Out of Thin Air Don Grusin

• 1 Classical September 03:44
• 2 Carência 03:41
• 3 Hermano Hildago 11:52
• 4 The Last Train 06:11
• 5 2-minute Study in E 02:02
• 6 Willow Dance 06:41
• 7 When Last We Spoke 03:34
• 8 Grusin Likes Gershwin 03:10
• 9 Self-Quarantine 04:55
• 10 Jam Suite 1 - Keyroes 07:30
• 11 Jam Suite 2 - Colorado Peach Jam 08:15
• 12 So Nan Desu 08:41
• Total Runtime 01:10:16

Info for Out of Thin Air

"Out of Thin Air", is from world-renowned pianist and composer, Don Grusin.

Don has recorded with hundreds of artists and has received three GRAMMY awards and nominated for a fourth, with his 2006 live album The Hang. His recording projects and live performances have taken him around the world. He is the founder of Moose Sound LLC, a recording studio outside of Salida, Colorado where Out of Thin Air was recorded.

Don Grusin grew up in Littleton, Colorado, studied at the University of Colorado Boulder in the 1960s and went on to teach economics. At the same time, he pursued his musical interests and in the 1970s, while teaching at Foothill College, he started playing with Latin-jazz Bay Area superband Azteca. When Don got an invitation from Quincy Jones to join his touring band, he dedicated himself to music full-time, as a bandleader and studio musician in Los Angeles.

Don has worked with a variety of artists including: Quincy Jones, Sergio Mendes, Zoot Sims, Joe Pass, and many others; and with the 1980s Friendship band, which featured guitarist Lee Ritenour, drummer Alex Acuna, saxophonist Ernie Watts, bassist Abe Laboriel and percussionist Steve Forman.; and with the 1980s Friendship band, which featured guitarist Lee Ritenour, drummer Alex Acuna, saxophonist Ernie Watts, bassist Abe Laboriel and percussionist Steve Forman.

Don’s older brother, noted composer/pianist/producer and co-founder of GRP Records, Dave Grusin, had a major influence on Don’s interest and approach to music generally and in jazz in particular. They’ve played together at The Conference of World Affairs at CU for many years, and have frequently played two-piano concerts on tours in the US and internationally.

“Wow. This is the best recording of a piano I have ever heard. It’s as if Grusin’s in the room with me. Great work, beautiful, inspired music. Highly recommended.“

"ALBUM OF THE MONTH (Debut Exlusive Release on PS Audio Label) December 2020, Don Grusin's "Out of Thin Air” is now coming to the ROW! PS Audio’s new label is unashamedly ‘audiophile’ in every way, taking all the boxes that entice the enthusiast. How so? This inaugural release is 1) a double-disc affair, containing an SACD and a DVD so you can do your own comparisons, 2) the music itself is superbly-recorded solo piano, all the better to judge without distraction, 3) all the studio kit is itemised and 4) the player is a jazz hero (whose brother Dave is responsible for early audiophile LPs). OK, maybe I just described a throwback to the late 1970s, but this is a vibrant recording that will make you sit up in your chair, so real is the experience. It may not get played to death in your system, but trust me: you will use it to dazzle like-minded visitors". (Ken Kessler soundstagehifi.com)

Don Grusin

Don Grusin
truly epitomizes the term visionary.

Artist, innovator, educator, performer and advocate for social change, Don Grusin Music and Bad Dog Music are the production houses and publishing entities for this esteemed American composer, producer, arranger and pianist with 3 Grammy’s, 20 CD’s and an unstoppable global vision that infuses everything he does from recording to teaching.

Born in Colorado and influenced mightily by his immigrant father from Latvia, Don grew up as a wannabe cowboy, played sports in school, and always had music as something to fall back on - if you grew up in the Grusin household, you had to play (read: practice) piano. Don started when he was 6, and his musical influences came from square-dancing to country bands at the local grange; from pianists Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Vladimir Horowitz; to his dad’s strolling through the house playing 2nd violin parts of Bartok string quartets.

Also of influence was their small town R&B radio station where Don digested the music of the great soul and funk bands and singers and immersed the ‘Groove’ into his playing trademark. This early experience was also how his interest in African and Latin American music was born. Adding to this was his older brother Dave’s influence, who pointed him, unwittingly really, to the great jazz players of the 1950’s-60’s.

To complement his interest in world music, Don obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Colorado. He taught as a Fulbright Professor of Economics at the Autonomous University in Guadalajara, Mexico, before returning to the U.S. to enter the music business full-time after joining Quincy Jones’ band for a Japan-U.S. tour in the mid 1970s.

Don was the creative spark-plug for the acclaimed Atlantic Records fusion ensemble Friendship, and from there proceeded to record and produce scores of albums over the course of the next 35 years – including 20 of his own - as well as composing for and producing Ernie Watts’ Grammy-winning Quest CD, Musican.

Don has had five different recording "homes" over the years - GRP out of NYC, VideoArtsMusic in Tokyo, JVC and Universal for Japan and Asia, and CareMusicGroup in Germany. Don has recorded and played with many esteemed artists over the years including Sergio Mendes, Patti Austin, Peggy Lee, Oscar Castro-Neves, Quincy Jones, Zoot Sims, Joe Pass, Dori Caymmi, Sadao Watanabe, Frank Quintero, Brenda Russell, Ernie Watts, Gerald Albright, Nelson Rangell, Paul Warburton, Jim Hall, Simone, Luizao and Artur Maia, Gilberto Gil (one of his favorite early Los Angeles recording experiences on Gil’s album Nightingale), Flora Purim, Airto, Larry Carlton, Harvey Mason, Nathan East, Lee Ritenour, Armand Sabal-Lecco, Abe Laboriel, Alex Acuña, Marcio Montarroyos, Ivan Lins, Milton Nascimento, Paulinho Braga, Leon Ware – musical geniuses from all over the global map – who continue to accompany and inspire him.

This album contains no booklet.