By Rob Hancock
Pop quiz: who is the most recorded Blue Note artist of all time? Surely not Grant Green, that much-maligned figure, whose legacy is that of a man of limited compositional skill and repetitious playing. The words ‘undervalued’ and ‘underrated’ are synonymous with Grant’s playing in the annals of jazz. However, the flood of Blue Note reissues in recent years has done much to reaffirm Green’s position among the elite of jazz guitarists.
Born in the early 1930’s in St. Louis, Grant Green’s story is one typical of many precocious jazz talents. By the age of thirteen he was playing professionally with a gospel group, his early influences were that of boogie-woogie and rhythm ‘n’ blues, and these formed the foundation of his playing style. He played locally with Jimmy Forrest and Sam Lazar before moving to the jazz hotbed of New York City in 1960.
His primary guitar influence was Charlie Christian, but Green always maintained that he was far more influenced by horn players, particularly Charlie Parker. This was evident in his sound, which preferred uncluttered, single note lines. Grant effectively chose to ignore the contemporary guitar stylings of Tad Farlow, Kenny Burrell and the octaves of Wes Montgomery and instead concentrate on what one British critic referred to as his own ‘deceptively simplistic’ blues orientated style. Above all else Grant should be regarded as someone who knew one of the big jazz secrets - that ‘feeling’ is way and above technical prowess in the creation of this music.
Lou Donaldson spotted Grant while playing an engagement in St. Louis and was quick to introduce him to Alfred Lion; it wasn’t long before he became core to the tough hard bop sound of Blue Note. As soon as 1962 he had established himself as the house guitarist with the label and received the award for Down Beat new star guitar category. He went on to contribute to an incomprehensible amount of sessions. Between 1961 and 1965 Green appeared on more sessions as leader and sideman than any other Blue Note artist. Sometimes you wonder if this guy ever slept!
Grant was not without considerable compositional ability either. ‘Jean de Fleur’ on the classic ‘Idle Moments’ (1964) is a great hard-swinging tune that emphasises his ability to play both lyrically and rhythmically in equal measure. His tune ‘Plaza de Torres’ on Larry Young’s ‘Into Something’ (1964) is another fine example of a far-reaching tune that grooves hard yet maintains interest with complex, stretched out solos. Proving he was not entirely fazed by the advent of the new thing, happily rubbing shoulders with the tenor of Sam Rivers.
The gauntlet thrown down by Lion in 1964, to record with members of Coltrane’s super-cooking rhythm section did not intimidate him either, but instead produced some great sessions, the album ‘Matador’ (1965) audaciously including Trane’ staple ‘My Favourite Things’. Proving that he was more than capable of moving in fast-company.
Rather than his reputation being consigned to the dogma of jazz encyclopaedia we should look at his contemporary’s opinions. George Benson fondly recalls Grant Green’s comprehensive influence on jazz guitarists in the 60’s. ‘There was never a dull minute when Grant was playing the guitar. Everybody loved him. Guitar players were trying to learn what his secret was and there were people in general who just loved his groove.‘ Although Benson recalls a memorable dual with Green, playing so fast the older man struggled to keep up with his lightning pace, he recognized that, ‘Grant and I both knew there was no way I could be on the bandstand with Grant Green. Nobody could. Grant made the guitar come alive and sing. It was his talent alone.’
The second half of the sixties saw Grant caught up in the melee of drink and drugs that unhappily shade so many lives in jazz. He was off the scene more than on and his recorded output ceased. Meanwhile, some of the complex new jazz experiments with structure and form confused his synopsis that jazz was after all ‘just the blues’. By the time of his return to the scene in the late 60’s and early 70’s hard bop had been replaced by funk and soul, his own playing reflected these limited backdrops and became reliant on a series of repetitious licks rather than his open, flowing style of old. Forced to pay the bills Grant continued in this vain through the 70’s till his sad death in 1979.
Bitter critics can be very unforgiving if they feel a great talent has turned coat and sold out and this has been reflected in the widespread dismissal of this great guitarist. However, contemporaries like Herbie Hancock for example, put out an unmitigated amount of drivel in the 1970’s, but it doesn’t stop ‘Maiden Voyage’ and ‘Empyrean Isles’ being timeless classics in the jazz canon. Nor then should Grant continue to be disregarded, rather he should be placed up their in the vanguard of jazz guitarists and recognized as a man of groove, of depth and most of all of ‘feeling’.
