| Dave Grusin | |
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Photo by Andy Ihnatko |
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| Born | June 26, 1934 Littleton, Colorado |
David Grusin (born June 26, 1934) is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys. He has had a prolific recording career as an artist, arranger, producer and executive producer.
Born in Littleton, Colorado, he studied music at the University of Colorado at Boulder and was awarded his bachelor's degree in 1956. He produced his first single, Subways are for Sleeping in 1962 and composed the score to his first Feature film, Divorce American Style five years later. Other scores followed including 'Winning in 1969 , The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Midnight Man (1974) and Three Days of the Condor in 1975.
In the late 70s, he formed GRP records along with his partner, Larry Rosen, and began to create some of the first commercial digital recordings. Grusin was also at the forefront of soundtrack albums. He was the composer for the legendary Mike Nichols Oscar-winning film, The Graduate. The film is noted for being one of the first films to integrate popular songs into a film score. Later scores included On Golden Pond (1981), Tootsie, (1982) and The Goonies (1985).
From 2000 through 2011, Grusin has concentrated on composing classical and jazz compositions, touring, and recording with collaborators, among others, guitarist, Lee Ritenour. Together they have recorded several projects including the Grammy-winning Brazilian album, “Harlequin” in 1985. In recent years, they have released two classical crossover albums that were nominated for Grammys including, the Universal Decca recordings,'“Two Worlds” and "Amparo". He is married and has four children.
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Grusin was born in Littleton, Colorado, the son of Rosabelle (née De Poyster), a pianist, and Henri Grusin, a violinist who immigrated from Riga, Latvia.[1][2] An alumnus of the University of Colorado at Boulder, College of Music, he was awarded his bachelor's degree in 1956. One of his teachers there was Cecil Effinger.[3] Grusin has a filmography of about 100 titles. His many awards include an Oscar for best original score for The Milagro Beanfield War, as well as Oscar nominations for The Champ, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Firm, Havana, Heaven Can Wait, and On Golden Pond. He also received a best original song nomination for "It Might Be You" from the film Tootsie. Six of the fourteen cuts on the soundtrack from The Graduate are his. Other film scores he has composed include Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?, Three Days of the Condor, The Goonies, Tequila Sunrise, Hope Floats, Random Hearts, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and The Firm.
For television, he was the conductor for The Andy Williams Show (1963–1965) and the composer of the theme songs for such series as It Takes a Thief (1968), The Name of the Game (1968), Dan August (1970), The Sandy Duncan Show (1971–1972) Maude (1972), Good Times (1974), Baretta (1975), St. Elsewhere (1982), and, for Televisa in Mexico, Tres Generaciones (1987). He also composed music for individual episodes of each of those shows. His other TV credits include The Wild Wild West (1966), The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966), and Columbo: Prescription: Murder (1968). He also did the theme song for One Life to Live (1968) from 1984–1992.
About 35 Grusin CD titles are currently available including soundtracks, originals, collections, and homages to jazz greats George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and Henry Mancini. Recently he has turned his attention to his own compositions. As in much of his career, these defy easy classification. They can be heard on CD's in collaboration with major artists including Lee Ritenour, James Taylor, and Renée Fleming. In addition to Grusin's jazz, film work and other collaborations, he has also lent his talents as a producer / arranger / musician to numerous albums by artists including Paul Simon, Sérgio Mendes, Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau, Patti Austin, Dave Valentin and Sadao Watanabe. Billy Joel has also on occasion tapped Grusin for horn and string arrangements - Grusin arranged the horns on "Half A Mile Away" for Joel's "52nd Street" album, and contributed horn and string arrangements to Joel's 1982 concept album "The Nylon Curtain."
Grusin and Larry Rosen co-founded GRP Records in 1978. In 1994, GRP was in charge of MCA's (soon to be renamed Universal Music Group) jazz operations. Founders Grusin and Rosen left in 1995 and were replaced by Tommy LiPuma. In 1997, Grusin and Rosen co-founded N2K Encoded Music (after renamed N-Coded Music).
He received honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music in 1988 and University of Colorado, College of Music in 1989. Grusin was initiated into the Beta Chi Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at the University of Colorado in 1953.
Dave is married to Nan Newton. He is the father of music editor Stuart Grusin, music editor and musician Scott Grusin, and aerospace engineer Michael Grusin. He is the stepfather of artist Annie Vought, and elder brother of keyboardist Don Grusin and sister Dee Grusin.
See All Music Guide@ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dave-grusin-p67644/credits
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