Grant Green’s fourth album, Sunday Mornin’, was the first time Green recorded (as a leader) with a piano instead of an organ. Joined by pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Ben Tucker, and drummer Ben Dixon, Green makes Sunday Mornin’ less of a soul-jazz session than his previous work, instead turning…
A Blue Note album finally reissued on CD in early 2004, Grant Green’s Goin’ West — like Feelin’ the Spirit — includes Herbie Hancock on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. Includes tunes like (can you believe?) “On Top of Old Smokey” and “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.”…
The Final Comedown was Blue Note’s first film soundtrack and a departure for both the label and Grant Green. True, many of Green’s sessions from this period dipped into funk and R&B, but most of the tracks heard here are pensive mood pieces, conceived as the backing tracks to…
Reissued on CD as part of Blue Note’s Rare Groove series, Carryin’ On was Grant Green’s first album for Blue Note since 1965, an absence of four years during which he recorded just two albums for other labels. Green’s return was accompanied by a seismic shift in direction —…
As a trio, this edition of guitarist Grant Green’s many ensembles has to rank with the best he had ever fronted. Recorded on April Fool’s Day of 1961, the band and music are no joke, as bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Dave Bailey understand in the most innate sense…
This debut of Mobley on Blue Note includes Horace Silver on piano and Doug Watkins on bass, plus someone named Art Blakey on drums. ~ Ron Wynn
Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan (tp) Hank Mobley (ts) Horace Silver (p) Paul Chambers (b) Charlie Persip (d) Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, November 25, 1956
Bill Hardman (tp) Curtis Porter (as, ts) Hank Mobley (ts) Sonny Clark (p) Paul Chambers (b) Art Taylor (d) Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, June 23, 1957
Today we can only speculate as to why so many Blue Note sessions were not originally issued. Blue Note founder/producer Alfred Lion, known to be punctilious in upholding a very high standard for his product, sometimes felt that a particular session was not worthy of public release. While neither…
