Grant Green

If you’re digging the sounds of any Blue Note album recorded in the 1960s that has a guitarist on it, chances are that guitarist is Grant Green. Bursting onto the New York scene from his hometown of St Louis, Green quickly established himself as the house guitarist with Blue Note and between 1961 and 1965 he appeared on more sessions as a leader and sideman than any other artist. Green had a warm and luminous tone and his emphasis on feel lent itself to Blue Note’s soulful hard bop sound of the era while setting him apart from many jazz guitarists of the time who focused on chops, looking see how notes they could cram into a solo.

Green’s playing has always been loved and admired for its natural groove and depth of feeling. This collection of tracks highlights these qualities and catalogs Grant’s funkier side, starting with the organ grinder “Miss Anne’s Tempo” taken of his very first record for Blue Note. Then we fast forward to some selections from the later part of Grant’s output with the hard groovers “Cease The Bombing” , “California Green” & “Cantaloupe Woman”, the funky meters cover “Ease Back”, and the rare groove classic “Down Here on the Ground” which many know from A Tribe Called Quest’s use in “Vibes and Stuff”