At one time, Grant Green was one of the most influential jazz guitarists, being sighted by George Benson as the guy who inspired his own playing. His Blue Note sessions from the 1960s are uniformly classic, with his linear and swinging style still felt to this day by the likes of Benson and Pat Metheny.
This pair of albums by Resonance Records feature a handful of previously uncovered material. The two disc set Funk in France has him recorded at La Maison De La Radio Studio in Paris, France on October 26, 1969 with Larry Ridley/b, Don Lamond/dr and cameo guest Barney Kessel/g, as well as a July 18-20 cellection from the Antibes Jazz Festival in 1970 with Claude bartee/ts, Clarence Palmer/org and Billy Wilson/dr.
This era had Green mixing vintage bebop with a more “contemporary” sound of Motown soul and the early stages of what eventually came to be called “Jam Band” music. The quartet stretches out for between 14-27 minutes, digging deep grooves on a funky “High-Heel Sneakers” and “Upshot” while Green mixes lyricism with Bartee’s rich tenor on the Top 40 hit “Hurt So Bad.” A take of “High Heel Sneakers” is a swampy delight as well, with Palmer’s Hammond humming like a V8 Chevy.
The radio set has Green in a more traditional jazz atmosphere, with a snappy take of Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo” and a richly bluesed out “Sonnymoon For Two.” Green’s strings are tensile and tender on the samba piece “How Insensitive” and there is twelve strings of delight when Kessel joins in for a warm and melodic “Upshot.” Any transcriptions of these solos in the works?
The single album Slick! Features Green in 1975, deeply drinking from the soul jazz that sounds much like Medeski, Martin and Wood with a dash of Sly and the Family Stone. Recorded at Oil Can Harry’s in Vancouver, BC, Green is teamed with two drummers, Greg “Vibrations” Williams and Gerald Izzard along with bassist Ronnie Ware and electric pianist Emmanuel Riggins. There are only three songs, with the nine minute Charlie Parker bopper “Now’s the Time” showing that Green still had the bop chops and heart. After that, the team stretches out for a 26 minute take of “How Insensitive” that let’s everyone get a chance to display their mood to groove, before they stampede into a 32 minute medley that is heavy on rhythm, wacka wooka guitars, drum patterns and keyboard concepts. Soul Train tunes like “Skin Tight,” “For the Love of Money” and “Boogie On Reggae Woman” are performed for the people in the mood for either dancing or kicking back and shaking their Afros.
Jazzers on the more trad side will want to grab the two disc set, while fans of plugged in Miles will find a friend on the Vancouver session. Green lived only 4 more years after the Canadian gig, dying before being fully appreciated at 44 years old. Here’s a chance to take in something you may have missed, and want to get deeper into this unfortunately forgotten six string gun slinger.
Resonance Records