Born: June 26, 1934 Primary Instrument: Piano
David Grusin (born June 26, 1934 in Littleton, Colorado) is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and he has won numerous awards for his soundtrack work. Although he has worked in many musical styles, Grusin is often thought of as a jazz artist.
Grusin has a filmography of about 100 credits. His many awards include an Oscar for best original score for The Milagro Beanfield War, as well as Oscar nominations for The Champ, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Firm, Havana, Heaven Can Wait, and On Golden Pond. He also received a best original song nomination for “It Might Be You” from the film Tootsie. Six of the fourteen cuts on the soundtrack from The Graduate are his. Other film scores he has composed include Three Days of the Condor, The Goonies, Tequila Sunrise, Hope Floats, Random Hearts and his timeless classic The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
For television, he was the conductor for The Andy Williams Show (1963-1965) and the composer of the theme songs for such series as Dan August (1970), Maude (1972), Good Times (1974), Baretta (1975), and St. Elsewhere (1982). He also composed music for individual episodes of each of those shows. His other TV credits include It Takes a Thief, The Wild Wild West, and Columbo - Prescription: Murder (1968). He also did the theme song for One Life to Live (1968) from 1984-92.
About 35 Dave Grusin CD titles are currently available including soundtracks, originals, collections, and homages to jazz greats George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and Henry Mancini.
Grusin and Larry Rosen co-founded GRP Records in 1982. In 1994, 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. In 1997, Grusin and Rosen co-founded N2K Encoded Music (after renamed N-Coded Music).
Dave is the father of music editor Stuart Grusin, music editor and musician Scott Grusin, engineer Mike Grusin, artist Annie Vought, and elder brother of keyboardist Don Grusin.
