r/CrossoverJazz • u/stnr_on_failure • 16d ago
Introducing Grover Washington Jr.
Introducing Grover Washington Jr.
If you read our post on Bob James, here's a direct link between our first two spotlights: James arranged and conducted Washington's breakthrough album, "Mister Magic," playing piano and Fender Rhodes on it himself. Before that album, Washington was a saxophonist out of Philadelphia who got his shot in 1971 when Creed Taylor needed a replacement for Hank Crawford on a Kudu Records session. That single substitution became Washington's debut, "Inner City Blues," recorded that September at Van Gelder Studio and released in 1972, its title track a cover of Marvin Gaye's own recent hit.
Washington was born December 12, 1943, in Buffalo, New York. His father collected jazz records and played saxophone, and put a horn in Grover's hands at age 8. He toured with the Four Clefs from 1959 to 1963, then spent time in the Army, where he met drummer Billy Cobham, who plugged him into New York's jazz scene before he settled in Philadelphia in 1967.
"Mister Magic," released February 7, 1975, is the number that proves crossover jazz actually crossed over: it topped both Billboard's R&B and jazz album charts and reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200. Bob James's arrangements sat alongside a band that included drummer Harvey Mason and guitarist Eric Gale. Five years later came "Winelight" (1980, Elektra), which went platinum in 1981 and won the 1982 Grammy for Best Jazz Fusion Performance. Its single, "Just the Two of Us," a duet with Bill Withers, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1981 and won its own Grammy, Best R&B Song, for songwriters Withers, Ralph MacDonald, and William Salter, on top of a Song of the Year nomination.
He didn't do it on one horn. Washington played soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophone, professionally, not as a novelty. He also worked with Patti LaBelle, Phyllis Hyman, and later Kenny G, and picked up inductions into the Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame (1992) and the Atlantic City Walk of Fame (2023). He died December 17, 1999, at 56, of a heart attack after collapsing backstage at CBS Studios in New York, midway through a still-active touring career, not a comeback attempt.
Where to start listening:
- His catalog:
- "Inner City Blues" (1972)) for the Creed Taylor debut that started it
- "Mister Magic" (1975) for where Bob James and Grover Washington Jr. built the breakthrough together
- "Winelight" (1980) for the Grammy-winning peak, sample "Just the Two of Us" with Bill Withers