Grover Washington, Jr.

The son of a church chorister and an avid collector of old jazz records, Grover Washington Jr., born December 12, 1943, was always well-versed in classic jazz, first learning to play the saxophone at the age of eight when he'd sneak into blues and jazz clubs in Buffalo. He subsequently joined The Four Clefs before being drafted into the US Army, where he met the drummer Billy Cobham, who introduced him to many influential New York musicians, including Leon Spencer, with whom he played on his first two albums. Grover's own early albums won him a lot of respect for the quality of his playing on different styles of sax, but his fourth album, 1975’s Mister Magic proved to be his breakthrough, reaching No 10 in the US album charts, with the title track becoming a hit single. He became hugely popular and influential throughout the 1970s and, mixing jazz with R&B, had another big international hit in 1980 with the smooth sound of the Winelight album, which was awarded multiple Grammy nominations. On that LP he collaborated with Bill Withers on “Just the Two of Us” a number 2 pop hit that one the Grammy for best R&B song. He collapsed and died suddenly from a heart attack after appearing on a TV show in New York on December 17, 1999. His recording legacy includes 20 albums that placed in the top 5 of the Billboard Jazz chart, 13 of those hitting number 1.