LP REVIEW: set it and forget it, with Don Grusin (s/t), 1983
JVC, VIJ-28008, 1983, JAPAN ISSUE, STEREO
ARTIST
Brothers Don and Dave Grusin are well-known entities in the smooth jazz category. Dave – pianist and composer – wrote numerous movie scores, including his Oscar-winning score for “The Milagro Beanfield War” and Oscar-nominated scores for “The Fabulous Baker Boys” and “Havana.”
Don Grusin was Born on April 22, 1941, in Denver, Colorado (USA). He won 3 Grammys and made about 20 albums, his latest, Out Of Thin Air, came out on February 2021. He has a particular bent toward crossover styles of music from jazz to pop with a specific interest in the music of Brazil and other Latin American countries (although our review record has none of this). He played and recorded with a lot of the musical greats of this world, to name a few; Quincy Jones, Zoot Sims, Joe Pass, Sadao Watanabe, Jim Hall, Gilberto Gil, Nathan East, Lee Ritenour, Milton Nascimento, and many more …..
LABEL
The Japan Victor Company, commonly known as Victor and also as JVC, was established in 1927. When RCA bought Victor in 1929, it also acquired JVC. Ties to the U.S. company, which was renamed RCA Victor, were severed during World War II and never re-established.
JVC created Victor Musical Industries in 1972 to run its record companies. It was renamed Victor Entertainment in 1993. Within Japan, JVC is associated with the Victor brand and with Nipper the Dog, a logo also used by RCA Victor in the U.S. and His Master’s Voice in Europe.
JVC was mainly known for releasing jazz and the JVC World Sounds series – a series of field and concert recordings of traditional musicians from different countries. JVC was also a generous sponsor of Jazz Festivals.
KNOWLEDGE NUGGETS
/1| Don Grusin has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a Master’s Degree in Economics, and in the early ’70s, he was a Fulbright Professor of Economics, teaching in Mexico. By the mid-’70s, he taught Economics at Foothills College (San Francisco).
/2\ In 1975, Quincy Jones made him an offer to join his band for a tour of Japan and the U.S. – this led Grusin to pursue music full-time.
MUSIC
This is a quintessential fusion or smooth jazz record. Very slick. Professional. Free-flowing music with great bass lines. It’s music you can do something else with. Clean your records. Re-organize your collection. Something. You can play it all day long and never know which song is which. It may not have the art and dare I say it, the creative depth of jazz, but the musical contributions here are first-class. I mean, Lee Ritenour, Nathan East, Alex Acuña…all top musicians.
Having listened to a few fusion records for these reviews, it made me think…What happened to fusion? It was popular for about what, a decade? Between the ’70s and ’80s. Perhaps it lingered a bit in the 90s but that’s about it. I think it all started with Miles Davis’ electronic period and perhaps Herbie Hancock, but that music still had its roots firmly in jazz. Wikipedia says “By the early 1980s, much of the original fusion genre was subsumed into other branches of jazz and rock, especially smooth jazz, a radio-friendly subgenre of fusion which is influenced by R&B, funk, and pop music.”
I think fusion became too slick. Groups like Steps Ahead or Weather Report still had their roots in jazz and made interesting albums. Don Grusin sits at that tipping point between the artistically acclaimed Steps Ahead and the commercial popular culture embodied by Kenny G. The smooth production you’ll find on LPs like Don Grusin’s, drew more inspiration from the pop and disco era than from jazz I think. Even though I rate Don Grusin higher than Kenny G, I still believe it’s background music at best. But it’s the good stuff.
Let me quote something I read online. It’s from April 2008 and kind of funny, but it shows how the critics thought about fusion/smooth jazz.
In February and March of 2008, “smooth jazz” stations in New York and Washington, DC shifted formats to rock, leaving two of the nation’s largest radio markets free of Kenny G, Chris Botti, Dave Koz, and Spyro Gyra. Dentists in the two most powerful cities in America are panicking. That said, I still feel its ongoing demise is a hopeful sign for our civilization.
No matter what ‘other people’ say, this Don Grusin album is an easy recommendation. A little like the Ponty record I reviewed in RPJR#27 – these are musicians at the top of their game. If you like this game, you’ll like these records.
I would encourage you though to listen to Steps Ahead and see if you notice a difference so you can see what I am on about…
YOUTUBE LINK
Can’t find the entire album on youtube, so here’s a link to Kona (track B2)
RAW MUSIC STORE
This LP is available on the RAW MUSIC Store website for 70 AED.
PERSONNEL
- Acoustic Guitar, Percussion – Oscar Castro-Neves
- Backing Vocals – Kate Markowitz
- Drums – Alex Acuña
- Electric Bass – Abraham Laboriel, Nathan East
- Electric Guitar – Lee Ritenour
- Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Michael Sembello
- Percussion – Efrain Toro, Steve Forman
- Producer, Arranger, Acoustic Piano, Rhodes, OBX, Mini Moog, ARP-2600, Yamaha GS 1, Percussion, Vocal in “Cuidado” – Don Grusin
- Saxophone – Gary Herbig
- Synthesizer Programming on ARP-2600, Vocoder – Michael Boddicker
TRACKS
- A1: Number Eight 5:16
- A2: Hot 4:25
- A3: Shuffle City 4:34
- A4: Cuidado 4:21
- B1: Nice Going 4:20
- B2: Kona 4:05
- B3: Cowboy Reggae 5:18
- B4: What A Friend We Have In Jesus 3:15