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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZGREEN, Grant(b 6 July '31, St Louis MO; d 31 Jan. '79) Guitar. Debut recording with Jimmy Forrest '59, gigged with Sam Lazar and Jack McDuff before joining Blue Note and releasing classic, moodily polished albums: Grant's First Stand and Green Street were trios; Sunday Mornin' and Grantstand were quartets (the former with Kenny Drew on piano, the latter with McDuff), and the complete recordings with Sonny Clark on piano issued on four-CD set by Mosaic '90 comprised albums Gooden's Corner, Nigeria, Oleo, Born To Be Blue and unissued tracks, all '61--2. (Eleven of these tracks have Ike Quebec on them; Green also played on Quebec's beautiful Blue And Sentimental.) Green and Clark were masters of rhythm accent and displacement, as Bob Blumenthal's notes for Mosaic describe it, shifting stresses revealing several meanings, 'a far more subtle virtuosity than encyclopedic harmonic knowledge or quicksilver arpeggio-running'. Remembering '62 was a trio with Wilbur Ware and Al Harewood on bass and drums, released in Japan; ten more albums '62--5 (Am I Blue and Idle Moments incl. Joe Henderson) were too many for the label to release, and much remained in the vaults for years. In '66 suddenly there were no sessions as Green's drug problem worsened. Iron City '67 was on Cobblestone/Muse, followed by a return to Blue Note. There was another gap between '72--6, yet in the '70s Green made ten more albums altogether, less remarkable and tending to what was already called funk, leading to something of a dancefloor revival of late with the reissue of Alive! from '70, compilation Best Of Vol. 1 '93, and the Standards set, of material previously issued only in Japan, '98. |