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Dick Grove: Big, Bad & Beautiful

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Dick Grove
Dick Grove wore two hats. There was Grove the educator, who moved to Los Angeles in 1957 and taught at the Westlake School of Music. In 1973, he started the Dick Grove School of Music, enlisting Henry Mancini, Bill Conti and Lalo Schifrin as teachers. How did he manage to pull that off?

That brings us to the other Dick Grove—the powerhouse arranger and conductor for bands, movies and television. When he wasn't working with music students, Grove wrote superb arrangements for many leading bands in the 1960s, including Jimmy Bond, Gerald Wilson, Les Brown and Buddy Rich. Rich's Rotten Kid by Buddy Greco on Rich's The New One! was orchestrated by Grove.

As a leader, Grove recorded two of the smartest big-band albums of the 1960s and early '70s. The first was Little Bird Suite in 1963 for Pacific Jazz. It had nothing to do with Charlie Parker. Instead, each of the seven songs in the suite was named for a different bird: Night Hawk, Bird of Paradaiso, Mosca Espanola, Little Bird, Canto de Oriole, Doodad and Circlet

Grove's approach was influenced by the stylistic merging of Gil Evans, Clare Fischer and Russ Garcia. Songs sigh and shift moods frequently, with just the right amount of punch and brassy energy. The band consisted of Jules Chaiken, Ollie Mitchell, Dick Hurwitz and Joe Burnett (tp,flhrn); Bob Edmondson, Mike Barone and Ernie Tack (tb); or Dick McQuardy (tb); Paul Horn, Bill Robinson, Bob Hardaway, Bill Perkins and John Lowe (reeds,woodwinds); Dick Grove (p,arr); Al Viola (g); Ralph Pena (b) and Norm Jeffries (d).

Ten years later, in 1973, Grove recorded Big, Bad & Beautiful a groovy masterpiece for the First Place label. The music is stunning and in sync with the looser times. Grove's arrangements are distinctly his own and shift between funky rhythms, silky ballads and straight-ahead swing. The songs are Mr. Blue, The Call, Dead Ringers, Dill Pickles, My Lady, Good 'n' Plenty, Big Band & Beautiful, Ain't No Doubt About It and Trilogy for Roy. The last one is an exceptional work.

The band featured Buddy Childers, Jack Feierman and Hal Espinosa (tp); Jay Daversa and Joe Burnett (flhrn); Charley Loper, George Bohanon, Bob Edmondson and Dick McQuarry (tb); Lanny Morgan (as); Bob Hardaway (ts,sop); Bill Perkins (as); Bill Hood (bar); Bill Robinson (ts,cl); Pete Jolly (p,el-p,org); Al Viola (g); Gene Cherico (b,el-b); Roy Burns (d); Norm Jeffries (perc) and Dick Grove (arr,cond,comp).

I always find myself listening to these albums over and over again in one sitting, digging the exciting instrumentation and expressions throughout. One can only admire Grove's sweeping and deeply thoughtful arranging style. The sound is so sophisticated and ambitious, it's as if he was treating the orchestra like a palette of paint and applying it to a massive canvas. A shame an orchestra can't be assembled today to play this music live. Perhaps in Europe.

Dick Grove died in 1998.

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This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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