Grant Green & Sonny Clark - The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark

Over a five-week period in early 1962, Grant Green recorded three amazing quartet sessions with Sonny Clark on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Louis Hayes or Art Blakey on drums. As magnificent as the results were, the three albums, considered too progressive for Green's soul-jazz following, languished in the vaults for 18 years. In 1980, "Airegin," the session with Blakey, came out in the United States, while the two with Hayes ("Gooden's Corner" and "Oleo") came out only in Japan. Later issued briefly on Mosaic with three bonus tracks, they have since become collectors' items of legendary proportions. Now Blue Note is finally making them available on this specially-priced 2-CD set. Some of the best music Grant Green ever recorded. [Super Bit Mapping]

THE COMPLETE QUARTETS WITH SONNY CLARK includes the albums AIREGIN, GOODEN'S CORNER and OLEO as well as 3 additional tracks. Album Description

This CD is mandatorily on any list of top ten jazz guitarists, ever.

It's too bad Grant Green didn't live longer than he did; he was and would have continued being so much more than this single CD offering. I'm grateful for this snapshot of him though.
So amazing, it's 47 years ago that he recorded this...
I can't stop playing Green's adaptation of "It ain't necessarily so"; if it isn't the best jazz quartet performance ever, well...I don't know what is. Due respect to Miles, Parker and other venerables. But, if this rendition doesn't move you or get your overwhelming listening attention, absolutely nothing in life ever will.
It compels me to go out and buy new stereo equipment, since it feels like an injustice or disrespect to play it on my dated home equipment.
My goodness, the flowing, conversational guitar of Mr Green paralleling the piano rhythms of Sonny Clark, who I could swear repeats a series of overly sharp notes in his solo, just to see if he's got your attention. Once he has, he lets roll a silky, almost lamenting blues/gospel/classical remainder of his solo to transition it back to Grant. "It ain't necessarily so" is worth the price of the entire cd alone. This cut fortunately goes on for at least 10 minutes in a workmanlike conversation between each musician, wherein drummer Art Blakey defines his own exclamations and firebrand styles of completing his signature on this composition. Like a time and tide datum, Sam Jones adds depth and queue to every measure of music. If I could play an acoustic bass, I wouldn't, unless I could play like Sam.
There are 18 other cuts on this 2 cd set, which I don't have time to properly respect here, but "Airegin", "Tune-up" and "Hip Funk" get in line behind "It ain't necessarily so", and not in the stated order. I would expect a lot of uproar from other listeners on those selections ranking over others on the cd; legitamitely so.
You'll want to make the best compression copy your equipment can burn to a cd, so you can save the original for special occasions only. This CD will not disaapoint.

April 4, 2008

2 albums brought together

This album is comprised of "Nigeria" and "Gooden's Corner", both out of print until this CD was released.
The interplay of the piano and guitar is great, and Green's sound is very crisp while still remaining cool and laid back.

If you enjoy this check out "Idle Moments" from Green and "Leapin' & Lopin'" from Sonny Clark May 2, 2006

Another Must Have

This is another great Grant Green album. Here he is with Sonny Clark playing straight ahead jazz. If you like jazz guitar, this is one of the cd's you must own. It contains a number of great jazz standards, like Airegin, Oleo, Tune Up and My Favorite Things. The playing is excellent throughout, and it is a 19 song double album. What more could you ask for? October 27, 2005

You like Grant Green? Get this CD at all costs!

I have always loved Grant Green's music. Not a big fan of the sell-out years where he tried to cross over into commercial success. Wes did it, Grant never quite managed to do anything but "sell out" in my opinion. And the music suffered. But that's not this CD...

This CD is straight-ahead jazz. Pure, solid, grooving, dramatic, powerful, inspirational, and just a true pleasure to listen to. Every member in the band plays like they've known each other since the womb. So very, very tight. Grant and Sonny are almost too nice to each other. They both try very hard to accomidate the other and make sure they have space to play. And when comping, Sonny and Grant compliment each other in a way that only true chemistry can create.

Grant's sound is very typical on this one. Signature single-note lines, not many chordal phrases. When i say, "typical" I mean typical of his greatest playing. I easily put this recording up there with Idle Moments.

My favourite track on the CD is,"It Ain't Necessarily So." The interplay between Grant and Sonny will just make you beam with happiness. Every time Grant tries to hand the lead off to Sonny, Sonny eggs him on verbally with, "go, just go!" And Grant anwers with some heartfelt passion and always finds a way to push himself. Grant shows off his incredible ability to flawlessly drag his notes on this CD too. His playing always seems so simple, but he's really a smart and knowledgeable player.

This is one of my desert island discs. You just can't go wrong popping this set into the player. Never lets you down. Simply put, if you're a fan of Grant's more straight-ahead, non-funkified music, then you will probably want to pick this CD set up. September 23, 2005

Delicate and Classic: A Standard for Jazz Playing

This is a wonderful album that shows the musical potential of the guitar as a single-note jazz instrument. Grant Green went on to play much "funkier" jazz, but this album has the clean elegant sound of classic jazz music. In that way it is reminiscent of one of the great jazz albums of the late '50s, the Sonny Clark Trio's self-titled album. The parallel is no suprise, since Grant Green is here playing with Sonny Clark. As well as offering a variety of delicate renderings of standard tunes (--I especially like "I Concentrate on You"--) this album demonstrates one important way that the guitar and piano can play together. (Both are chordal instruments, and can clash in a band, but here Green uses the guitar to play only single notes, more like a horn would normally do.) This is an excellent album that I listen to regularly without ever tiring of it. March 14, 2004

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