There are few saxophone players with the fame of Grover Washington, Jr., and even those musicians, like Kenny G., cite Washington as an influence. He could successfully play anything from straight jazz to soul to R&B to pop. Washington came from a musical family in Buffalo, New York, with his mother a singer and his father a lover of jazz. He first started playing the saxophone when he was 10 and was soon sneaking into clubs to listen to jazz musicians. He started playing professionally when he was just 12 years old.He soon traveled to the Midwest and played with the Four Clefs before being the Army drafted him. He was in the Army band and there met drummer Billie Cobham, who brought Washington into the music scenes of New York and Philadelphia. He worked with several big names in the business before he found success in 1971 with the album Inner City Blues. With that release, he established himself as the top name in sax. Two releases within the next decade, Mister Magic and Winelight, cemented his position as a star. Winelight brought Grammy honors as well.He had numerous successful albums throughout the 1980s, including 1989's Time Out of Mind, which reached number one on the Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. While his albums were showing how much talent Washington possessed, he was gaining even more accolades as a live performer. He also worked with a variety of other music greats like B.B. King, Herbie Hancock and Patti Labelle. Later in his career, he started appearing as a guest on many different artists' albums, giving him experience in a variety of genres. He continued to work on new music until his death from a heart attack in December of 1999. He had another album, Aria, released posthumously in 2000.
