{"id":9675,"date":"2018-06-21T16:58:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T23:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=9675"},"modified":"2018-06-21T21:42:07","modified_gmt":"2018-06-22T04:42:07","slug":"when-grant-green-got-funky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/06\/when-grant-green-got-funky\/","title":{"rendered":"When Grant Green Got Funky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grant Green<\/strong>, From Paris To Antibes”\u00a0(1969-1970)<\/a> (Resonance)
\nGrant Green<\/strong>, Slick! Live At Oil Can Harry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/a>, (Resonance)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Two previously unissued Grant Green albums are giving the guitarist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music something of a comeback. Green, who died in 1979 when he was 47, recorded extensively for the Blue Note and Prestige labels in the 1960s and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc70s with Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and other leaders. Later, Blue Note recordings under his own name included such distinguished sidemen as Hank Mobley, Sonny Clark, Elvin Jones, Houston Person and Larry Young.<\/p>\n

In the late 1960s and early \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc70s, Green began adapting elements of the stylistic offshoot known as\"\" funk. He wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t alone. Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and George Benson were also incorporating funk in hopes of capturing wider shares of audiences oriented toward the basic\u00e2\u20ac\u201dnot to say primitive\u00e2\u20ac\u201demotions at the heart of much rhythm-driven pop music of the day. Blue Note albums like Carryin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 On<\/em> and Ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t It Funky Now<\/em> illustrate Green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dedication to the trend. The first track of Funk In France<\/em>, recorded live in a Paris studio, is a cover version of the ultimate funk star James Brown\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up The Door I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll Get It Myself).\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The album also captures Green at the top of his bop game in two classics by Sonny Rollins, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oleo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sonnymoon For Two,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and in an untitled minor blues that incorporates aspects of both idioms. Green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two-man rhythm section for the studio recording is drummer Don Lamond, the motivational drummer of Woody Herman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great Second Herd, and bassist Larry Ridley during the period when he was having success with Freddie Hubbard, Philly Joe Jones and Dinah Washington, among many others. Barney Kessel, whose career went back as far as Lamond\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, joins Green to provide ”\u00a0moving second-guitar accompaniment on Parisian Charles Trenet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Wish You Love.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\"\"Slick!<\/em> was recorded in 1975 at Oil Can Harry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, a club that thrived in Vancouver, British Columbia, for a decade in the sixties and seventies. The CD\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first half finds Green in familiar territory with Charlie Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blues \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Now\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s The Time.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d A supremely relaxed 26-minute version of Jobim\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How Insensitive\u00e2\u20ac\u009d demonstrates Green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absorption with the Brazilian music that had captivated Americans. Then, Green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funk unit revs up with a medley that includes Stanley Clarke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Vulcan Princess,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Ohio Players\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Skin Tight,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bobby Womack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Woman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gotta Have It,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Stevie Wonder\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Boogie On Reggae Woman\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Jays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For The Love Of Money\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201din all, a fair overview of the pop-funk landscape of the mid-1970s. Green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guitar and Ronnie Ware\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s electric bass fairly leap out of the speakers during the medley until Green dials back the funk a bit for a relatively relaxed interval by Ware\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bass. Emmanuel Riggins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 electric piano, Greg \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcVibration\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Williams\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 drums and Gerald Izzard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s array of percussion round out the band. Izzard’s panoply of effects includes what may be bird calls and a police whistle. This newly-discovered music probably won’t replace Green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beloved Blue Notes on collectors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 shelves, but the Resonance discoveries offer a way for those new to this gifted guitaist to make his acquaintance. In Slick!<\/em> the Oil Can Harry’s audience gives Green and his quintet a joyous reception.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grant Green, From Paris To Antibes”\u00a0(1969-1970) (Resonance) Grant Green, Slick! Live At Oil Can Harry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, (Resonance) Two previously unissued Grant Green albums are giving the guitarist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music something of a comeback. Green, who died in 1979 when he was 47, recorded extensively for the Blue Note and Prestige labels in the 1960s and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc70s with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}