Just 5-days after celebrating his 56th birthday, Grover had a heart attack in the green room, after performing and recording four songs for “The Saturday Early Show”, at CBS Studios in New York City. He was pronounced dead at 7:30pm that day, December 17th, 1999, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City.
I hadn’t planned to mark his passing, especially after writing a detailed celebration of Grover, to mark his born/birth day. In an online forum, not Facebook, they were taking selections for top-3 albums released on KUDU. Mine were:
Idris Muhammad – Turn This Mutha Out
Hank Crawford – I Hear A Symphony
Grover Washington, Jr. – Inner City Blues
However, I couldn’t resist throwing in a wildcard choice. Mine was Thus Spoke Z – Evolution – Acid Jazz – released in 1996, officially the last release on KUDU. I put it on to listen again to the track “Nightshade (Thus Spoke Z Remix)” . And straight away, the haunting sax of Grover and Donald Harrison came drifting through. And here I am, remembering Grover’s passing.
Grover’s work on the Thus Spoke Z album was typically of much of what he was doing at the time, helping others, mentoring and developing talent. His death was a massive shock to his family and friends, but also to the music and people of his adopted home Philadelphia. Rather than my normal posts, I’ll just provide a YouTube embed, of Grover’s last recording at CBS.
Genius comes in many forms, remembering Grover Washington, Jr, his wife Christine, and especially his children Grover and Shana as well as his extended family.
Update: 12/17/20 22:02. Minor tidyup and formatting.
Update: 12/18/20 11:42 name cleanup for family.