Jimmy McGriff must have had a big crayon box because the great organist colored his music with so many shades of blue.
McGriff, who died Saturday May 24th, passed after a very long illness with MS. He grooved as hard as any organist I know. I wonder whether there's ever been a song title that accurately reflected an artist's work as well as “Groove Grease" from McGriff's album of the same name. And McGriff's funky licks on the title track of his “The Main Squeeze" album will make every part of your body shake. But as hard as those songs groove, they're filled with subtle little flourishes, too.
