This past year the capacious Blue Note vaults yielded four previously unreleased sessions from the sixties that feature Green.  He is a sideman on Man with a Horn  by Lou Donaldson and Kicker by Bobby Hutcherson and he’s the leader on Blues for Lou and the just released First Session.   He also appears on two new Blue Note reissues, complete collections of recordings by Don Wilkerson and George Braith.  If we were in the sad position fifteen years ago of having little or no Grant Green to choose from, we now have an embarrassment of riches.  I’m not complaining; for me, there can never be too much Grant Green.

The reasons for the temporary undervaluing of Grant Green’s stock following his death are somewhat hard to pin down.  Some of the decline can be attributed to the funk-based recordings he made during the last ten years of his life.  Those records have long been shrugged off, even by some of Green’s defenders.  I think they’re unfairly maligned.  They’re highly rhythmic, driving records (Idris Muhammed is the drummer for many of them) and Green’s playing on them is of a high order.  He often transcends what might at first sound like limited harmonic possibilities.  While those albums fall short of his earlier achievements, at their worst they still have more fire than, say, Wes Mongomery’s later recordings for Creed Taylor.

At the time of Green’s death, fusion was dominant and jazz guitarists were valued for speed and empty virtuosity.  More traditional guitarists like Kenny Burrell and Joe Pass continued playing straightahead jazz during those years and were able to reclaim their rightful audience when fusion began to fade. Green was gone by then and his music had to await rediscovery.  A number of writers, including Green’s biographer,   Sharony Andrews Green, claim that the acid jazz movement, which championed the later funk records, sparked the renewed interest in Green.  That may be true, but only in part.  As jazz labels began reissuing their back catalogs on CD, Green’s ubiquity as a sideman during the sixties made it inevitable that his playing, including his work as a leader on recordings prior to 1969, would demand reevaluation.  It is upon that work, his pure jazz playing, that Green’s reputation rests. 

Writers often refer to Green as a single-note or single string guitarist.  This designation carries with it a slight scent of condescension, as if Green couldn’t manage the difficult chord changes that are a jazz guitarist’s stock-in-trade.  While his comping isn’t as complicated as Montgomery’s or Tal Farlowe’s, to name just two chord masters, he certainly knew enough of the fingerboard to play chords in support of other instrumentalists.  The fact remains, however, that he rarely did so and when he did it was usually brief and discreet.  In addition, he almost never used chords during solos.

A comparison of Green’s playing on First Sessions and Wes Montgomery’s on his albums Bags Meets Wes and Full House illustrates the difference in their approaches.  Wynton Kelly is the pianist on all three sessions.  On “He’s a Real Gone Guy” from First Sessions, Green states the theme and improvises for a time before stepping aside for Kelly. He doesn’t comp at all behind Kelly’s solo.  By contrast, Mongomery comps impressively, though lightly, behind the Kelly and the other soloists on his sessions.  At first, Green’s silence is disconcerting; we’re used to hearing a guitarist playing in support of the soloists.  After listening to a few of his sessions, however, you grow accustomed to their space and openness.  

Why Green’s reluctance to play chords is held against him is beyond me.  After all, horn players don’t play chords and many other jazz guitarists choose to comp with restraint or to lay out altogether.  Grant Green’s approach to chord playing was of a piece with the musical philosophy his playing conveyed: keep it direct and melodic.  His playing wasn’t simple--far from it. But it was straightforward and uncluttered.  Each note rang out clearly, even in the quickest melody lines, and Green wasn’t afraid to let a note sustain.  He also allowed space between notes in a solo.  A burst of melody will be followed by a few beats where he doesn’t play.  More than any other jazz guitarist, Green let pauses help develop his melodic ideas.

The second track on First Session, “Seepin’,” highlights another of Green’s strengths: He was a convincing and moving blues player.  Many jazz musicians who voice tribute to the blues are about as believable when they play it as classical musicians are when performing popular material.  Green didn’t shy away from borrowing a blues riff from someone like T.Bone Walker--he knew the music’s tradition.  But with his tone and the way he plucked the notes, you weren’t going to mistake his playing for anyone else’s.  When he expanded on the possibilities of a blues tune, as he does on “Seepin’,” he doesn’t try to bury it in technique as if to demonstrate his superiority to the form.  He takes daring and quick melodic leaps but always returns to the familiar feel of the blues.

First Session was recorded in November 1960, except for the last two tracks (two alternate takes of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Woody ‘N’ You”), which were recorded in October 1961.  The rhythm section for the earlier session is Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.  The disc contains two blues based songs, “He’s a Real Gone Guy” and “Seepin’,” one standard “Just Friends,” and some straightahead compositions.  Kelly’s playing is as unashamedly blues influenced as Green’s and he brings a relaxed feel to the proceedings.  He’s also a confident, energetic soloist.  Green is a little hesitant in spots on the earlier session and there are one or two rough edges, which, along with some technical glitches, explain why Blue Note’s Alfred Lion chose not to release the session.  On the two tracks recorded a year later with Sonny Clark on piano, Butch Warren on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums, Green is far more assured and plays fluidly.

Even with its rough spots, this is a disc worth owning.  It’s always a pleasure to hear Kelly and Paul Chambers, who are both in good form.  As far as I know, this is the only recording that Green did with Philly Joe Jones, who brings a solid, aggressive swing to the session.  While Green’s talent is certainly in development, the seeds of his greatness await only his confidence in the recording studio to bear fruit.  His performance on “Seepin’” is as good as anything he ever played and by itself justifies the release of the disc.

If you’re new to Grant Green, this isn’t a bad disc to start with, although Idle Moments and The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark are probably his definitive statements.  Of course, then you’ll want to pick up Matador and Born to Be Blue, along with many of his other discs and the discs that feature him as a sideman.  His playing is a constant surprise.

Click here for a Grant Green web-site that includes a biography and an extensive, but incomplete, discography: http://website.lineone.net/~johnharris/grant.htm

This Japanese web-site contains a complete, up-to-date- discography in English:     http://www.ceres.dti.ne.jp/~acchan/ggdisc.html