Search - Dave Grusin & Grp All-Stars :: Live in Japan

A classic and a personal favourite

Olukayode Balogun | Leeds, England | 11/27/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In between spending some time in the studio producing iconic albums for people like Tom Browne and Bernard Wright (among others), keyboardist Dave Grusin gathered together a group of friends and took to the skies. This album captures them at the Osaka Festival Hall in Japan in March 1980, as part of ABC (Asahi) TV's 30th anniversary. The people featured on here should need no introduction - trumpeter Tom Browne, guitarist Bobby Broom, keyboardist Don Grusin, bassist Marcus Miller, percussionist Roger Squitero, flautist Dave Valentin, alto saxophonist Sadao Watanabe and drummer Buddy Williams. They are all backed a full string & horn orchestra.



I think this is what's known in certain circles as a 'love-in' and it's a beautiful album, with catchy, funky jazz-fusion grooves, and it's another one I used to own on vinyl back in college but lost somewhere along the way. My favourite tunes then, as now, were and are "Modaji", "Tradewinds", "Shamballa", the piano fest "Don And Dave", and the band's version of the Dave Grusin hit, "Friends And Strangers", with those immortal words as uttered by Grusin: "Now, this is my favourite time of the evening. When I get to introduce my good friend and your good friend. Nabe Sada. Sadao Watanabe!"



I smile when I think of it now but my friends and I used to wait for those words when listening to this album back then and quote along to them. I still say them out loud now, more than 20 years later. A classic and a personal favourite."