Ah! The good old days of jazz, when sounds from Grover Washington Jr. hit the airwaves without shame or compromise! I remember seeing the jazz icon play the Star Bangled Banner at a Laker’s game! Life was good!
Here, the late Washington Jr. his caught at the paramount Center for the Arts in upstate New York back in 1997. He’d just released his Soulful Strut album, and he includes some of the material here from that album. This 2 vinyl album has Washington Jr. playing tenor, soprano, alto and soprano sax, and he sounds great in all forms with a hip supporting cast of Musical Director Donald Robinson/key, Adam Holzman/key, Gerald Veasley/b, Richard Lee Steacker/g, Steven Wolf/dr and Pablo Batista/dr-perc.
Washington delivers red meat versions of his most familiar pieces such as “Winelight”, “Mr. Magic” and a swinging take of “Soulful Strut”. There is a nifty little medley where he gives a dash of his big hit “Just The Two Of Us” and also gives homage to Marvin Gaye in “Inner City Blues”. Grover and the band stretches out on the dedication to basketball great Dr. Julius Erving in “Let It Flow” and the closing of the concert climaxes in a toe tapping “Mr. Magic”. In an era where jazz musicians think that cacophony is the only language of art, Grover Washington Jr. proves that modern music can be accessible and enjoyable as well as art worthy. Where did we go wrong?