Winelight cover
Released

If smooth were to be defined by just one record sleeve, this would be it: a very full wine glass and saxophone bell gleaming in soft, buttery light. After making bedroom eyes with Top 40 soul across his recording career at Kudu in the 1970s, Grover paired with Bill Withers and rose all the way to Number 2 on the charts with “Just the Two Of Us,” attaining Adult Contemporary ubiquity in the process. But the other tunes here are just as smooth, from the slippery satin of the title track to “Let It Flow (For “Dr. J”)” a jazz-funk ode to the smooth of basketball himself, with Washington, Jr. switching between alto, tenor, and soprano sax with ease.

Andy Beta

Suggestions
Encounters cover

Encounters

George Shaw
Harlem Bush Music: Uhuru cover

Harlem Bush Music: Uhuru

Gary Bartz NTU Troop
Fyah cover

Fyah

Theon Cross
Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti cover

Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti

Robson Jorge, Lincoln Olivetti
Among the Stars cover

Among the Stars

Norman Evans
Harlem Bush Music: Taifa cover

Harlem Bush Music: Taifa

Gary Bartz NTU Troop
Jazz Is Dead 6: Gary Bartz cover

Jazz Is Dead 6: Gary Bartz

Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Adrian Younge, Gary Bartz
Smooth cover

Smooth

Generation Band, Victor Feldman
Mainstream Funk cover

Mainstream Funk

Various Artists
Two Headed Freap cover

Two Headed Freap

Ronnie Foster