A Smooth Highlight ~ (Grover Washington)
Born in Buffalo, New York, Grover Washington, Jr. came from a musical family. His father, also a saxophonist, gave him his first saxophone at age eight. As a teenager, Grover played in local clubs and toured with a rhythm-and-blues group.
While serving in the U.S. Army, a young Washington connected with drummer Billy Cobham, who introduced him to the New York music scene. His major breakthrough came in 1971 when he was a last-minute replacement for another artist at a recording session. The resulting album, Inner City Blues, became a major success.
Grover's 1980 album Winelight cemented his superstar status. It featured the smash-hit duet with vocalist Bill Withers, "Just the Two of Us". The song reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1982.
Alongside artists like George Benson and Chuck Mangione, Grover Washington, Jr. was instrumental in developing the smooth jazz sound. His ability to fuse jazz improvisation with popular R&B and funk beats helped expand the audience for instrumental jazz. His commercially successful and accessible approach was often praised by fans but sometimes criticized by jazz purists.
Washington's success paved the way for other smooth jazz artists of the 1980s and 1990s, including Kenny G, Najee, and George Howard. His music has also been frequently sampled by hip-hop artists.
Grover Washington, Jr. died of a massive heart attack on December 17, 1999, at age 56, while waiting to perform on CBS's The Saturday Early Show. His legacy is honored in Philadelphia, his adopted home city, with a middle school and a mural bearing his name.
A Smooth Focus ~ (Clora Bryant)
Ms. Bryant was an American jazz trumpeter. She was the only female trumpeter to perform with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and was a member of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.
Clora Bryant was born in Denison, Texas to Charles and Eulila Bryant, the youngest of three children. Her father was a day laborer and her mother was a homemaker who died when Clora was only 3 years old. When Bryant was a young child, she learned to play piano with her brother Mel. As a child, Bryant was a member of the choir in a Baptist church. When her brother Fred joined the military, he left his trumpet, which she learned how to play. In high school she played trumpet in the marching band.
In an interview with JazzTimes, Bryant said, "Nobody ever told me, 'You can't play the trumpet, you're a girl.' Not when I got started in high school and not when I came out to L.A. My father told me, 'It's going to be a challenge, but if you're going to do it, I'm behind you all the way.' And he was."