GRP Records

GRP Records is an American jazz record company, owned by Universal Music Group and operates through its Verve Music Group. The company's name has had different meanings. In its early days, it stood for "Grusin/Rosen Productions," after the founders. By the middle 1990s, after Grusin and Rosen left the company, GRP used the marketing slogan "Great Records Period."

History

1978–87

GRP Records was founded in New York by keyboard player Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen in 1978. Previously, the duo had formed Grusin/Rosen Productions as a freelance production team in 1972, producing records for labels such as RCA, Blue Note and CTI with artists who included Jon Lucien, Noel Pointer, Earl Klugh and Patti Austin. Between 1978 and 1982, Grusin/Rosen Productions operated under a label agreement with Clive Davis at Arista Records, which was known as "Arista/GRP". They achieved success with a number of artists during this period, most notably trumpeter Tom Browne and his jazz-funk hit "Funkin' for Jamaica". Embracing an all-digital recording philosophy, GRP made early use of Soundstream's digital recording technology, resulting in Dave Grusin's Mountain Dance (released August 1980), one of the earliest all-digital recordings outside of classical music. Latin flute player Dave Valentin and singer Angela Bofill were the first acts signed to the label.