GRP

GRP was founded by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen in 1972 as a freelance production company with releases on various labels. Around 1978, the pair struck a label deal with Arista creating the Arista/GRP imprint, which lasted until Grusin and Rosen left and went independent in 1982. The label's acts included Dave Valentin and jazz-funk trumpeter Tom Browne.

The label was sold to MCA in 1990. It then oversaw reissues of the Decca, Chess and Impulse! jazz catalogs (reactivating the latter as a subsidiary label).

GRP became known early on for digital recordings and for being one of the first US labels to release its albums on CD, becoming known as The Digital Master Company.

GRP initially meant Grusin-Rosen Productions. After Grusin and Rosen left the company in 1995, the letters became shorthand for the marketing slogan Great Records Period.

GRP is now the smooth-jazz imprint of The Verve Music Group, a unit of the Universal Music Group.

Label code: LC 6713 (Europe)