From the archives
Geoffrey Smith on guitarist Grant Green, whose albums showcase a versatile and daring musician
Though always interesting, the archives take on a special lustre when they illuminate both historic context and artistic content. That intriguing bond unites newly-released concert recordings by guitarist Grant Green, a mainstay of the soul jazz and post-bop scene in the 1960s who crossed over to funk. Two sets on the Resonance label – Funk in France:
From Paris to Antibes (1969-1970) (Resonance HCD-2033) and Slick! – Live at Oil Can Harry’s (Resonance HCD-2034) – catch him on the turn and after, first in a Parisian trio gig and later at Antibes with his first cross-over band; then in a date in a Vancouver club from 1975, fully saturated with funk and pop.
As a player, Green commanded respect among fellow guitarists, though lacking the public réclame of Wes Montgomery. In contrast to Montgomery’s huge sound and smooth virtuosity, Green’s attack was pointed, slightly barbed, linear and melodic; above all, steeped in the blues. He was a fixture on Blue Note as soloist and sideman, recording scores of albums from 1961-71 with the likes of Mccoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock and making a speciality of soulful, driving trios with organ.
However, the 1969 Paris trio in Green’s first Resonance album is the standard line-up of bass and drums. Green excels on jazz standards and blues – wiry, lyrical and swinging, including the grooving bossa nova, ‘How Insensitive’ and touching ballad. But 1969 was also the year Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew proclaimed the arrival of jazz-rock fusion, and Green’s 1970 session at Antibes shows him following that course – his quartet with organ and tenor sax features edgy, tightly-sprung rhythms and long, free-wheeling, sometimes spacey solos: at Antibes, ‘How Insensitive’ lasts for 26 minutes.
By 1975, at Vancouver, Green’s quintet is wholly committed to funk, with extended pop tunes and lashings of clattering percussion. It can be exciting, and the guitarist’s gifts often still shine through, but his old bluesy clarity gets lost amid the heaving bluster – though the product is certainly ‘slick’.
The greatest jazz players and their music are explored in Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz, a weekly programme broadcast on Saturdays from 12am-1am