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 Dave
Grusin
One of the top ten film scorers of his generation, Dave Grusin is possibly even
more renowned as a jazz artist and founder of the prestige independent record
company GRP.
A piano graduate of the University of Colorado in 1956, he grew up with a
classical music background, his father, Henri Grusin, having been a professional
violinist.
First break in show business came as musical director for Andy Williams, playing
piano on a string of singles and more than a half dozen of the singer's
best-selling albums, in addition to serving as leader of the Dave Grusin
Orchestra on “The Andy Williams Show.”
During the period Dave Grusin also cut three headliner jazz LPs for Epic and
Columbia. Developing a reputation as the man to call when a record project was
struggling or required that something extra, his participation in numerous
recording sessions through the following dozen years was then “limited” to being
sideman, arranger, conductor and/or producer.
However, his prime focus from the late sixties onwards was on composing for the
screen. Initial theatrical release was the 1967 “Divorce American Style” with
Debbie Reynolds and Dick Van Dyke, followed by ground-breaking ”The Graduate.”
Two other noteworthy scores in the sixties were those for the literary classic
“The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” and the star-studded “Candy.”
At the same time, Dave Grusin was penning scores and themes for some of the top
shows in television, notably “It Takes a Thief,” “Name of the Game” and “The
Bold Ones.”
In the seventies he began working with producer/engineer Larry Rosen, putting
together albums for young jazz artists on Blue Note and CTI. Their company,
Grusin Rosen Productions, then evolved into the record label Arista/GRP in 1978.
Dave Grusin finally returned to the limelight as a featured artist with the 1976
Sheffield Labs landmark album “Discovered Again,” followed the next year by “One
of a Kind.” These included some of his own compositions, and set the tone for a
jazz orientation which was strong on electronic elements complementing acoustic
ones, putting him at the forefront of the fusion jazz movement.
Meanwhile, he was scoring some five pictures or more a year, and formed a
working arrangement with Sydney Pollack, whereby he composed the music for such
films as “Bobby Deerfield” and the thriller “Three Days of the Condor.” He was
also nominated for two Academy Awards, for “ heaven Can Wait” and “The Champ”
during the decade. TV themes included “Maude” and “Baretta.”
His career was sparking on all cylinders in the eighties with such
Oscar-nominated scores as “On Golden Pond,” “The Fabulous Baker Boys” and
“Milagro Beanfield War” (winning the award for the latter), in addition to those
for “Tootsie,” “Racing With The Moon,” “The Little Drummer Girl,” “Falling in
Love” and cult film “The Goonies” (plus theme for long-running hospital drama
“St. Elsewhere”).
He also rode high in the jazz charts with albums “Mountain Dance,” “Out of the
Shadows,” “N.Y./L.A. Dreamband,” “Night-Lines,” “Harlequin” and “Migration,”
each of which featured Dave Grusin the composer as well as performer.
In 1982, along with Larry Rosen, he formed the record company GRP, and produced
a score of fusion-oriented jazz albums for their stable of innovative performers.
With a focus on artistic freedom, GRP was a pioneer in both digital recording
and compact discs. Enjoying both artistic and financial success, GRP stood out
as clear leader among contemporary jazz labels.
The nineties represented a watershed in Dave Grusin's career as a musician, with
the return to acoustic piano and four critically acclaimed tribute albums to
Gershwin, Ellington, Mancini and Bernstein. GRP was sold to MCA in 1991, but
Dave Grusin stayed on in management, and presided over the translation and
packaging of many historic jazz recordings onto compact disc.
Two more Academy Award nominations were received in the nineties, for the lush
music for “Havana” and the solo piano score to “The Firm,” with the decade being
rounded off by the jazz-oriented “Random Hearts.”
In the new century, with frequent colleague Lee Ritenour, he released a
melodious mixture of classical, folk and jazz under the title “Two Worlds” as
well as completing the score for “Dinner With Friends” among other projects. He
added a further Grammy to his collection in 2003 for arranging on a James Taylor
CD, and in 2004 brought out his first recording of solo piano music for four
decades, “Now Playing,” a collection of his own film themes.
Dave Grusin's musical career has been distinguished by a mastery over a diverse
range of styles, counterbalanced by a touch at the piano which makes his
keyboard signature totally unique. Integrity, exquisite taste, and impeccable
musicianship have consistently been the cited keynotes of his work, which has
been honored by numerous entertainment industry awards and nominations as well
as doctorates from the University of Colorado and Berklee College of Music.
The emminent producer director Sydney Pollack, with whom he has collaborated on
nine films, has summed it up succinctly with the words, “he can do anything, and
he has done everything.
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If you’ve spent any
time at all in a movie theater or in front of a TV set during prime time over
the past four decades, chances are good you’ve encountered Dave Grusin along the
way. In addition to a formidable body of work as a jazz recording artist, this
pianist, composer, arranger, and winner of 10 Grammys, an Oscar, and has scored
some of the most entertaining and enduring films of the past half-century,
including The Graduate, Three Days of the Condor, On Golden Pond, Tootsie, The
Champ, Milagro Beanfield War, The Firm, and many others. On the small screen,
Grusin composed scores and themes for It Takes a Thief, The Bold Ones, Maude,
Baretta, St. Elsewhere and other popular TV series. His jazz recordings have
topped the charts for the past three decades.
Grusin steps out from behind the various machinations of film and television
production to take center stage on An Evening with Dave Grusin, a groundbreaking
live recording that captures him conducting and performing with a host of stars,
and backed by the 75-piece Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra at the Adrienne
Arsht Center in Miami, Florida, in December 2009. The album is a collection of
12 songs by Grusin, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin and Henry Mancini. Guest
performers on the date include Jon Secada, Patti Austin, Monica Mancini, Gary
Burton, Arturo Sandoval, Nestor Torres and Sammy Figueroa.
An Evening with Dave Grusin, available on CD, Blu-ray Disc and ROBA iPadApp, is
the latest installment in producer Larry Rosen’s ongoing JAZZ ROOTS Series, a
nation-wide program in major performing arts centers that includes educational
and outreach programs designed to connect with local community groups and local
school districts. For more info see www.jazzroots.net.
But there’s more to An Evening with Dave Grusin than meets the ear. Grusin and
Rosen, partners in innovation since the days of GRP Records in the 1980s, when
they pioneered the launch of CDs in America, once again embrace cutting-edge
technology with their involvement with music app developer ROBA Interactive,
creating an experience that connects the user to this historic performance in an
exciting, interactive and unprecedented way. The app is filled with rich
multimedia content, including in-depth interviews, music and video clips,
producers’ comments, background history, alternate camera angles and more. The
CD in conjunction with the ROBA App gives you the complete Dave Grusin
experience – the monumental performance with a brilliant 75-piece orchestra, and
an in-depth look at the long and prolific career leading up to it. Now you can
literally touch the music – and have it respond.
“This recording was a great opportunity to revisit some of my previous film work,”
says Grusin, “as well as performing music by George Gershwin, and some material
from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein, two giants among American composers.
And I’m especially fond of the Henry Mancini songs. Hank was a friend of mine,
and a mentor who helped so many of us get into the business of film scoring.”
The word “orchestration” can have more than one meaning in a project that
involves 75 musicians and a series of high-caliber guest performers, Grusin
admits. “Recordings like this can be challenging,” he says. “There are a lot of
pieces that have to come together in the right place and at the right time –
both in the planning stage and during the actual performance. But everyone was a
professional at every step of the process. I’m grateful for the longtime
association I’ve had with Larry Rosen, and for the contributions so many other
great people who helped make this happen. I think this recording captures some
of the work I’m most proud of, along with the work of people whom I’ve admired
for many years.”
This groundbreaking project, which is the first music performance to be
simultaneously released on CD, Blu-ray, and iPad App brings together a team of
world class experts. The team includes award winning producers Larry Rosen and
the legendary Phil Ramone; multi-Grammy winning recording engineers Eric
Shilling and Frank Filipetti; and the cutting edge iPad App development team
from ROBA Interactive. For more info see www.robainteractive.com … as Producer
Phil Ramone said, “Welcome to the future of the music biz!”
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