Grant Green

Grant Green was an American musician hailed as one of the great jazz guitarists for his classical style and what Jazz Times called "his facile, hip lines and unerring sense of swing". He ranked with Wes Montgomery and George Benson but he is regarded as having been overlooked despite his prodigious output on record. He appeared on more than 90 albums, mostly for the Blue Note label, with artists such as organist Larry Young, drummer Elvin Jones and saxophonists Hank Mobley, Ike Quebec and Stanley Turrentine. Born in St. Louis, he played gospel music before moving to jazz and was spotted by sax player Lou Donaldson performing in a local bar. He signed a recording contract and remained busy throughout the 1960s and early '70s. 'Carryin' On' (1970) went to number 49 on Billboard's R&B Chart followed by 'Green Is Beautiful' (1970) at number 24 and 'Visions' (1971) at number 31 and the 1972 action drama 'The Final Comedown' starring Bill Dee Williams featured several of Green's songs on the soundtrack. Green died of a heart attack on the road in 1979 aged 43 after suffering a stroke ten weeks earlier. In 1999, Jazz Times praised his "tasteful melodicism, his pure singing tone, the clarity of his bop-inspired linear concept and his earthy deep blue expression". In a 2001 review of a compilation album featuring Green and pianist Sonny Clark titled 'The Complete Quartets', All That Jazz critic Reid Thompson noted that the recording was "full of intuition, soul, and swing and lacking in pretence" and said it "has me asking myself, does music get any better than this?"

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