Grant Green Classic Or Dud?

love that cover. want the font.

just saw that this was released
http://www.dustygroove.com/images/products/g/green_grant_holybarba_101b.jpg
Dusty Groove sez: "A rare early chapter in the career of guitarist Grant Green – local material, cut in his hometown of St Louis – in the years before Lou Donaldson picked him up and delivered him to Blue Note Records! Amazingly, though, the Grant Green heard here is every bit as great as the guitarist who emerged strongly on his early Blue Note dates as a leader – a smoking soloist with a strong talent for single-line grooving – working here in a hip organ combo that features Sam Lazar on Hammond and Bob Graf on tenor sax! Lazar's got a mean bite to his organ, and pairs beautifully with Green – and together, the players hit a groove that's gritty, yet which has surprisingly strong fidelity – more than enough to make the record an essential piece of Grant's catalog. The CD's hardly a muddy live recording, and instead has surprisingly great fidelity – and lots of long tracks with open solos, on titles that include "Deep", "Blue Train", "Holy Barbarian Blues", "Caramu", "Grovvin High", and "Out Of Nowhere"."

Does anyone know if he ever played in this type of setting (modal/mystical advanced hardbop) again? oh yeah and classic.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Friday, January 3, 2003 11:53 PM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Re-opening this ten year old question, because I listened to that Donaldson record last night and recall thinking 'whoa, he sounds like Garcia.' Any others like this? There's a cheap-ish copy of Green Street at my local shop...

Oops I meant Morgan, not Donaldson. People were talking at me while I was typing.

haha I been listening to Lou Donaldson & Grant Green today. Lee Morgan too!

I'm a big fan. I blogged about Grant's trilogy of live recordings several years and it still remains one of my most read posts: http://austintayeshus.blogspot.com/2008/06/grant-greens-trilogy-of-early-70s-live.html

I picked up Green Street at Amoeba on a whim about a year ago, and I've since grown to love Green's work. As good as Green Street is, I am very excited for the Blue Note vinyl reissue of Idle Moments on May 27th!

Mixed feelings about him -- he had great sound, tone, confidence, was awesome over a simple funky break with a few chords, but was pretty limited and unimaginative harmonically. Few guitarists *sound* better. But Wes Montgomery, who had a similarly fat sound, was like 5x the musician Grant was.

Got that "Complete Blue Note Quartets w/Sonny Clark" thing awhile back...nice stuff but I wish he did some comping when not soloing.

xp Does Wes Montgomery have a good album without keys that you would recommend?

Hey ilm jazzheads, Grant Green's The Latin Bit is one of my most played jazz recordings: the kinda kitschy Latin pop covers ("Besame Mucho," "Tico Tico") and the use of congas. (Another one in this vein: Lou Donaldson's Gravy Train.)
Help me find something similar, probably early 60s, soul jazz covering some 50s pop rather than say James Brown. (Although I love those too.) I probably don't need any more organ jazz.

you might dig ike quebec's bossa nova soul samba.

and it's not really in the same vein as what you're primarily looking for, but ike's blue + sentimental has grant on it and it absolutely rules. mostly ballads and mostly no piano, so it has a very warm, unique feel. one of my alltime favorite blue notes, honestly.

Ooh, I liked the bits of both I sampled, thanks. Looks like those and another two are combined on one of those cheapo reissues.

yeah, if i didn't already have all of the albums individually, this set would be high on my want list. it has quite a few of the songs from this now out of print set and those 45 sessions are ike's best work imo, so that's a great bonus tacked onto an already fantastic set.

oh, what's up the only live footage of grant that i've ever seen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdFYaK_nUCs

1969 is basically peak Grant Green, plus his live stuff is so much more electrifying. Great find!

the crazy part is that it's just been sitting on youtube for the past four years.

i mean, really!??!!?!?!

Austin, belated thanks for the Ike Quebec recommendation. I finally ordered that four album collection and it's all super nice. I hadn't even realized he's the sax player on The Latin Bit.

What I also found which perfectly hits the slightly lounge-y Latin groove I was searching for is Sonny Stitt Goes Latin, which is not at all as cheesy as the cover art might lead one to believe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7h0k4x-u5E

awesome, glad you dig it! that stuff is (sigh) . . . so good.

have to admit i'm not as familiar with sonny stitt. definitely gonna check it out. thanks!

yep, this sonny stitt rules!

also: looking on discogs, it's one of chick corea's earliest sideman appearances on record.

I was going to include that factoid! Man, Stitt released so. many. records. This one and another Latin date from around the same time, Primitivo Soul, are on a cheap twofer.