Robert David Grusin (born June 26, 1934) is an American composer, arranger, producer, jazz pianist, and band leader. He has written music for many movies and TV shows and has received many awards for his work, including an Academy Award and 10 Grammy Awards. Grusin worked closely with director Sydney Pollack and created music for several of his films, such as Three Days of the Condor (1975), Absence of Malice (1981), Tootsie (1982), The Firm (1993), and Random Hearts (1999). In 1978, Grusin started GRP Records with Larry Rosen and helped develop digital recording technology.

Early life

Grusin was born in Littleton, Colorado, to Henri and Rosabelle (née de Poyster) Grusin. His family comes from the Gruzinsky royal family line of the Bagrationi dynasty, the royal family that ruled the Kingdom of Georgia from the ninth to 19th centuries. In Slavic languages, "Grusin" is a name used for Georgians. Grusin's father, Henri, was a violinist of Jewish ancestry who was born and raised in Riga, Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire, from where he emigrated to the United States in 1913. Grusin's mother, Rosabelle, was a pianist. He has an older brother, Don Grusin, who is a jazz keyboardist, composer, and producer.

Grusin studied music at the University of Colorado at Boulder and graduated in 1956. His teachers included Cecil Effinger and Wayne Scott, who was a pianist, arranger, and professor of jazz.

Career

Grusin made his first single in 1962, called "Subways Are for Sleeping," and his first film score for Divorce American Style in 1967. He later created scores for The Graduate (1967), Winning (1969), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Midnight Man (1974), and Three Days of the Condor (1975).

In 1978, Grusin started a record company called GRP Records with his business partner, Larry Rosen. He helped make some of the earliest music recordings using digital technology. Grusin composed scores for On Golden Pond (1981), Tootsie (1982), and The Goonies (1985). In 1988, he won an Oscar for Best Original Score for The Milagro Beanfield War. He also created music for the 1984 TriStar Pictures logo and the 1993 Columbia Pictures Television logo.

In 1998, Grusin was ranked #5 and #8 on Billboard’s Top 10 Jazz Artists list, based on sales of his album Dave Grusin Presents West Side Story.

From 2000 to 2011, Grusin focused on classical and jazz music. He worked with artists like jazz singer Lorraine Feather and guitarist Lee Ritenour. Their album Harlequin won a Grammy in 1985. Their other albums, Two Worlds and Amparo, were nominated for Grammys.

Grusin has created music for about 100 films. He won an Oscar for The Milagro Beanfield War and was nominated for other films, including 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 Tootsie. Six songs from The Graduate’s soundtrack are his. Other scores he composed include Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?, Three Days of the Condor, The Goonies, Tequila Sunrise, Hope Floats, Random Hearts, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Mulholland Falls, and The Firm. He also created the original opening music for TriStar Pictures.

Grusin wrote theme music for TV shows such as Good Morning World (1967), It Takes a Thief (1968), The Name of the Game (1968), Dan August (1970), The Sandy Duncan Show (1971–72), Maude (1972), Good Times (1974), Baretta (1975), St. Elsewhere (1982), and Tres Generaciones (1987) for Televisa in Mexico. He also composed music for individual episodes of these shows. His other TV work includes The Wild Wild West (1966), The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966), and Columbo: Prescription: Murder (1968). He composed and performed the theme music for One Life to Live from 1984 to 1991. Grusin also wrote music for the This Is America, Charlie Brown episode "The Smithsonian and the Presidency." Two music pieces from the episodes "History Lesson" and "Breadline Blues" (the latter covered by Kenny G) appear on the tribute album Happy Anniversary, Charlie Brown. "History Lesson" also appears in the Amiga CDTV version of Snoopy: The Cool Computer Game.

In 1994, GRP took over MCA’s jazz operations. Grusin and Rosen left the company in 1995 and were replaced by Tommy LiPuma. In 1997, Grusin and Rosen started a new company called N2K Encoded Music, which later became N-Coded Music.

Grusin received honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music in 1988 and the University of Colorado, College of Music in 1989. He was part of the Beta Chi chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at the University of Colorado in 1991.

Personal life

Dave Grusin has been married to Nan Newton for many years. Together, they have three adult sons: Scott, Michael, and Stuart. He is also the stepfather of Nan's adult daughter, Annie Vought. Grusin is the subject of a 2018 feature-length documentary titled Dave Grusin: Not Enough Time.

Awards and honors

Between 1979 and 1994, Grusin won one Academy Award and received seven other nominations. He has been nominated for 38 Grammy Awards and won 10. The dates listed refer to the years of the award ceremonies, not the years the films were released.

• Won: Music (Original Score) – The Milagro Beanfield War (1989)
• Nominated: Music (Original Score) – Heaven Can Wait (1979), The Champ (1980), On Golden Pond (1982), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1990), Havana (1991), The Firm (1994)
• Nominated: Music (Original Song) – "It Might Be You" (1983), with Alan and Marilyn Bergman

• Won: Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special – The Graduate (1968), shared with Paul Simon
• Won: Best Arrangement on an Instrumental – Summer Sketches '82 (1982), "Early A.M. Attitude" (1986), "Suite" for The Milagro Beanfield War (1990), "Bess You Is My Woman/I Loves You Porgy" (1991), "Mood Indigo" (1993), "Three Cowboy Songs" (1994)
• Won: Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals – "My Funny Valentine" by Michelle Pfeiffer (1989), "Mean Old Man" by James Taylor (2002)
• Won: Best Album Original Score Written for Motion Picture or Television – The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
• Nominated: Best Original Score – Selena

• Nominated: Best Original Score – The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Havana (1990), For the Boys (1991)

• Received the Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award from Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia in 1991
• Included in AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores (Best American Film Scores of all Time, voted by the American Film Institute): Ranked #24 for On Golden Pond