Grover Washington

A SAXAPHONE SITS in a spotlight at center court during a tribute to Grover Washington Jr. at the Sixers-Detroit Pistons game at the First Union Center last night. Washington, 56, who appeared regularly at the arena, died Friday in New York of an apparent heart attack after taping a musical performance for the "Early Show. " A service for the popular musician is scheduled for Thursday.

For all intents and purposes Grover Washington Jr. has been rehearsing for the Hero Scholarship Thrill Show for at least a dozen years. Tonight he'll step to the mike in JFK Stadium, lift his glistening saxophone heavenward and let fly the smoothest, possibly most lyrical, and certainly most passionate rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" ever heard between Pattison Avenue and the Navy Yard. Our most fecund resident jazz recording star, who has played the National Anthem at 76ers games in the nearby Spectrum since the 1975-76 NBA season, would seem a natural for moving his act down the street to JFK. It's not that Thrill Show honchos never asked him. "They've asked me for the last three years but our schedules were always conflicting," noted Grover the other day. "It's the first time I'm going to be here in town for the show, not on tour.

Renowned jazz musician Grover Washington Jr., 56, died last night after collapsing during a television production at CBS studios in New York. Mr. Washington collapsed around 6:30 p.m. while waiting at the CBS studios after taping four songs for a performance on today's Early Show, said Hal Gessner, the show's executive producer. Security staff members were summoned and cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed, Gessner said. Mr. Washington was taken to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 7:30 p.m., according to Jim Mandler, a hospital spokesman.

A capacity crowd at Penn's Landing endured 90-degree heat to watch Mellon PSFS Jazz Festival headliner Grover Washington Jr. play a marathon four sets on Sunday. The contemporary-jazz giant set the tone early during his five hours on stage. "We're here today to honor me," said the saxophonist, to whom the festival is dedicated. "But my job here today is to honor all these musicians who are a part of my past, present and future. " The program was a survey of the musicians with whom the West Mount Airy resident has been associated during his three-decade career.

Sad does not begin to cover the feeling of losing Philadelphia's magical sax player, Grover Washington Jr., whose heart gave out in the middle of this festive season. The melodies of his 1997 CD Breath of Heaven: A Holiday Collection still resonate on a rainy night in his adopted hometown, where the news of his death dampened the holiday cheer. The magic man isn't here anymore, just the tracks upon tracks left by his talent. For Bill Jolly, the keyboardist and music director for Mr. Washington between 1987 and 1997, the memories flow freely about "one of the most-down-to-earth and nicest guys . . . a man who expressed his happiness or sadness through his horn.

More than 1,000 children from Chester County schools got more than they paid for yesterday at the Grover Washington Jr. concert at the Valley Forge Music Fair. Actually, they didn't pay, and that was the point. The morning concert was the first in a series of cultural events that the Music Fair is holding for county schoolchildren under a court order arising from a tax dispute. The dispute started in 1985, when the Music Fair sued the Treddyfrin- Easttown School District, saying it had been unfairly singled out by the district when it created an amusement tax. Chester County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas C. Gavin ruled in 1989 that the district must refund the $1.2 million in amusement tax money it had collected from the Music Fair and that the money must be placed in a fund to buy tickets to Music Fair events for middle school and high school students.

Grover Washington Jr., the hard-bop saxophonist who helped invent smooth jazz and served as a tireless booster of his adopted Philadelphia, died Friday night, shortly after he finished doing what he loved best, playing his horn. The West Mount Airy resident, one of the most popular jazz saxophonists of all time, died of an apparent heart attack at New York's St. Luke's-Roosevelt Medical Center after taping a musical segment for CBS's Saturday Early Show, which aired as scheduled yesterday morning.

Jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., who celebrated his 56th birthday just a week ago, collapsed and died yesterday in New York City. A spokesman at St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital said the cause of the popular Philadelphia-based musician's death was not known, and an autopsy will be performed. Friends say Washington had undergone surgery for prostate cancer earlier this year but had made a rapid recovery. He collapsed around 6:30 p.m. after taping a performance for "The Saturday Early Show" at the CBS studio in Manhattan.

IT'S A special treat to uncover buried treasure from a musical artist you care about and have been missing dearly. This week, we're really hitting the mother lode - with multiple record labels hauling out newly unearthed gems. GROVER GOLD: Topping the archaeological digs, "Grover Live" (G-Man Productions/Lightyear, A-) capturing the now 10 years gone king of Philly soul-jazz Grover Washington Jr. in a snappy, swinging concert performance from June 1997. Recorded on two-track digital audio tape (DAT)

Donald Washington Sr., 79, a well-known Philadelphia-area jazz saxophonist and retired Food Fair worker from Haddon Heights, died of lung cancer Tuesday at home. Mr. Washington was born in West Philadelphia and raised in Southwest Philadelphia. In 1948, he graduated from Murrell Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School, where he excelled in swimming and played varsity basketball. Food Fair Services employed him as a warehouse worker at 10th Street and Pattison Avenue in South Philadelphia from 1965 to 1990.

Brenda J. Bodner, 49, a mother of four and a dedicated Philadelphia middle school teacher with an angelic voice, died Tuesday at her house in the Burlhome section of Northeast Philadelphia. Ms. Bodner, who taught science at Grover Washington Jr. Middle School, stayed home Monday and died in her sleep the next day, said her father, Bruce Bodner. "She had told me she might have the stomach flu," he said. The cause of death is pending until medical test results are complete, Jeff Moran, spokesman for the Philadelphia medical examiner, said yesterday.

Asked to stand if they had ever buried a friend or family member who had been murdered, one in four eighth graders at a Philadelphia middle school gathering yesterday rose from their seats. Five were still standing when asked if they had lost three or more. Among them was Aneisah Scott, 15. The moment was overpowering for her, seeing so many of her classmates standing. There was Christopher Herd, 15, who said he had lost six people close to him, including an uncle shot in the head, a baby cousin murdered, an aunt strangled by her boyfriend, and a friend raped and killed.

In a bold project, a class of Philadelphia eighth graders explored the violence and pain in their world through shared diaries, revealing their feelings and fears in a transforming experience. In a five-part series, The Inquirer chronicles their six-month journey. Friday, June 2 - Thirteen-year-old Jeremiah Robinson has a surprise for his teacher, "a big surprise. " "Not heart-attack or stroke surprise," the short, solemn teen insists. "I will read today," Jeremiah announces.

In a bold project, a class of Philadelphia eighth graders explored the violence and pain in their world through shared diaries, revealing their feelings and fears in a transforming experience. In a five-part series, The Inquirer chronicles their six-month journey. Thursday, March 2 - Fourteen-year-old Benjamin Jones has never told his classmates - or anyone else - how he feels about his father. Like nearly a third of the students, Benjamin has had little contact with the man who gave him life.

Less than a week before West Philly native and jazz-fusion bassist Gerald Veasley is set to perform at World Cafe Live, he's off to Europe for a quick gig. "I'll be ready come Sunday. I play everywhere people want to hear me when I can," Veasley says. That's the life of the musician who has just released his seventh album, Gerald Veasley at the Jazz Base! (An eighth album, Heads-up Super Band, was recorded under his leadership.) It's his first live album. Hailed by critics, At the Jazz Base was recorded last year at the club he owns in Reading.

About 50 people turned out last night to hear a panel of community and law enforcement officials, including District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham and Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson, discuss gang violence in the city at a town meeting in Olney. The Community Intervention Summit, as the two-day session at Grover Washington Jr. Middle School is called, was launched to deal with the violence surrounding the city's youth. So far this year, 27 Philadelphians 17 or younger have died in violent attacks.

Who needs nostalgia? For a jolt of Philadelphia's jazz heyday, drop by Natalie's Lounge for Saturday night jams, when there's no cover or pretense, cold Buds cost $2.50, and the tiny bandstand cooks with a cast of characters that ranges, as organist Rich Budesa puts it, "from Yale to jail. " Tony Smith's on trumpet, a hard-blowing barrel of a man who daylights as vice principal of a Wilmington high school. Tenor giant Donald Washington, at 73, is the elder statesman, a retired Food Fair worker from New Jersey.

When Grover Washington Jr. and Jeff Lorber were in their '70s and '80s salad days, folks called their music fusion. Those players, and others who came after, made their living with sounds steeped deeply in jazz but including elements of more commercial genres. It wasn't easy being a pioneer. On Monday night, decades after the advent of Washington's music and five years after his untimely death, keyboardist Lorber and three of Washington's musical heirs came together at the Dell East to celebrate and shed light on the career of the unique Philadelphia saxophonist.