Now Playing

Product Description:

Personnel: Dave Grusin (piano).

Recording information: Firehouse Recording Studios, Pasadena, California (02/03/2003 - 02/09/2003).

This GRP release features Dave Grusin in a solo setting. On NOW PLAYING, the crossover jazz pianist performs music from many of the films he has scored over the years, including HAVANA, THE FIRM, RANDOM HEARTS, and others. This is an elegant recording, highlighting Grusin's sensitivity of touch and sweeping pianistic gestures. There are diverse musical styles here, too, from the Mexican-inflected suite of THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WARS to the foreboding theme for MULHOLLAND FALLS to the serene, bucolic opening of ON GOLDEN POND. A beloved guilty pleasure, "It Might Be You" from Sydney Pollack's now-classic film TOOTSIE, is also included here.

On certain tracks, Grusin overdubbed a second piano to create more intensity and detail. As he states in his liner notes, he did this to compensate for the fact that most of this material was originally composed for an orchestra. But this effect is used sparingly, and most of NOW PLAYING is captivating to the ear, spacious, tranquil, and even consoling.