GRP Records
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| GRP Records | |||
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| Parent company | Universal Music Group | ||
| Founded | 1982 | ||
| Founder(s) | Dave Grusin, Larry Rosen | ||
| Distributing label | Verve Records | ||
| Genre(s) | Jazz, Smooth Jazz | ||
| Country | US | ||
| Web address | GRP Records | ||
GRP Records is an American jazz record company that was founded in New York by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen in 1982. Their original distribution arrangement with Clive Davis at Arista made them known as Arista GRP. Embracing an all-digital recording philosophy, they became the first label to release all of their titles on compact disc. Dave Grusin's 'Mountain Dance' was the first digitally recorded album outside of classical music.
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[edit] Brief history
After years of going though different distributors, the label signed with MCA Records in 1987 who acquired the company three years later. For most of the 1990s, GRP was in charge of MCA's (soon to be renamed Universal Music Group) jazz operations.
Founders Grusin and Rosen left in 1995 and were replaced by Tommy LiPuma who revived the Impulse! Records label and begin signing modern jazz artists. After the mega merger with PolyGram, Universal assigned GRP its own series of labels (commonly known as groups) amongst them Verve Records. GRP decided to keep the Verve name and called its group of compnaies the Verve Music Group and was relegated to being a smooth jazz label, at the same time incorporating the catalog from the deactivated Verve Forecast and Blue Thumb labels that was a part of PolyGram and ABC. (Verve Forecast was later revived but not as a smooth jazz label.)
[edit] Artists who recorded for GRP
- Mindi Abair
- Acoustic Alchemy
- Patti Austin
- David Benoit
- George Benson
- Don Blackman
- Angela Bofill
- Brecker Brothers
- Michael Brecker
- Bobby Broom
- Tom Browne
- Gary Burton
- Larry Carlton
- Chick Corea
- The Crusaders
- Will Downing, early recordings with Verve Forecast
- Kevin Eubanks
- Dizzy Gillespie
- Randy Goodrum
- GRP All-Star Big Band
- Dave Grusin
- Don Grusin
- Jay Hoggard
- Homi & Jarvis
- Scott Jarrett , singing brother of Keith Jarrett
- B.B. King
- Kenny Kirkland
- Earl Klugh
- Diana Krall, early recordings with GRP, later recorded with Impulse! and now Verve
- Ramsey Lewis
- The Rippingtons
- Lee Ritenour
- Arturo Sandoval
- Jerald Daemyon
- Sergio Salvatore
- Diane Schuur
- Spyro Gyra
- Urban Knights
- Dave Valentin
- Roland Vasquez
- Dave Weckl
- Bernard Wright
- Yellowjackets
[edit] Meaning of GRP
The company's name has had different meanings. In its early days, it stood for "Grusin/Rosen Productions", after the founders. By the mid-1990s, after Grusin and Rosen left the company, GRP became "Great Records Period". Both are rarely used today, the company is now know as "GRP Records".
