Indeed, I really liked his work with Kenny Burrell on the One Night with Blue Note series, and they followed it up with a full record--which was good if not quite as impressive.

I've heard Grover Washington make guest appearances on records by Gerry Mulligan and Eddie Henderson, and I found his work on Weston's Blue Moses to be quite impressive.

I don't know if I'll ever go for his smooth type stuff, but let me know what you think.

[Dr Dave]

Fuck a bunch of categories. Just get this and listen to "Trouble Man."

[Mike Schwartz]

BlueMiles,

ANY analogy that puts *G* besides Grover in any way shape or manor is utter and complete bullshit.

It's not Grover's fault that he single handedly developed a different approach that was copied to death by a long line of wannabe Grover pretenders from Najee on down by the bushel.

I'm forgetting the name of the album at the moment,; check out his contribution on the 80's Dexter Gordon album (I'm sure someone here will remember) .

I'm with Dr Dave "Fuck a bunch of categories."

[Peterdubya]

Grover could play!!

Check out Johnny Hammond "Breakout" he and Hank Crawford both are great on it.

[CraigP]

I fondly remember seeing Grover live in the 70's when I was in high school. The crowd only knew him for Mr. Magic, but he did a nice job of weaving the commercial tunes in with more adventurous selections. He said to the crowd, "Before I take it inside, I'm going to take it outside" and then performed Impressions. He not only won over that audience, but also my two friends who I had dragged along and who only listened to rock.

/Also check out his liquid soprano sax on Bob James' One album.

[Ron Thorne]

I'm forgetting the name of the album at the moment,; check out his contribution on the 80's Dexter Gordon album (I'm sure someone here will remember) .

I'm with Dr Dave "Fuck a bunch of categories."

Mike, I think you're referring to American Classic, perhaps.



Grover could definitely play!

[Mike Schwartz]

Mike, I think you're referring to American Classic, perhaps.



Grover could definitely play!

I'm pretty sure that is it.....thanks Ron.

It's not Dexter's best, but a fine contribution from GW Jr.!

I did a sit down taped interview with Grover on a tour to this area, and we got to hang for a bit and really hit it off, and thought the taping came out quite well. This was late summer the same year he passed; was a matter of months later when he died during the shooting of a CBS Christmas season show in December in NY.

[bigtiny]

Grover was an interesting guy. At one point he quit music and went to work at Sears for a few years, but it almost drove him crazy. His debut session on CTI (or KUDU its subsidiary) was actually supposed to be a Hand Crawford session that Crawford didn't make for some reason....

bigtiny

[Ron Thorne]

Here ya go!

[BlueMiles]

Just listened to "Trouble Man" at YouTube. That's a KA tenor solo! Does he have a lot of stuff like this?

[Ron Thorne]

Just listened to "Trouble Man" at YouTube. That's a KA tenor solo! Does he have a lot of stuff like this?

Do you mean on this album or in general?

Grover played tenor, alto & soprano on Soul Box, originally a 2-LP set. He also played baritone on occasion, but those moments are extremely rare.

There are some nice moments with Grover on tenor on Inner City Blues, his debut album, too.

[BlueMiles]

I'm assuming Soul Box is strong all around. It seems to be much admired. Is this the indispensable Grover record?

[Ron Thorne]

BlueMiles, did you notice my question and comments to you?

[gonzo]

on album so so. live excellent.

[BlueMiles]

I'm looking for more tracks like "Trouble Man," though I would also like to know the top 1 or 2 albums to pick up.

I'm listening to Togethering (Kenny Burrell and Grover) on vinyl right now. It's very good, but not quite a classic.