Havana

AMG Review of Havana

Jonathan Widran
All Music Guide

In addition to being one of instrumental music's finest keyboardists and co-founder of the influential GRP Records, Dave Grusin is also one of our premier film composers, with one Oscar and numerous nominations to his credit. His score for the Robert Redford-starring Havana finds him taking erotic and stirring sojourns to Castro Country circa late '50s, where he hits bull's-eye after bull's-eye on the mambo and salsa-laden cuts that could stand on their own even sans lusty images of Redford and Lena Olin. For mood's sake, Grusin also includes some warm, reflective orchestrated pieces reminiscent of his luscious Tequila Sunrise score. While he shares keyboard duties with Clare Fischer, Grusin is more a producer here than anything, gaining glorious performances from top-notch talent like Sal Marquez, Alex Acuna, Abe Laboriel, Brian Bromberg, and labelmates Dave Valentin and Lee Ritenour. The most exciting showing here, however, is the trumpet-scat vocal duet by Marquez and the charming Dori Caymmi on the sunset images of "Hurricane Country."