Dave Grusin

Grusin was born in Littleton, Colorado to Henri and Rosabelle (née de Poyster) Grusin. His mother was a pianist and his father was a violinist from Riga, Latvia.[1][2] He has one Jewish parent.[3]

He studied music at the University of Colorado at Boulder and was awarded his degree in 1956.[4] His teachers included Cecil Effinger and Wayne Scott, pianist, arranger and professor of jazz.[5]

Grusin produced his first single in 1962, "Subways Are for Sleeping", and his first film score, for Divorce American Style, in 1967. Other scores followed, including The Graduate (1967), Winning (1969), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Midnight Man (1974), and Three Days of the Condor (1975).[4]

In 1978, he founded GRP Records with his business partner, Larry Rosen, and began to produce some of the first commercial digital recordings. He was the composer for 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 composed the musical signatures for the 1984 TriStar Pictures logo and the 1993 Columbia Pictures Television logo.[6]

During 1998 Grusin ranked No. 5 and No. 8 on Billboard's Top 10 Jazz Artists, at mid-year and at year's end, respectively, based on sales of his album, "Dave Grusin Presents West Side Story."[7][8]

From 2000-11, Grusin concentrated on composing classical and jazz compositions, touring and recording with collaborators, including jazz singer and lyricist Lorraine Feather[9] 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.[10][11]

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.[12] He 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 composed the original opening fanfare for film studio TriStar Pictures.[13]

Grusin composed theme music for the TV programs Good Morning World (American TV series) (1967), 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), Alice (1976), St. Elsewhere (1982), and, for Televisa in Mexico, Tres Generaciones (1987). He 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 composed and performed the theme song for One Life to Live (1968) during the 1984/1985 seasons.[14] Grusin 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.

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.[15]

Grusin 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.[16]

Grusin is the subject of a 2018 feature-length documentary entitled “Dave Grusin: Not Enough Time.”[17]

• List of music arrangers
• List of jazz arrangers

• Dave Grusin at IMDb
• Music video sampler: Mountain Dance on YouTube
• Dave Grusin Archive
• Dave Grusin on Sound of Cinema, interviewed by Matthew Sweet. BBC Radio, 21 November 2020