Customer Reviews

Mister Magic

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So you've got a summer house right on the shore.

You come back from the beach during the day. You're all alone in a big, airy, sunny beach house. It's so quiet you can't hear anything but the distant waves breaking and your sandy bare feet scraping the old hardwood floor. You hit play on the essential George Benson "Breezin'" and let the magical rhythmic flutes work their way softly into the kitchen as you cut a slice of lime and rhythmically push it into your ice-cold Corona. You don't even have to think twice about what to play. It's perfect.

Just like, when it's time to get the party started late-night, and everyone's overdue to dance, the first thing you do is pop in Earth, Wind and Fire's "Best of Vol 1" or Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall"... OK, no brainer, you're a pro.

But, you are probably thinking, what do I play while we're all sitting around having drinks, playing cards, getting ready to fire up in the early evening? Well, silly, you pop in some of the most fire-up smoothest sax you'll ever hear. Something that will make the guys and girls groove, something that makes you smile and move your body to the funky organ and sax on top of it. That's Grover's "Mister Magic" and "Winelight". You're so close to it.

Just click above and listen to #4, then imagine that groove build for another ten minutes or so. This is just the beginning. The bass is so deep. The groove teases you on and on as it works you there and back until it reaches an epiphany where someone can't help but say out loud, "Oh yeah" - just as you were thinking it.

Everyone just smiles and nods....... enjoy your summer.

Recorded in late 1974 and released early 1975, this might be the last great soul-jazz album before things went the way of disco. Of Grover Washington's records, this and Inner City Blues are the ones to get, and luckily, they're still available (All the King's Horses and Soul Box are currently out of print). The four extended cuts begin with "Earth Tones", a Bob James penned tune where Washington eases into the pocket with his soprano and then digs WAY deep into the funk with his tenor. "Passion Flower" exhibits Grover's lyrical side before the title track kicks into its uplifting groove. "Black Frost" actually turns out to be a slow-burning funk cut and ends the set. Washington's subsequent Kudu albums, though solid, never found him getting so gritty and souful as he does here. Highly recommended.

One great track and three excellent back-up's.

"Earth Tones" has one of the most insiduous jazz riffs ever conceived - up there with Horace Silver's "Song To My Father", Miles Davis' "So What" and Lee Morgan's "Sidewinder"... what goes on throughout the rest of the track is definitely not in keeping with the lounge music sax playing that Grover Washington is best known for... rather an anticipatory, sometimes rambling build-up that keeps you waiting until "that riff" re-appears... brilliant and unforgattable. Worth the price of the album on its own.

"Mister Magic", "Passion Flower" and "Black Frost" are more standard jazz-funk... perfectly enjoyable and imbued with equally insiduous riffs

Don't ask me or my children why... a generation different in musical experience and a world apart in musical preferences but... if you, like we, are into funky jazz then this album hits the "unforgettable" button.

Buy this, lay back and float upstream.

This album starts out with the 12 plus minute "Earth Tones"-starting itself with gentle nature sound effects and then
lurching into a deep,primal jazz/funk groove with Grover's sax
permateating every cravass in between!And a cover of the Billy
Strayhorn classic "Passion Flower" is given a treatment not
dissimilar to Coltrane.And then there's that title song-a moodily
grooving slice of funk with deep beats and light,sensual orchestration to die for!And the whole thing is capped off with
"Black Frost" whitch does'nt change alot!'Mister Magic' swings
in and out of tempo's,from jazz to funk and back all in little
mor then half an hour and is CLEARLY Grover Washington's artitic
statement of intent!If only he were here today to make more music
like this-I know alot of people who'd like to hear it.I would!

ah yes...
grover washington, jr.
mister magic...

...this is that thang here! that 70's jazz-funk is a beautiful thang yall!!! brother gro' done did some damage with this one!
i have a couple other grover cd's but mostly his late 80's work... but this time period was a good time for urban music (until disco blew up and jus got outrageous! - but disco grew outta this type of stuff...)
i love hip hop and sampled music, but this is where that stuff finds its origins: grown folks with real instruments workin up a sweat!
can you dig it???

Truth be told, I had forgotten about Grover Washington and his music! You can get this disk at a good price these days. Just buy it, place it in your player and mellow out! Of course, the signature tune here is "Mister Magic." Relive this Grover's music today!!!! Five stars!

It is out of courtesy that I write. The album is just wow at any time of the day. If you are a lover of JAZZ pick it up b4 it runs out! Go get it.

"Mr Magic" is a powerful demonstration of Mr Washington's ability to 'let it flow'. The title track is particularly my favourite - as Grover dips and rises in all the right places, he captivates a mood which is, to my mind, one of celebration. This is most definitely a must for any buyer's collection - and, next to "Winelight" one of his finest works.

This is the soundtrack of my youth...In my high school we'd just come back from Christmas vacation, 1975 and "Mister Magic" was mixed in over the school announcements in PA system to sound like a major media radio station in a New York City high school. It was awesome. I so much wanted to be an announcer on the school PA system (I won't mention the school...thats too much information). Jazz usually didn't cross over into the pop genre, but this song did, even though I it was purely an instrumental tune and that made it even more unlikely to be the huge pop hit that it was and the absolute classic that it has become....After hearing it on our PA system students and faculty were pretty much walking on air...After that he was no longer Grover who? He was Grover Washington Jr...Oh yeah he made Mister Magic...

Grover Washington,actually pretty early in his career at this point just about floored the jazz funk saxophone world with "Mister Magic".The album starts out with the 12 plus minute "Earth Tones"-starting itself with gentle nature sound effects and then lurching into a deep,primal jazz/funk groove with Grover's sax permateating every cravass in between!And those nature songs and bubbly guitar just melt around the songs like carmel!And a cover of the Billy Strayhorn classic "Passion Flower" is given a treatment not dissimilar to Coltrane.And then there's that title song-a moodily grooving slice of funk with deep beats and light,sensual orchestration to die for-not to mention having one of the FUNKIEST bottoms your going to hear!And the whole thing is capped off with "Black Frost" whitch does'nt change alot!'Mister Magic' swings in and out of tempo's,from jazz to funk and back all in little more then half an hour and is CLEARLY Grover Washington's artitic statement of intent and those who only know him for albums like Winelight your going to be in for quiet a surprise!If only he were here today to make more music like this-I know alot of people who'd like to hear it.I would!