Jazz Articles about Grant Green

Grant Green: Idle Moments

by Geno Thackara
October 8, 2023

Joe Henderson: The Complete Joe Henderson Blue Note Studio Sessions

by Scott Gudell
November 22, 2021

If an artist stamps his jazz passport with any one of these labels--Blue Note, Verve, Milestone--it's pretty much a guarantee that you've arrived in style. Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson has traveled with all three and more. The 2021 reissue from the prestigious Mosaic Records focuses on Henderson's 1960s tenure with Blue Note offers a new opportunity to experience an abundance of rich and creative jazz from the decade. Big band and bop were duking it out in the ...

Blue Note 50ths and a Tad More

by Marc Cohn
January 10, 2020

Happy New Year! First show of the month and 2020—it's time for Blue Note albums that are celebrating their 50th anniversary, being from January 1970! Lou Donaldson, Grant Green, Lonnie Smith, Andrew Hill and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra! Bassist and saxophonist Mark Zaleski will be in Baton Rouge at Chorum Hall on Wednesday, January 8th, and we track a tune from his latest recording. It's the start of the Charlie Parker centennial, and we'll be featuring Savoy studio tracks ...

Grant Green: The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark – 1961-62

by Marc Davis
September 27, 2016

Imagine if someone discovered a stash of unreleased Beatles records 15 years after they broke up. Then imagine Apple Records released all that music in a 2-CD set. That's what Grant Green: The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark is like. I exaggerate, but not by much. Grant Green wasn't the Beatles of jazz. But for about five years in the early-to mid-1960s, he was arguably the best jazz guitarist around. He was in the same class ...

Larry Young: Into Somethin'

by Greg Simmons
January 5, 2013

Organist Larry Young's Into Somethin' is full of relaxed grooves, great melodies and strong performances from tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers and 1960s stalwarts Elvin Jones (drums) and Grant Green (guitar). Originally released in 1964, this record has been remastered and released on 45 RPM vinyl by Ron Rambach at Music Matters. Soul Jazz? Groove Jazz? Whatever. It's good jazz and that's what matters. On the opening “Tyrone," Young plays deep blues at a straightforward, un-showy pace that gets ...

Grant Green: Matador

by Matt Marshall
December 7, 2009

Grant Green Matador Blue Note / Music Matters 2009 (1964)

This may be the reissue of 2009: a resplendent vinyl pressing of guitarist Grant Green's Matador on two 180-gram, 45-rpm records from Music Matters. This May 1964 recording was, like many Blue Note sets, not released until many years later (November 1979 in Japan in this case) and only reached the U.S. on CD in 1990. It has not been remastered since. The record ...

Grant Green: Street Of Dreams

by Chris May
April 18, 2009

Grant Green (1931-79) is probably the most sampled guitarist of his generation, and is rightly regarded as a godfather of acid jazz. His debut, Grant's First Stand (Blue Note, 1961)--heavy on the good foot groove--was made with soul jazz organist Baby Face Willette, and by 1965, when Green recorded an album for Verve, the label was able to title it, accurately enough, His Majesty King Funk. Many of Green's post-1970 recordings were built around extended, vamp or ostinato driven jams. ...