The Jerry Grundy Trio, Featuring Laura Washington
Title
The Jerry Grundy Trio, Featuring Laura Washington
Description
In this radio broadcast, circa 1988-1989, singer Laura Washington appears with the Jerry Grundy Trio at Grundy's Music Room in Birmingham, Alabama.
From 1979 to 1992, Grundy's Music Room -- owned and operated by Jerry and Bernadine "Bernie" Grundhoefer, transplants to Birmingham from St. Paul, Minnesota -- was a center for jazz activity in the city, hosting both local and national touring acts. Multi-instrumentalist Jerry "Grundy" Grundhoefer also led the house band, performing on piano and clarinet alongside Roy Yarborough (bass) and Donny Davis (drums).
Birmingham-born Laura Washington joined the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra as a teenager in 1946, scoring a hit that year for the band with her performance of Joe Liggins’ “I’ve Got a Right to Cry.” (The Hawkins/Washington cover reached #2 on the Billboard “race” charts and #17 in its year-end ranking for 1946.) Washington returned to Birmingham in the 1950s and did not perform publicly again until the early 1980s, when she became a weekend regular at Grundy’s Music Room, appearing with the Jerry Grundy Trio.
Selections in this broadcast include "Watch What Happens," "Indiana," "Bye Bye, Blackbird," "What a Difference a Day Makes," "(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey," "Don't Take Your Love From Me," "Straighten Up and Fly Right," "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone," "Pure Imagination," "My Funny Valentine," and "The Shadow of Your Smile." Washington joins the band at approximately the fourteen minute mark.
Some surface noise may be heard throughout the recording, particularly in the last ten minutes of the broadcast.
An additional performance by Washington and the Grundy Trio appears here in our archive.
Recording courtesy George Mostoller.
From 1979 to 1992, Grundy's Music Room -- owned and operated by Jerry and Bernadine "Bernie" Grundhoefer, transplants to Birmingham from St. Paul, Minnesota -- was a center for jazz activity in the city, hosting both local and national touring acts. Multi-instrumentalist Jerry "Grundy" Grundhoefer also led the house band, performing on piano and clarinet alongside Roy Yarborough (bass) and Donny Davis (drums).
Birmingham-born Laura Washington joined the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra as a teenager in 1946, scoring a hit that year for the band with her performance of Joe Liggins’ “I’ve Got a Right to Cry.” (The Hawkins/Washington cover reached #2 on the Billboard “race” charts and #17 in its year-end ranking for 1946.) Washington returned to Birmingham in the 1950s and did not perform publicly again until the early 1980s, when she became a weekend regular at Grundy’s Music Room, appearing with the Jerry Grundy Trio.
Selections in this broadcast include "Watch What Happens," "Indiana," "Bye Bye, Blackbird," "What a Difference a Day Makes," "(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey," "Don't Take Your Love From Me," "Straighten Up and Fly Right," "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone," "Pure Imagination," "My Funny Valentine," and "The Shadow of Your Smile." Washington joins the band at approximately the fourteen minute mark.
Some surface noise may be heard throughout the recording, particularly in the last ten minutes of the broadcast.
An additional performance by Washington and the Grundy Trio appears here in our archive.
Recording courtesy George Mostoller.
Collection
Citation
“The Jerry Grundy Trio, Featuring Laura Washington,” Southern Music Research Center, accessed July 3, 2024, https://southernmusicresearch.org/items/show/1404.