Grant Green
Lingua disponibile: ingleseA severely underrated player during his lifetime, Grant Green is one of the great unsung heroes of jazz guitar. He combined an extensive foundation in R&B with a mastery of bebop and simplicity that put expressiveness ahead of technical expertise. Green was a superb blues interpreter, and while his later material was predominantly blues and R&B, he was also a wondrous ballad and standards soloist. He was a particular admirer of Charlie Parker, and his phrasing often reflected it. Grant Green was born in St. Louis in 1935 (although many records during his lifetime incorrectly listed 1931). He learned his instrument in grade school from his guitar-playing father, and was playing professionally by the age of thirteen with a gospel group. He worked gigs in his home town and in East St. Louis, Illinois -- playing in the '50s with Jimmy Forrest, Harry Edison, and Lou Donaldson -- until he moved to New York in 1960 at the suggestion of Donaldson. Green told Dan Morgenstern in a Down Beat interview: "The first thing I learned to play was boogie-woogie. Then I had to do a lot of rock & roll. It's all blues, anyhow." During the early '60s, both his fluid, tasteful playing in organ/guitar/drum combos and his other dates for Blue Note established Green as a star, though he seldom got the critical respect given other players. He collaborated with many organists, among them Brother Jack McDuff, Sam Lazar, Baby Face Willette, Gloria Coleman, Big John Patton, and Larry Young. He was off the scene for a bit in the mid-'60s, but came back strong in the late '60s and '70s. Green played with Stanley Turrentine, Dave Bailey, Yusef Lateef, Joe Henderson, Hank Mobley, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and Elvin Jones. Sadly, drug problems interrupted his career in the '60s, and undoubtedly contributed to the illness he suffered in the late '70s. Green was hospitalized in 1978 and died a year later. Despite some rather uneven LPs near the end of his career, the great body of his work represents marvelous soul-jazz, bebop, and blues. Although he mentions Charlie Christian and Jimmy Raney as influences, Green always claimed he listened to horn players (Charlie Parker and Miles Davis) and not other guitar players, and it shows. No other player has this kind of single-note linearity (he avoids chordal playing). There is very little of the intellectual element in Green's playing, and his technique is always at the service of his music. And it is music, plain and simple, that makes Green unique. Green's playing is immediately recognizable -- perhaps more than any other guitarist. Green has been almost systematically ignored by jazz buffs with a bent to the cool side, and he has only recently begun to be appreciated for his incredible musicality. Perhaps no guitarist has ever handled standards and ballads with the brilliance of Grant Green. Mosaic, the nation's premier jazz reissue label, issued a wonderful collection The Complete Blue Note Recordings with Sonny Clark, featuring prime early '60s Green albums plus unissued tracks. Some of the finest examples of Green's work can be found there.
© Michael Erlewine & Ron Wynn /TiVo Continua a leggere
A severely underrated player during his lifetime, Grant Green is one of the great unsung heroes of jazz guitar. He combined an extensive foundation in R&B with a mastery of bebop and simplicity that put expressiveness ahead of technical expertise. Green was a superb blues interpreter, and while his later material was predominantly blues and R&B, he was also a wondrous ballad and standards soloist. He was a particular admirer of Charlie Parker, and his phrasing often reflected it.
Grant Green was born in St. Louis in 1935 (although many records during his lifetime incorrectly listed 1931). He learned his instrument in grade school from his guitar-playing father, and was playing professionally by the age of thirteen with a gospel group. He worked gigs in his home town and in East St. Louis, Illinois -- playing in the '50s with Jimmy Forrest, Harry Edison, and Lou Donaldson -- until he moved to New York in 1960 at the suggestion of Donaldson. Green told Dan Morgenstern in a Down Beat interview: "The first thing I learned to play was boogie-woogie. Then I had to do a lot of rock & roll. It's all blues, anyhow."
During the early '60s, both his fluid, tasteful playing in organ/guitar/drum combos and his other dates for Blue Note established Green as a star, though he seldom got the critical respect given other players. He collaborated with many organists, among them Brother Jack McDuff, Sam Lazar, Baby Face Willette, Gloria Coleman, Big John Patton, and Larry Young. He was off the scene for a bit in the mid-'60s, but came back strong in the late '60s and '70s. Green played with Stanley Turrentine, Dave Bailey, Yusef Lateef, Joe Henderson, Hank Mobley, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and Elvin Jones.
Sadly, drug problems interrupted his career in the '60s, and undoubtedly contributed to the illness he suffered in the late '70s. Green was hospitalized in 1978 and died a year later. Despite some rather uneven LPs near the end of his career, the great body of his work represents marvelous soul-jazz, bebop, and blues.
Although he mentions Charlie Christian and Jimmy Raney as influences, Green always claimed he listened to horn players (Charlie Parker and Miles Davis) and not other guitar players, and it shows. No other player has this kind of single-note linearity (he avoids chordal playing). There is very little of the intellectual element in Green's playing, and his technique is always at the service of his music. And it is music, plain and simple, that makes Green unique.
Green's playing is immediately recognizable -- perhaps more than any other guitarist. Green has been almost systematically ignored by jazz buffs with a bent to the cool side, and he has only recently begun to be appreciated for his incredible musicality. Perhaps no guitarist has ever handled standards and ballads with the brilliance of Grant Green. Mosaic, the nation's premier jazz reissue label, issued a wonderful collection The Complete Blue Note Recordings with Sonny Clark, featuring prime early '60s Green albums plus unissued tracks. Some of the finest examples of Green's work can be found there.
© Michael Erlewine & Ron Wynn /TiVo
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Idle Moments
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 1 feb 1965
La discografia ideale di Qobuz24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Born To Be Blue
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 1 gen 1962
Although Grant Green provided his share of groove-oriented soul-jazz and modal post-bop, his roots were hard bop, and it is in a bop-oriented setting ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Want To Hold Your Hand
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 1 gen 1966
La discografia ideale di QobuzHi-Res AudioThe third of three sessions Grant Green co-led with modal organist Larry Young and Coltrane drummer Elvin Jones, I Want to Hold Your Hand continues in ...
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Matador
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 20 mag 1964
Grant Green recorded so much high-quality music for Blue Note during the first half of the '60s that a number of excellent sessions went unissued at t ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grant's First Stand (Rudy Van Gelder Edition / Remastered 2009)
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 28 gen 1961
Grant Green's debut album, Grant's First Stand, still ranks as one of his greatest pure soul-jazz outings, a set of killer grooves laid down by a hard ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Feelin' The Spirit (Remastered)
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 21 dic 1962
Broadening his musical palette, Grant Green detoured into a number of "theme" sessions in 1962 -- the light Latin jazz of The Latin Bit; the country & ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Quartets With Sonny Clark
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 1 gen 1997
Mosaic released a four-disc box set titled The Complete Blue Note With Sonny Clark in 1991, rounding up everything that the guitarist and pianist reco ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live At The Lighthouse (Live)
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 21 apr 1972
Some of Grant Green's hottest moments as a jazz-funk bandleader came on his live records of the era, which were filled with extended, smoking grooves ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Solid (CD reissue)
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 12 giu 1964
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on June 12, 1964 (1-5) and May 20, 1965 ('Wives and Lovers'). First release in 1979 ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Visions
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 21 mag 1971
Grant Green's early-'70s recordings for Blue Note are continually attacked by jazz critics for being slick, overly commercial sessions that leaned clo ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Want To Hold Your Hand
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 1 gen 1966
Hi-Res AudioThe third of three sessions Grant Green co-led with modal organist Larry Young and Coltrane drummer Elvin Jones, I Want to Hold Your Hand continues in ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Funk in France: From Paris to Antibes (1969-1970)
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Resonance Records il 21 apr 2018
Certe malelingue hanno sempre visto Grant Green come una sorta di versione «light» dell’intoccabile Wes Montgomery. Una descrizione molto riduttiva pe ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nigeria
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 11 apr 1980
This is a great album with the classic synergy of Green and pianist Sonny Clark, who along with Sam Jones on bass and Art Blakey complete the quartet. ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Idle Moments
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 1 feb 1965
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Street Of Dreams
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 1 ago 1967
Hi-Res Audio24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Alive! (Live At The Cliche' Lounge, Newark, New Jersey, 1970 / Remastered 2000)
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 1 gen 1970
Alive! is the hardest funk LP Grant Green recorded during the later phase of his career, capturing a storming gig at Newark's Cliché Lounge. The sweat ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Latin Bit! (Remastered)
Grant Green
Latina - Pubblicato da RevOla il 24 set 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Talkin' About
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 1 gen 2000
On the heels of Matador and Solid, two of his most advanced albums, Grant Green decided to continue the more modal direction he'd begun pursuing with ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grantstand
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da Blue Note Records il 7 feb 2012
Stereophile: Record To Die ForGrant Green's third album to be released, Grantstand teams the clear-toned guitarist with an unlikely backing group of musicians who rarely appeared w ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carryin' On
Grant Green
Jazz - Pubblicato da EMI Music Japan Inc. il 3 ott 1969
Reissued on CD as part of Blue Note's Rare Groove series, Carryin' On was Grant Green's first album for Blue Note since 1965, an absence of four years ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -