MCA Reported Shopping for GRP Label; Vinnegar Joins the Move to the Northwest

MCA Records is looking to buy the New York-based GRP Records, record industry sources say. Sources say that when the deal is completed, all MCA label jazz artists will go under the GRP umbrella, and GRP President Larry Rosen will then run the new label from his New York office. In question is the fate of Ricky Schultz, former vice president of the MCA Jazz division and currently a vice president of A&R; at MCA Records, who has overseen the production of such MCA jazz artists as Michael Brecker and the Yellowjackets.

“Discussions are taking place,” said Rosen, co-owner, with composer/keyboardist Dave Grusin, of GRP (an acronym for Grusin-Rosen Productions), of the sale. “Until it’s done, it’s not done.” He offered no elaboration.

Schultz refused to comment on the possible transaction. Times sources estimated that MCA will pay $25 million for GRP, which is the label for such artist as Grusin, Chick Corea and David Benoit.

Bassist Leroy Vinnegar, who is back in town for a few gigs, has found there’s a lot to like about Portland, Ore., his second adopted home.

“I’m the new Leroy Vinnegar. I’m happy,” said the native of Indianapolis, who lived in Los Angeles from 1954-86, of his new climes. “The move’s revived my whole career. The jobs started thinning out and I couldn’t make much money. And since I had been going to Portland to work a couple of different clubs since 1972, I thought I’d try that. It seems like the city’s just opened up its arms. I work a lot and I’m making a pretty good living.”

The burly bassist whose invigorating walking bass lines made him one of the mainstays of the Los Angeles mainstream jazz community, will be seen in the upcoming Orion film, “Love at Large,” directed by Alan Rudolph and starring Tom Berenger and Anne Archer. The film, which will be released March 9, was shot in Portland. “I’m the bandleader, and since Anne Archer’s character sings in the band, you’ll probably see more than six seconds of me on the screen,” Vinnegar joked. He added that Archer sings with a “Julie London-type dreamy voice.”

The bassist, who plays with tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards tonight at LA Nicola in Los Angeles and on Sunday at Birdland West in Long Beach, said that the band had one member whose face probably wouldn’t be recognized, but whose name would: artist Gary Larson, who draws “The Far Side” cartoon strip. “He’s a guitar player, and he plays pretty well,” Vinnegar said. “He took a year off from his work a while ago and studied with Jim Hall.”

In an ironic twist, Vinnegar, making his first playing journey to Los Angeles since he moved to Portland, sees a dramatic shift in the local scene. “It’s funny, now that I’m back here, it seems like things are better,” he said. “My friends are working more and there are a lot more rooms featuring jazz. Those are good signs.”