Grover Washington Jr. – Winelight – Chardonnay Vinyl Record

Description

Grover Washington Jr. – Winelight – Chardonnay Vinyl Record

Winelight has a relaxed surface and a formidable group of musicians underneath it. Grover Washington Jr.'s 1980 album brought his saxophone sound into a setting where jazz phrasing, soul melody, and carefully played rhythms could meet without strain. It is best known for Just the Two of Us, but that song belongs to a six-track program with plenty of character beyond its famous vocal. Washington's horn gives the instrumental pieces a singing quality of their own, making a sustained note or a small turn in the melody feel like part of a conversation.

Washington co-produced the album with percussionist Ralph MacDonald, recording in New York with players including keyboardist Richard Tee and drummer Steve Gadd. That setting helps explain the ease of the performances. The rhythms are precise, yet they leave Washington room to phrase around them. Tee's keyboard work adds warmth and harmonic substance, while MacDonald's percussion gives the music detail without continually drawing attention away from the lead. Winelight works because the accompaniment has its own life: the saxophone can take the foreground knowing the groove will remain interesting beneath it.

Bill Withers joins Washington on Just the Two of Us, the album's only vocal track. His plainspoken delivery provides a useful counterpart to the saxophone, with both performers able to make a melody feel natural. The song became a major crossover success and remains the record's most familiar point of entry. Heard within the album, it also makes the connection between Washington's instrumental music and soul singing particularly clear. The horn does not need words to carry a tune, and Withers' performance belongs comfortably alongside the melodic writing elsewhere in the set.

The title track gives the album an expansive opening, while Let It Flow (For Dr. J) makes its rhythmic side especially apparent. In the Name of Love and Take Me There continue the balance of direct melody and ensemble playing. Make Me a Memory (Sad Samba) brings another feel to the closing piece, broadening the program without interrupting its overall warmth. Across these instrumentals, Washington has room to develop a phrase, return to a theme, and respond to the players around him. The songs remain accessible while allowing those exchanges to be part of their appeal.

Winelight became an important record in the meeting of jazz and popular music at the beginning of the 1980s. Its influence is easy to understand from the performances themselves: strong tunes, an assured rhythm section, and a saxophonist whose sound could reach listeners well beyond the jazz audience. This Chardonnay-colored edition was issued as part of Elektra Records' seventy-fifth-anniversary celebration. It preserves the original six-song program, placing Just the Two of Us beside the instrumentals that give Washington's album its fuller identity.

Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic

Release Details

Artist

Grover Washington Jr.

Album

Winelight

Format

Chardonnay Vinyl Record

Number of vinyl records

1

Original album release

1980

Label

Rhino / Elektra

Vinyl color

Chardonnay

Track Listing

Side A

Winelight

Let It Flow (For Dr. J)

In the Name of Love

Side B

Take Me There

Just the Two of Us

Make Me a Memory (Sad Samba)