Seawind was a jazz fusion

Jazz fusion

Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

 group from Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, featuring lead singer Pauline Wilson

Pauline Wilson

Pauline Wilson is an American jazz/pop singer best known as lead vocalist with the jazz/fusion group Seawind in the 1970's and early 80's.Wilson, who is also part Filipino was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii...

. They recorded two albums for CTI Records

CTI Records

CTI Records was a jazz record label founded in 1967 by producer/A&R manager Creed Taylor. Initially, CTI was a subsidiary of A&M Records, but the label went independent in 1970...

, one for A&M Records

A&M Records

A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...

 and one for A&M subsidiary Horizon Records

Horizon Records

Horizon Records was started as a folk and blues record label by Dave Hubert in 1960.It was originally distributed by World Pacific Records. When Vee-Jay Records acquired World Pacific in 1963, it also took over the distribution of Horizon....

Allmusic

A notable part of the band's sound was the "Seawind Horns" (trumpeter Jerry Hey

Jerry Hey

Jerry Hey is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, horn arranger, string arranger, orchestrator and session musician who has played on hundreds of commercial recordings, including Thriller and the distinctive flugelhorn solo on Dan Fogelberg's hit Longer....

, sax and flute player Kim Hutchcroft, and sax, flute and keyboard player Larry Williams

Larry Williams (jazz musician)

Larry Williams is a Grammy-nominated producer, composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist who formed the jazz fusion group Seawind in the mid 1970s...

), who went on to provide backing instrumentals and arrangements for performers such as Earth, Wind & Fire

Earth, Wind & Fire

Earth, Wind & Fire is an American soul and R&B band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1969 by Verdine and Maurice White. Also known as EWF, the band has won six Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards. They have been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of...

, George Benson

George Benson

George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....

, Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

 (Thriller, Off the Wall and Bad), Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones

Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...

 and Mika

Mika (singer)

Mika is a British singer-songwriter.After recording his first extended play, Dodgy Holiday EP, Mika released his first full-length studio album, Life in Cartoon Motion, on Island Records in 2007. Life in Cartoon Motion sold more than 5.6 million copies worldwide and helped Mika win a Brit...

. Hey left Seawind as a touring member in 1979 but continued as a recording member of the band through 1980. Trumpeter Larry Hall, an original member of the band when they were called "OX", rejoined the group in 2005. Hey and Hall are longtime friends and both are top-call recording session musicians.

In 1981, Bob & Pauline Wilson released a Contemporary Christian music

Contemporary Christian music

Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith...

 album, Somebody Loves You, which, although technically not a Seawind album, features the same trademark sound with the same musicians and vocalists. Seawind broke up in 1982, but reunited in 2005 for a Los Angeles concert performance and then began work on a new CD, which took them over three years to complete. Seawind is known for their extraordinary musicianship, brilliant songwriting and creative arranging. The group pioneered many of the musical elements that, years later, ultimately became the beginnings of smooth jazz

Smooth jazz

Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....

. Seawind is regarded as one of the top jazz groups to come from Hawaii; and Pauline Wilson is the first vocalist from Hawaii to win a Grammy award (singing a duet with George Benson on the album In Harmony - A Sesame Street Record, which won Grammy Award for Best Album for Children

Grammy Award for Best Album for Children

The Grammy Award for Best Album for Children has been awarded since 1959. Prior to 1992, the award was known as Best Recording for Children and was therefore open to any audio recording, whether it was an album, a single song, a recording of a book, or the audio from a television show or movie...

 in 1979).

In 1995, a Seawind compilation CD "Remember" was released on Noteworthy Records. Remember includes five tracks recorded during sessions for their never-completed fifth album. Seawind's 2009 CD Reunion was released on the Village Music label, a subsidiary of Sony Music Japan.

Discography

Album	|Year	Label
Seawind	1976	CTI
Window of a Child	1977	CTI
Light the Light	1979	Horizon
Seawind	1980	A&M
Remember (compilation)	1995	Noteworthy
Reunion	2009	Village Music/Sony (Japanese Release)