Jazz Articles about Johnny Griffin

Johnny Griffin: At Onkel Pö's Carnegie Hall

by Stefano Merighi
May 3, 2018

Quando queste tracce vengono registrate ad Amburgo, nel 1975, il jazz è forse nel suo momento più critico, abbandonato da ampie fette di pubblico, sedotto o dalla più muscolare fusion o dal rock progressivo. A dispetto della nascita di decine di nuove formazioni e dell'incremento delle produzioni discografiche, specie negli Usa si era perso quel senso della comunità jazzistica che ne aveva garantito l'umanesimo. Sopravviveva nell'ambito della free music, con un pubblico però esiguo. In termini generalisti, si andava verso ...

Johnny Griffin: The Congregation – 1957

by Marc Davis
June 20, 2016

Well, this is a disappointment. Johnny Griffin is widely regarded as one of the fastest sax players in jazz history. His reputation began with his very first album, Blue Note's Introducing Johnny Griffin in 1956. He solidified his rep the next year with a frantic three-sax attack on A Blowin' Session with John Coltrane and Hank Mobley. So maybe it's not a huge surprise that Griffin wanted to try something different a few months later, in ...

Johnny Griffin: A Blowin' Session – Blue Note 1559

by Marc Davis
January 27, 2015

Sometimes dumb luck makes all the difference. That's the case with Johnny Griffin's A Blowin' Session. If you're a sax fan, this one's for you--not one, not two, but three red-hot tenors, plus one scorching trumpet, and the legendary Art Blakey smashing the drums behind them. Three tenors? How did that happen? Pure serendipity. Johnny Griffin, the young, new, super-fast saxman, was on his way to record at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in New Jersey one ...

Introducing Johnny Griffin – Blue Note 1533

by Marc Davis
October 22, 2014

In jazz and rock--heck, even in classical music--there is a sacred throne for those who play fast. Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson occupy such thrones. So do Jimmy Page and Eddie Van Halen. Fast is fun. Johnny Griffin played fast--very fast. The evidence is here in Griffin's very first album, Introducing Johnny Griffin. It's a 1956 date with a quartet that includes Wynton Kelly on piano, Curly Russell on bass and Max Roach on drums. For ...

Johnny Griffin: Live at Ronnie Scott's

by Edward Blanco
September 21, 2010

Once known as the “fastest tenor in the west" for executing fast notes with ease, saxophonist Johnny Griffin leaves one last recording to remember him by with Live At Ronnie Scott's. The album documents a two-night engagement in May 2008, at the legendary London jazz club, to celebrate the artist's eightieth birthday, and features a host of jazz luminaries, all there to pay tribute to a man known as “The Little Giant" of the tenor saxophone.Griffin, who passed ...

Johnny Griffin: Live At Ronnie Scott's

by Dan Bilawsky
July 7, 2010

Live At Ronnie Scott's is likely to draw in a lot of jazz listeners for two reasons. First, this album was the final recording that the late Johnny Griffin--known as a saxophone speed demon--made as a leader. While other unreleased material might make its way to the market at a later date, this is Grffin's last “authorized and artist-approved" release. The second draw has to do with his inter-generational band, featuring multiple marquee names like drummer Billy ...

Johnny Griffin: From Johnny Griffin With Love

by Greg Thomas
September 9, 2009

Johnny Griffin From Johnny Griffin With Love Storyville Records 2009

Chicago native Johnny Griffin was undoubtedly one of the greatest artists to ever play the tenor saxophone. His technical capacity at high velocity tempi was legendary, earning him the nicknames “fastest gun in the West" and “Little Giant." Not mere empty displays, Griffin's virtuosity served his expressive needs. As Frank Foster has written: “His blazing speed in producing one dynamite ...