Throughout jazz history, there have been magical pairings of musicians in recording studios. Sometimes the union was established jointly by the two musicians. At other times, producers brought them together. These couplings include Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden, Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Shirley Scott and Stanley Turrentine, Sonny Stitt and Don Patterson, and Donald Byrd and Pepper Adams.
Add to the list guitarist Grant Green and pianist Sonny Clark. Their souls were in the same groove and they played off each other neatly. They also had a terrific juxtaposition—Green's pronounced, pointed attack pressed against Clark's smoothed out elegant approach. Both could swing.
They recorded four albums' worth of material together in 1961 and '62. The shocker is that none of the tracks were released by Blue Note until the 1980s. Which is baffling and criminal. The albums are Gooden's Corner (recorded in 1961 and released in 1980), Nigeria (1962/1980), Oleo (1962/1980) and Born to Be Blue (1962/1985). We can thank the late Michael Cuscuna, the Blue Note reissue producer in the late 1970s and '80s, for bringing these to light.
How about all the Green-Clark quartet collaborations?
Here's Grant Green: The Complete Quartets With Sonny Clark, without ad interruptions...
Add to the list guitarist Grant Green and pianist Sonny Clark. Their souls were in the same groove and they played off each other neatly. They also had a terrific juxtaposition—Green's pronounced, pointed attack pressed against Clark's smoothed out elegant approach. Both could swing.
They recorded four albums' worth of material together in 1961 and '62. The shocker is that none of the tracks were released by Blue Note until the 1980s. Which is baffling and criminal. The albums are Gooden's Corner (recorded in 1961 and released in 1980), Nigeria (1962/1980), Oleo (1962/1980) and Born to Be Blue (1962/1985). We can thank the late Michael Cuscuna, the Blue Note reissue producer in the late 1970s and '80s, for bringing these to light.
How about all the Green-Clark quartet collaborations?
Here's Grant Green: The Complete Quartets With Sonny Clark, without ad interruptions...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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