Dave Grusin

Robert David Grusin (born June 26, 1934) is an American composer, arranger, producer, and pianist. He 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 ten Grammy Awards. He has had a prolific recording career as an artist, arranger, producer and executive producer. He is the co-founder of GRP Records.

Grusin was born in Littleton, Colorado to Henri and Rosabelle (de Poyster) Grusin. His mother was a pianist and his father was a violinist from Riga, Latvia. He has one Jewish parent.

He studied music at the University of Colorado at Boulder and was awarded his degree in 1956. His teachers included Cecil Effinger and Wayne Scott, pianist, arranger and professor of jazz.

He produced his first single, "Subways Are for Sleeping", in 1962 and his first film score for Divorce American Style (1967). Other scores followed, including Winning (1969), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Midnight Man (1974), and Three Days of the Condor (1975).

In the late 1970s, he started GRP Records with his business partner, Larry Rosen, and began to create some of the first commercial digital recordings. He was the composer for The Graduate, On Golden Pond (1981), Tootsie (1982) and The Goonies (1985). In 1988, he won the Oscar for best original score for The Milagro Beanfield War. He also composed the musical scores for the 1984 TriStar Pictures and the 1993 Columbia Pictures Television logos.

From 1998 to 1999, he was featured on the Billboard's Top 10 Jazz Artists with the numbers going between 5 and 7.

From 2000-11, Grusin concentrated on composing classical and jazz compositions, touring and recording with collaborators, including jazz singer and lyricist Lorraine Feather and guitarist Lee Ritenour. Their album Harlequin won a Grammy Award in 1985. Their classical crossover albums, Two Worlds and Amparo, were nominated for Grammys.

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, Mulholland Falls and The Firm. He also composed the original opening fanfare for film studio TriStar Pictures.

Grusin composed theme music for the TV programs It Takes a Thief (1968), The Name of the Game (1968), Dan August (1970), The Sandy Duncan Show (1971–72), 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 1984–92. Grusin also wrote the music for the This is America, Charlie Brown episode "The Smithsonian and the Presidency", and two of the cues from the episode "History Lesson" and "Breadline Blues" (the latter covered by Kenny G) appear on the tribute album Happy Anniversary, Charlie Brown. Grusin and Larry Rosen founded GRP Records in 1978. In 1994, GRP was in charge of MCA's jazz operations. Founders Grusin and Rosen left in 1995 and were replaced by Tommy LiPuma. In 1997, Grusin and Rosen founded N2K Encoded Music, which was 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 1991.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Dave Grusin among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

Grusin was married to Sara Jane Tallman from 1967 to 1970. Grusin is currently 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.

Academy Awards

• Award, Best Original Score, The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)
• Nomination, Best Original Score:Heaven Can Wait (1978), The Champ (1979), On Golden Pond (1981), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Havana (1990),The Firm (1993)
• Nomination, Best Original Song: "It Might Be You" (1982)

Grammy Awards

• Award, Best Arrangement on an Instrumental: "Early A.M. Attitude" (1986), "Suite" for The Milagro Beanfield War (1990), "Bess You Is My Woman/I Loves You Porgy" (1991), "Mood Indigo" (1993), "Three Cowboy Songs" (1994)
• Award, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals: "My Funny Valentine" by Michelle Pfeiffer (1989), "Mean Old Man" by James Taylor (2002)
• Award, Best Album Original Score Written for Motion Picture or Television:The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
• Nomination, Best Original Score: Selena

Golden Globe Awards

• Nomination, Best Original Score: The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Havana (1990), For the Boys (1991)

Other

• Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, 1991
• AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores (Best American Film Scores of all Time voted by the American Film Institute): #24 for On Golden Pond

As leader

• Subways Are for Sleeping (Epic, 1962)
• Piano, Strings, and Moonlight (Epic, 1963)
• Kaleidoscope (Columbia, 1964)
• Divorce American Style (United Artists, 1967)
• The Graduate (Columbia, 1968)
• Candy (Epic, 1969)
• Three Days of the Condor(DRG/EMI, 1975)
• Discovered Again! (Sheffield Lab, 1976)
• Don't Touch (Versatile, 1977)
• One of a Kind (GRP, 1977)
• The Champ (Varèse Sarabande, 1979)
• Mountain Dance (GRP, 1979)
• The Electric Horseman (Varèse Sarabande, 1979)
• Out of the Shadows (Arista-GRP Records, 1982)
• Night Lines (GRP, 1983)
• Dave Grusin and the NY-LA Dream Band (GRP, 1984)
• Harlequin (with Lee Ritenour) (GRP, 1985)
• Lucas (Varèse Sarabande, 1986)
• Cinemagic (GRP, 1987)
• GRP Live in Session (GRP, 1988)
• Sticks and Stones (with Don Grusin) (GRP, 1988)
• Migration (GRP, 1989)
• The Fabulous Baker Boys (GRP, 1989)
• The Bonfire of the Vanities (Atlantic, 1990)
• Havana (GRP, 1990)
• The Gershwin Connection (GRP, 1991)
• GRP Super Live in Concert (GRP, 1992)
• Homage to Duke (GRP <GRD-9715>, 1993)
• The Firm (MCA-GRP <MGD-2007>, 23/06/1993)
• Dave Grusin Presents GRP All-Stars Live! (GRP 97402, 1993)
• The Cure (GRP, 1995)
• Two for the Road (GRP, 1996)
• Selena (Angel, 1997)
• West Side Story (N-Coded, 1997)
• Random Hearts (Sony, 1999)
• Two Worlds with Lee Ritenour (Decca, 2000)
• Dinner with Friends(Jellybean, 2001)
• Now Playing (GRP, 2004)
• The Yakuza limited edition, 3000 copies (Film Score Monthly, 2005)
• Lucas limited edition, 2000 copies (Varèse Sarabande, 2006)
• Author! Author! limited edition, 2000 copies (Varèse Sarabande, 2007)
• The Scorpio Letters limited edition of 3000 copies (Film Score Monthly, 2007)
• Amparo (Decca, 2008)
• The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (Varèse Sarabande, 2008)
• The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter limited edition, 3000 copies (Film Score Monthly, 2009)
• An Evening with Dave Grusin (Heads Up, 2010)
• One Night Only! (C.A.R.E./Intergroove, 2011)

As sideman

With Patti Austin

• 1977 Havana Candy
• 1990 Love Is Gonna Getcha

With the Brothers Johnson

• 1976 Look Out for #1
• 1977 Right on Time

With Tom Browne

• 1979 Love Approach
• 1979 Browne Sugar
• 1981 Magic

With Don Grusin

• 1981 10k-LA
• 1993 Native Land
• 2004 The Hang

With Quincy Jones

• 1973 You've Got It Bad Girl
• 1974 Body Heat
• 1975 Mellow Madness
• 1976 I Heard That!
• 1977 Roots (A&M, 1977)

With John Klemmer

• 1975 Touch
• 1976 Barefoot Ballet

With Earl Klugh

• 1976 Earl Klugh
• 1976 Living Inside Your Love
• 1978 Finger Paintings

With Jon Lucien

• 1973 Rashida
• 1974 Mind's Eye
• 1975 Song for My Lady

With Harvey Mason

• 1976 Marching in the Street
• 1977 Funk in a Mason Jar
• 2003 With All My Heart

With Carmen McRae

• 1975 I Am Music
• 1979 Can't Hide Love

With Sergio Mendes

• 1976 Homecooking
• 1977 Sergio Mendes & the New Brasil '77

With Lee Ritenour

• 1976 First Course
• 1977 Captain Fingers
• 1977 Gentle Thoughts
• 1978 Friendship
• 1978 The Captain's Journey
• 1979 Feel the Night
• 1979 Rio
• 1983 On the Line
• 1986 Earth Run
• 1988 Festival
• 2005 Overtime
• 2005 World of Brazil
• 2006 Smoke 'N' Mirrors
• 2012 Rhythm Sessions
• 2015 A Twist of Rit

With Dave Valentin

• 1979 Legends
• 1980 The Hawk
• 1984 Kalahari
• 1990 Flute Juice

With Sadao Watanabe

• 1977 My Dear Life
• 1978 California Shower
• 1979 Morning Island
• 1980 How's Everything

With others

• 1972 Crawl Space, Art Farmer
• 1972 A Time in My Life, Sarah Vaughan
• 1972 With Michel Legrand, Sarah Vaughan
• 1972 Equinox Express Elevator, Howard Roberts
• 1974 Let's Love, Peggy Lee
• 1975 Brown's Bag, Ray Brown
• 1975 Love Me by Name, Lesley Gore
• 1975 Making Music, Bill Withers
• 1975 Peach Melba, Melba Moore
• 1975 We Got By, Al Jarreau
• 1975 The Man Incognito, Alphonse Mouzon
• 1976 I'm Easy, Keith Carradine
• 1976 This Mother's Daughter, Nancy Wilson
• 1977 Phantazia, Noel Pointer
• 1978 Against the Grain, Phoebe Snow
• 1979 Angel of the Night, Angela Bofill
• 1979 Days Like These, Jay Hoggard
• 1979 Part of You, Eric Gale
• 1979 A Secret Place, Grover Washington Jr.
• 1981 Clean Sweep, Bobby Broom
• 1982 Donna Summer, Donna Summer
• 1983 Little Big Horn, Gerry Mulligan
• 1984 Home Again, Judy Collins
• 1985 20/20, George Benson
• 1985 Deedles, Diane Schuur
• 1986 Face to Face, Kevin Eubanks
• 1986 Timeless, Diane Schuur
• 1988 C.K., Chaka Khan
• 1989 Blackwood, Eddie Daniels
• 1991 For the Boys, Bette Midler
• 1991 Curves Ahead, The Rippingtons
• 1995 Dragonfly, Gerry Mulligan
• 2008 Act Your Age, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band