Aria

Performer: Grover Washington, Jr.
Artist: Ron Carter; Billy Childs; Terence Blanchard
Engineer: Richard King
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel: Grover Washington, Jr. (saxophone); Robert Freedman (arranger, conductor); Terence Blanchard (trumpet); Billy Childs (piano); Ron Carter (bass); The Orchestra Of St. Lukes. Producers: Grover Washington, Jr., Robert Freedman. Recorded at Giandomenico Studios, Collingswood, New Jersey and Sony Music Studios, New York, New York between May and August 1999. Includes liner notes by Laraine Perri, Christine Washington, and Jackson Braider. ARIA is a beautiful and touching end to a 30-year recording career, completed just four months to the day before Washington's untimely death in 1999. It was the saxophonist's dream to return to the same classical repertoire he grew up with in his hometown of Buffalo, New York and he accomplishes this here with panache. ARIA focuses on opera, but casts it in a jazzy light. Throughout his career, Washington worked to blend seemingly disparate styles of music together. This fusion between classical and jazz is one of his most successful efforts. Performing with the Orchestra of St. Luke's under the direction of Robert Freedman, and accompanied by the piano stylings of Billy Childs and bassist Ron Carter, Washington performs memorable versions of Bizet's "Je Crois Entendre Encore," Puccinni's "O Soave Fanciulla," Massenet's "Pourquoi Me Reveiller?" and others. He replaces the soprano voice with the saxophone's lyricism, and imbues this 19th century music with a renewed sense of romanticism.

Down Beat (11/00, pp.76-7) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...He succeeds in balancing purity of tone with a warm, expressive delivery on a range of saxophones....This satisfying, radiant hybrid presents...[him] in a surprising variation on his best role, a singer of songs..."

A gifted saxophonist who frequently crossed over into R&B/pop territory, Grover Washington Jr. hit levels of mainstream success rarely achieved by jazz artists, particularly on his thoughtful 1981 single, "Just the Two of Us," with Bill Withers. Generally pegged as a smooth-jazz artist, Washington often revealed considerable funk tendencies, as on `74's MISTER MAGIC and `75's FEELS SO GOOD. Though he passed away at the relatively young age of 56 in 1999, Washington left behind an impressive recorded legacy that spans three decades.

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