I would imagine the death of Grover Washington Jr. at 56 would hit Spyro's band pretty hard. Jay Beckenstein would no doubt quickly point out the influence of Grover in developing his own "voice" on soprano and/or tenor saxophone.

A tragic loss to the music world indeed.

[This message has been edited by Phil (edited 12-18-99).]

WOW!!! i didin't knew that Grover died.
That's a major loss indeed.

I remember when i was a little kid (around 8 or 10) my dad used to play his records at home and all the familiy gathered around wth our instruments to just "jam" on them.

I say it again , It's a major loss.

I'm sure it's hitting the Spyro Gyra camp hard...I know that both Spyro and Grover laid the groundwork for their careers in the early and mid 70's. While I don't remember reading Jay citing Grover as a big influence(the names Trane, Parker, and the Beatles fill that card), I'm sure Jay considered Grover one of his most talented contemporary's.

Little remembered and known fact...

Both Jay and Grover got started in Buffalo, New York...I think Grover was actually born and raised there.

Rest in Peace.
My thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family.

Paul

One of the things that i don't like when a well known artist dies is that suddenly everybody starts to recognize him (or her).

Suddenly everybody starts buying their records and merchandise and on top of it , TV specials start to appear.

I think that we, who are a little group of people thet realy know about jazz and the artists who play it, have the responsability to educate others and encourage them not to wait 'till some great artist dies to give him (or her) some credit.


Eril.

Eril makes a good point, which brings to mind another pet peeve: Kenny G.
Don't get me wrong, he makes fine music. But doesn't it irritate you just a bit that while Jay, Mark Colby and others who played in Maynard Ferguson's bands played beautiful soprano sax music in the '70s, Kenny gets a big hit with Songbird in '86 and suddenly he's the modern messiah to jazz.
I can count on one hand the number of Spyro tunes that I've heard on radio stations that didn't specialize in jazz or have a jazz program. And for about four years, 76-80, several pop and R&B stations in my area played Herb Alpert, Chuck Mangione, Spryo Gyra and Maynard Ferguson on a regular basis. In fact, I got turned onto jazz in '77 when a top 40 station played Mangione's Feel So Good and Ferguson's covers of Gonna Fly Now and later the main title to the first Star Wars movie. Morning Dance came a couple of years later.
Since then, it's all been pretty much limited to Kenny G. Sorry. I didn't mean to ramble, but that really grates on my nerves.

You've just hit a button here!!!

The same happens to me when people say that spyro gyra sounds just like Kenny G. I really hate that. I have a bunch of friends that are also musicians that call Kenny G "The King of Elevator Music".

Eril.