Grover+washington

This is one of Grover Washington, Jr.'s best-loved recordings and considered a classic of r&bish jazz. All four songs (which includes Billy Strayhorn's "Passion Flower") are quite enjoyable but it is "Mister Magic" that really caught on as a major hit…

The Best Is Yet to Come is a 1982 studio album by American jazz musician Grover Washington Jr. released via Elektra label. The album includes his major hit "The Best Is Yet to Come" recorded with Patti LaBelle…

This album is one of the reasons that Idris Muhammad is regarded as the drumming king of groove. Featuring the arrangements and keyboards of Bob James, the saxophone punch of Grover Washington, Jr., guitarist Joe Beck, trumpeter Randy Brecker, percussionist Ralph MacDonald, and the knife-edge slick production of Creed Taylor, this 1974 issue is a burning piece of deep, jazzy soul and grooved-out bliss…

From his swaying and suggestive onstage body movement to conceptualizing the electro-psychedelic cover art for his latest album Pleasure Seeker (Countdown/Unity), saxman Paul Taylor seems determined to captivate us visually. For his breakthrough hit On the Horn, Taylor gathered some of his existing tunes and sought the production direction of Kazu Matsui; on Pleasure Seeker, Taylor chose a more collaborative approach. For the most part, he started composing the tunes from scratch with the new production team of Dino Esposito (an old college chum of Taylor's) and Scot Rammer…

Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Bley, and Steve Swallow had reunited four years prior to this recording session before a live and very enthusiastic audience. On this date, they had been touring together on and off for four years and were as telepathic as in 1961 when they recorded Fusion and Thesis with Creed Taylor at Verve (yeah, the same guy who aesthetically ruined Wes Montgomery and Grover Washington, Jr.)…

After leaving RCA/Bluebird, avant-garde jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas started his own label, Greenleaf Music – and the game plan was to release his own albums on Greenleaf in addition to spotlighting new artists he felt were deserving of exposure. The first non-Douglas release on Greenleaf was this self-titled CD by Kneebody, whose blend of jazz, rock, and funk demonstrates that being funky and being cerebral are not mutually exclusive…

Bob James' first recording for his Tappan Zee label is typically lightweight. Although Grover Washington, Jr. has two spots on soprano, and trumpeter Jon Faddis is in the brass section, James' dated Fender Rhodes keyboard is the lead voice throughout the six pieces, which include two adaptations of classical works…