Grant Green

This is a great album with the classic synergy of Green and pianist Sonny Clark, who along with Sam Jones on bass and Art Blakey complete the quartet. This album was also released on The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Grant Green and Sonny Clark. Just classic Green.

As a trio, this edition of guitarist Grant Green's many ensembles has to rank with the best he had ever fronted. Recorded on April Fool's Day of 1961, the band and music are no joke, as bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Dave Bailey understand in the most innate sense how to support Green, lay back when needed, or strut their own stuff when called upon. Still emerging as an individualist, Green takes further steps ahead, without a pianist, saxophonist, or - most importantly - an organist. His willpower drives this music forward in a refined approach that definitely marks him as a distinctive, immediately recognizable player. It is also a session done in a period when Green was reeling in popular demand, as this remarkably is one of six recordings he cut for Blue Note as a leader in 1961, not to mention other projects as a sideman…

Grant Green's debut album, Grant's First Stand, still ranks as one of his greatest pure soul-jazz outings, a set of killer grooves laid down by a hard-swinging organ trio. For having such a small lineup - just organist Baby Face Willette and drummer Ben Dixon - the group cooks up quite a bit of power, really sinking its teeth into the storming up-tempo numbers, and swinging loose and easy on the ballads. The influence of the blues on both Green and Willette is strong and, while that's far and away the dominant flavor of the session, Green also displays his unique bop phrasing (learned by studying horn players' lines, rather than other guitarists) to fine effect on his high-octane opener, "Miss Ann's Tempo," and Willette's "Baby's Minor Lope"…

Grant Green signed to Blue Note for a second time in 1969. Where his first stint with the label was nearly all hard bop, the recordings from his second stay were almost all funky soul-jazz. Predictably, these are sessions that jazz purists have dismissed throughout the years, even though - when judged strictly on the level of funky, groove-oriented dance music - the music is quite strong. During the '80s and '90s, dance and hip-hop fans rediscovered Green's records from the late '70s and sampled his playing and grooves on their own records. Blue Note assembled The Best of Grant Green, Vol. 2 to capitalize on the popularity of this acid-jazz movement. All of the material on this disc is drawn from albums - The Final Comedown, Live at the Lighthouse, Visions - that never received much attention in jazz circles. Nevertheless, fans of this sound will find The Best of Grant Green, Vol. 2 to be a delight – there are a lot of wonderfully funky, dense grooves on here, and many of the songs have been out of print since their original issue. Hard bop fans will not reconsider their negative opinion of this music based on this compilation, but acid-jazz, groove, and hip-hop fans will find this disc to be an excellent addition to their Grant Green collection.

This pair of 1963 studio sessions by Grant Green remained under wraps until issued as a part of Blue Note's limited edition Jazz Connoisseur series. The guitarist is in fine form, accompanied by organist John Patton and drummer Ben Dixon, starting with a brilliant bop rendition of the popular standard from the Broadway show Oklahoma!, "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top." The soft but intense "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying," and Ray Charles' gospel flavored "This Little Girl of Mine" (an obvious reworking of "This Little Light of Mine") are also highlights. Each member of the trio also contributed one original. The title track was written by the leader, a gritty blues originally recorded at the close of a Lou Donaldson session (which the saxophonist sat out)…

Grant Green's fourth album, Sunday Mornin', was the first time Green recorded (as a leader) with a piano instead of an organ. Joined by pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Ben Tucker, and drummer Ben Dixon, Green makes Sunday Mornin' less of a soul-jazz session than his previous work, instead turning in a solid - if not quite exceptional - set of modal hard bop and laid-back grooves. Pianist Drew's sparse chording leaves plenty of room for Green's lilting tones to ring out, and since Green's approach relies on single-note lines rather than chords, the whole session ends up with a spacious, light feel. Half of the original six tracks are Green originals, including the Martin Luther King-inspired "Freedom March" and the gospel-tinged title track; the others are well-known repertory: "God Bless the Child," Miles Davis' "So What," and Eddie Harris' then-recent hit adaptation of the theme from "Exodus"…