Grant Green was born in St. Louis on June 6, 1931, learned his instrument in grade school from his guitar-playing father and was playing professionally by the age of thirteen with a gospel group. He worked gigs in his home town and in East St. Louis, IL, until he moved to New York in 1960 at the suggestion of
Lou Donaldson.
Green told Dan Morgenstern in a Down Beat interview: "The first thing I learned to play was
boogie-woogie. Then I had to do a lot of
rock & roll. It's all
blues, anyhow."
His extensive foundation in
R&B combined with a mastery of bebop and simplicity that put expressiveness ahead of technical expertise.
Green was a superb
blues interpreter, and his later material was predominantly
blues and
R&B, though he was also a wondrous ballad and standards soloist.
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Grant Green was born in St. Louis on June 6, 1931, learned his instrument in grade school from his guitar-playing father and was playing professionally by the age of thirteen with a gospel group. He worked gigs in his home town and in East St.
Louis, IL, until he moved to New York in 1960 at the suggestion of
Lou Donaldson.
Green told Dan Morgenstern in a Down Beat interview: "The first thing I learned to play was
boogie-woogie. Then I had to do a lot of
rock & roll. It's all
blues, anyhow."
His extensive foundation in
R&B combined with a mastery of bebop and simplicity that put expressiveness ahead of technical expertise.
Green was a superb
blues interpreter, and his later material was predominantly
blues and
R&B, though he was also a wondrous ballad and standards soloist. He was a particular admirer of
Charlie Parker, and his phrasing often reflected it.
Green played in the '50s with
Jimmy Forrest,
Harry Edison, and
Lou Donaldson.
He also collaborated with many organists, among them
Brother Jack McDuff, Sam Lazar,
Baby Face Willette, Gloria Coleman,
Big John Patton, and Larry Young. During the early '60s, both his fluid, tasteful playing in organ/guitar/drum combos and his other dates for Blue Note established
Green as a star, though he seldom got the critical respect given other players. He was off the scene for a bit in the mid-'60s, but came back strong in the late '60s and '70s.
Green played with
Stanley Turrentine,
Dave Bailey,
Yusef Lateef,
Joe Henderson,
Hank Mobley,
Herbie Hancock,
McCoy Tyner, and
Elvin Jones.
Sadly, drug problems interrupted his career in the '60s, and undoubtedly contributed to the illness he suffered in the late '70s.
Green was hospitalized in 1978 and died a year later. Despite some rather uneven LPs near the end of his career, the great body of his work represents marvelous
soul-jazz, bebop, and
blues.
A severely underrated player during his lifetime,
Grant Green is one of the great unsung heroes of
jazz guitar. Like
Stanley Turrentine, he tends to be left out of the books. Although he mentions
Charlie Christian and
Jimmy Raney as influences,
Green always claimed he listened to horn players (
Charlie Parker and
Miles Davis) and not other guitar players, and it shows. No other player has this kind of single-note linearity (he avoids chordal playing). There is very little of the intellectual element in
Green's playing, and his technique is always at the service of his music. And it is music, plain and simple, that makes
Green unique.
Green's playing is immediately recognizable -- perhaps more than any other guitarist.
Green has been almost systematically ignored by
jazz buffs with a bent to the cool side, and he has only recently begun to be appreciated for his incredible musicality. Perhaps no guitarist has ever handled standards and ballads with the brilliance of
Grant Green. Mosaic, the nation's premier
jazz reissue label, issued a wonderful collection The Complete Blue Note Recordings with Sonny Clark, featuring prime early '60s
Green albums plus unissued tracks. Some of the finest examples of
Green's work can be found there. ~ Michael Erlewine and Ron Wynn, All Music Guide
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