Grover Washington, Jr.

It's not wrong to call saxophone sorcerer Grover Washington, Jr. the king of smooth jazz, but it's too simple — it doesn't take into account the magical mix of R&B, pop, bop, and more that's made him one of the world's most beloved sax stylists. There's nothing easygoing about the smoldering intensity that he brings to Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" — the funk-packed soul-jazz jam made the saxman's very first album a milestone. A decade later, the album Winelight turned him into a mainstream superstar, thanks to the shimmering R&B balladry of the GRAMMY®-winning Bill Withers collaboration "Just the Two of Us"; as for the title track, its sweet but soulful sway set the standard for the entire smooth jazz movement.

In Next Steps, hear Grover play it like he feels it, on soulful ballads and funky jams.

For an artist like Grover Washington, Jr., music was never about how many notes he could squeeze between the beats — it was all about tone, phrasing, and, most of all, feeling. The expression of honest emotion was at the heart of every riff he ever ripped out of his horn, whether he was bringing a jazzy swing to Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway's R&B blockbuster "Where Is the Love" or settling into a sassy strut while blowing the "Blues for DP." Of course, sometimes Washington just loved to get down and jam, blasting back and forth with his band on steamy jazz-funk groovefests like "On the Cusp."

Follow Grover across the musical map, from pop ballads to angelic arias, in Deep Cuts.

Grover Washington, Jr. wasn't just eclectic — musically, he could be downright schizophrenic . . . in a good way. Folks who know him only by his hits might have a hard time believing that Mr. "Winelight" could turn around and tear into Bach's immortal "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," or the prayer-like aria "Vissi D'arte" from Puccini's operatic masterwork Tosca just as easily as he could breathe new life into a Top 40 pop chartbuster like Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are." Any one of these would have been an impressive feat for most saxmen, but Washington's gift was the way he made it all look easy.

When the titans of the sax are tallied up, you'd better believe Grover Washington, Jr.'s name takes a place of prominence. Not only is he one of the most commercially successful men ever to take a saxophone and make it speak, but he also delved deeply into almost every area of American music — funk, blues, jazz, soul, classical, you name it and Grover grabbed its essence and made it his own. Working with stellar singers, like Bill Withers and Patti LaBelle, as well as jazz giants from George Benson to Bob James, Washington's built up a bounty of unforgettable musical moments. We've wrapped our ears around it all to pack the prime movers from the jazzman's journey into one powerful playlist. All you've got to do is step in and start soaking it up.