Grover Washington Jr. – Masterpiece
Grover, rendered in oils
Listen/Download Grover Washington Jr. – Masterpiece
Greetings all
The end of another week is at hand, so it behooves me once again to alert you to the fact that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot join us at the time of broadcast, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or drop by the blog to grab yourselves an MP3 download.
The track I bring you today is an epic instrumental reading of one of my favorite Norman Whitfield/Temptations (mostly) instrumental tracks, ‘Masterpiece’.
Covered in this very space back in 2010, the original by the Temptations, on their LP of the same name, their second to last collaboration with Whitfield, is an exceptionally groovy piece of long-form wonderfulness (even if the Temps themselves are largely in the background).
It was only after I published that post that someone brought it to my attention that Grover Washington Jr. had done his own version of the song later on in 1973.
Recorded for the ‘Soul Box’ project (released as two separate records, a two-record set and eventually as a single CD), ‘Soul Box’ saw Grover, aided by a who’s who of the CTI roster – including Bob James, Hubert Laws and Idris Muhammad – stretching out on a variety of interesting material.
The best cuts from the project were included on the ‘Soul Box Vol. 1’ album, those being ‘Masterpiece’ and a side-long cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Trouble Man’.
‘Masterpiece’ takes the overall mood of the original version, removes the voices and works out a 13-minute plus soundscape that would work perfectly as a piece of soundtrack music.
The vibe is smooth – but not too smooth, or at least not nearly as smooth as Grover would get later on – but also tight, with some nice bass, drum and guitar work cementing the base under the the horns, strings and voices.
It is very cool indeed, especially if you’re out driving late at night in the rain (it’s that kind of jam).
I hope you dig it and I’ll see you all on Monday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Themocracy
Just listening to this properly for the first time. What a great track!