Grover Washington Jr. - Mister Magic (1975)

“Mister Magic” by Grover Washington Jr. (1975)

Release Date: February 7, 1975
Produced by Creed Taylor
Genre: Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Funk, R&B
Label: Kudu Records

Chart Positions: #10 (US), #1 (US R&B, US Jazz)
Certifications: N/A

Singles: “Mister Magic,” #54 (US), #16 (US R&B), #12 (US Dance)
Other Charting Tracks: N/A
Best Tracks: “All Tracks

“Mister Magic” by Grover Washington Jr (Click Here)

We remember Grover Washington Jr best for his 1981 smash hit “Just The Two Of Us,” a collaboration with Bill Withers. But it is his album “Mister Magic,” Grover's fifth studio album, that gave him his first true breakthrough on both the albums and singles charts. The album made it to #10 on the US Billboard chart and the single peaked at #54 (his first single to chart).

Grover Washington Jr is considered to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz sound. Though Washington’s brand of smooth jazz has always been of the highest form remaining true to the jazz soul styles of his earliest recordings. Because of it’s accessible smooth jazz style, with the musical arrangements composed by Bob James, “Mister Magic” was able to break through in many markets including the pop charts, R&B, dance and jazz charts. “Mister Magic” was a hit on adult contemporary light rock AM radio stations across the US and helped to bring jazz to the forefront in the mid 1970s. Now the album is considered a classic and revered by Washington’s many fans.

The title track, "Mister Magic," was written by jazz music legend Ralph MacDonald. The song is one of those few songs that was able to cross territories of music as not only did jazz radio stations love it but the song was a popular choice in dance clubs throughout the US - it's not too often that a jazz tune is a hit in disco clubs. And if that is not enough even easy listening pop stations liked the tune.

"Mister Magic" (1975)

"Earth Tones," with it's complex 6/4 beat, is the most experimental track of the album featuring a great way was guitar solo by Eric Gale. Washington on the sax and Gale on guitar get ample opportunity to improvise on this 12 minute track.

Grover wrote all the songs on the album with the exception of "Passion Flower" which was written by Billy Strayhorn. The soothing ballad features Grover's dreamy sax playing in a fashion that just brings you to a point where you just melt right in your seat by the beauty of the song. Grover does some fantastic things with the saxophone with a few twists and surprises about half way through.

The guitar solos by Grover Washington Jr and Eric Gale are a major aspect of the album that initially caught the attention of radio programmers and music listeners. Each man plays his instrument to the finest degree possible with each adding their own highly recognizable chords to the arrangements.

The album is a who’s who of jazz music including the legendary Bob James (member of the band Fourplay, composer of the "Taxi" TV Theme song and has composed arrangements and orchestrations for countless musicians), Eric Gale (Legendary jazz guitarist), Ralph McDonald (singer, songwriter, arranger, producer, percussionist. Wrote the songs "Where Is The Love," "Just The Two Of Us" and "Mister Magic") and Jon Faddis (jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer).

Producer Creed Taylor also produced a wide variety of musicians in the jazz field such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Carmen McRae, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Charlie Byrd, Wes Montgomery, Freddie Hubbard, George Benson, Nina Simone, Herbie Hancock and others. Taylor founded the record company CTI and later it’s sister label Kudu which focused on R&B Jazz artists such as Grover Washington Jr.

Grover Washington, Jr. (1975)

Link to “Mister Magic” (Click Here)

GROVER WASHINGTON, JR.

Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly (1973)

“Killing Me Softly” by Roberta Flack (1973)

Release Date: August 1, 1973
Produced by Joel Dorn
Chart Positions: #3 (US), #40 (UK), #6 (Norway), #9 (Netherlands), #11 (Australia), #13 (Canada), #47 (Germany)
Certifications: 2xPlatinum (US), Gold (Canada)
Singles: “Killing Me Softly With His Song” (#1 US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, #3 Holland, #4 Netherlands, Norway, #5 France, #6 UK, Brazil, #8 South Africa, #17 Belgium, #19 Austria, #30 Germany, #32 Switzerland)
“Jesse” (#23 Canada, #24 Australia, #30 US)

Killing Me Softly reached US #3 and #2 on the US Soul chart. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album GOLD on August 27, 1973, and double platinum on January 30, 2006. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, which it lost to Stevie Wonder's 1973 album Innervisions. The album's title track was released as a single and topped the Billboard Hot 100 and won the 1974 Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

“Killing Me Softly” by Roberta Flack (Click Here)

“Killing Me Softly” is Roberta Flack’s fourth studio album (her fifth if you include the collaboration albums with Donny Hathaway). She spent 18 months recording the album with producer Joel Dorn. Dorn, a jazz and R&B producer, has produced albums for Max Roach, Herbie Mann, the Neville Brothers and others. Dorn and Flack took a less is more approach in producing an album full of soulful heartfelt tunes. They left out all the catchy pop hooks that were popular in the 70s and went for a straightforward smooth soulful sound that has paid off as time has past. The album is still as fresh and heart felt as it was in 1973.

The first single “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, became a huge hit single and received major airplay all over AM and FM radio being played on Top 40 Pop, Easy Listening, R&B and Jazz radio stations. Gimbel and Fox also wrote the theme songs to the TV shows Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. Lori Lieberman was the first to record the song in late 1971, releasing it in early 1972. Helen Reddy has said she was sent the song, but "the demo sat on my turntable for months without being played because I didn't like the title." Roberta Flack first heard the song on an airline, when the Lieberman original was featured on the in-flight audio program. After scanning the listing of available audio selections, Flack would recall: "The title, of course, smacked me in the face. I immediately pulled out some scratch paper, made musical staves then played the song at least eight to ten times jotting down the melody that I heard. When I landed, I immediately called Quincy Jones at his house and asked him how to meet Charles Fox. Two days later I had the music." Shortly afterwards Flack rehearsed the song with her band in the Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica but did not then record it.

In September 1972, Flack was opening for Marvin Gaye at the Greek Theater; after performing her prepared encore song, Flack was advised by Gaye to sing an additional song. Flack – "I said well, I got this song I've been working on called "Killing Me Softly..." and he said "Do it, baby." And I did it and the audience went crazy, and he walked over to me and put his arm around me and said, "Baby, don't ever do that song again live until you record it." Released in January 1973, Flack's version spent a total of five non-consecutive weeks, more weeks than any other record in 1973 at #1. Billboard ranked it as the #3 song for 1973. Charles Fox suggested that Flack's version was more successful than Lieberman's because Flack's "version was faster and she gave it a strong backbeat that wasn't in the original."[7] According to Flack: "My classical background made it possible for me to try a number of things with [the song's arrangement]. I changed parts of the chord structure and chose to end on a major chord. [The song] wasn't written that way."[14] Flack plays electric piano on the track. Several well known jazz musicians performed on the song including bass is by Ron Carter, guitar by Hugh McCracken and drums by Ray Lucas. Flack won the 1973 Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, for the single, with Gimbel and Fox earning the Song of the Year Grammy. According to Lori Lieberman, who performed the original recording in 1972, the song was born of a poem she wrote after experiencing a strong reaction to the Don McLean song "Empty Chairs." She then related this information to Gimbel, who took her feelings and put them into words. Then Gimbel passed the words to Fox, who set them to music.

"Killing Me Softly"

The next single, the beautiful and somber, “Jesse” written by singer/songwriter Janis Ian. The song appeared on Ian’s 1974 album “Stars” of which its title track was inspired by Don McLean. Janis Ian began writing this song in the mid 1960s when she was around 14-15 years old. The song was going to be about a Vietnam vet coming home from the war. But then she thought that was too limiting. She ended up writing the song to have a more universal meaning, as the song could relate to anyone wondering when, or if, a loved one will return home. The song was a semi-hit reaching US #30, Australia #24 and Canada #23.

One of the album’s highlights is the upbeat and optimistic “When You Smile,” with Dixieland flavored guitars, banjo and horns the song has a universal groove that we don’t hear much from Flack. This would have made a great single. Written by jazz musician Ralph MacDonald, Roberta Flack was the first person to record the song. MacDonald also co-wrote “Where Is The Love” a Top 10 hit for Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway in 1972. MacDonald also co-wrote “Just The Two of Us” a song that has become a standard as released in 1981.

Roberta Flack (1973)

Link to “Killing Me Softly” (Click Here)

ROBERTA FLACK