Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Washington made some of the genre's most memorable hits, including "Mister Magic", "Reed Seed", "Black Frost", "Winelight", "Inner City Blues", "Let it Flow (For 'Dr.

In addition, he performed very frequently with other artists, including Bill Withers on "Just the Two of Us", Patti LaBelle on "The Best Is Yet to Come", and Phyllis Hyman on "A Sacred Kind of Love".

[5][6][7] He also had another younger brother named Michael Washington, who was an accomplished gospel music organist who mastered the Hammond B3 organ.

[7] Washington left Buffalo and played with a Midwest group called the Four Clefs and then the Mark III Trio from Mansfield, Ohio.

Winelight (1980) was the album that defined everything Washington was then about, having signed for Elektra Records, part of the major Warner Music group.

The highlight of the album was his collaboration with soul artist Bill Withers, "Just the Two of Us", a hit on radio during the spring and summer of 1981, peaking at No.

[1] In the post-Winelight era, Washington is credited for giving rise to a new batch of talent that would make its mark in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

He is known for bringing Kenny G to the forefront, as well as artists such as Kirk Whalum, Walter Beasley, Steve Cole, Pamela Williams, Najee, Boney James and George Howard.

[9] (Although he was later photographed with Keilwerth SX90 and SX90R black nickel plated soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones on album covers, he rarely played them live or in the studio.)

On December 17, 1999, five days after his 56th birthday, Washington collapsed while waiting in the green room after performing four songs for The Saturday Early Show, at CBS Studios in New York City.

Grover Washington Jr. Middle School caters to fifth- to eighth-grade students interested in the creative and performing arts.