Retrospective 1961-1966
Grant Green
McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Smith, Hank Mobley, Horace Parlan, Stanley Turrentine, Ike Quebec, Lee Morgan, Herbie Hancock
Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder
Blue Note Records (USA), 2002
4 CD
Catalogue #: 40851
EAN: 0724354085123
UPC: 724354085123
You save: 20%
Personnel includes: Grant Green (guitar); George Braith (soprano & tenor saxophones); James Spaulding, Lou Donaldson (alto saxophone); Ike Quebec (tenor saxophone, piano); Wayne Shorter, Booker Ervin, Joe Henderson, Stanley Turrentine, Hank Mobley, Sam Rivers, Fred Jackson, Harold Vick (tenor saxophone); Tommy Turrentine, Blue Mitchell (trumpet); Bobby Hutcherson (vibraphone); Kenny Drew, Sonny Clark, Johnny Acea, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Wynton Kelly, Tommy Flanagan, Horace Parlan, Duke Pearson (piano); Baby Face Willette, Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith, John Patton, Billy Gardner, Larry Young, Kenny Drew (organ); Paul Chambers, Reggie Workman (bass); Louis Hayes, Elvin Jones (drums); Carlos Patato Valdes (congas).
Producer: Alfred Lion.
Compilation producer: Michael Cuscuna.
Recorded at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey between 1961 & 1966. Includes liner notes by Bob Blumenthal.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Tracklist
Grant Green
St. Louis-born guitarist Grant Green was a giant of what came to be known as soul-jazz. His singular style incorporated the influences of Gospel, blues, and R&B, and defined a unique post-bop language for electric guitar. His classic early-1960s Blue Note recordings are high-water marks of both the soul-jazz sound and of jazz guitar in general. Drug abuse sadly hampered his later career; he died in 1979, but his son, the jazz guitarist Grant Green, Jr., continues his legacy.
McCoy Tyner
It would be difficult to overstate McCoy Tyner's impact on the last three decades of jazz piano, first as a member of the classic Coltrane quartet in the 1960s, and later as a leader. His thundering bass tremolos, floating quartal harmonies, and blistering pentatonic runs have become part of the lingua franca of jazz piano. Tyner's recordings have skilfully blended elements of African and Asian music with the European classical tradition, but in 1997 he surprised the jazz world with a Burt Bacharach covers album. By 2000 he had returned to form with the aptly-titled JAZZ ROOTS.
Jimmy Smith
Though he was a late bloomer (he didn't start playing organ until age 28), Jimmy Smith is the single most influential figure in the history of jazz organ. He was the pioneering force in making the organ a lead instrument. And while he had bebop chops aplenty, his blues/R&B influences and preference for space over clutter also made him an icon of the subsequent acid jazz movement. Though his heyday was in the 1960s, the larger-than-life organist blazed ahead for decades afterward, until his death in February 2005.
Hank Mobley
A beguilingly gifted tenor player in the hard bop vein, Hank Mobley was underrated and underappreciated for most of his career. Though he was an original member of the Jazz Messengers and had a brief stint with the Miles Davis Quintet in '61, the majority of Mobley's outstanding quartet and quintet dates for Blue Note, full of his rhythmic subtlety and highly lyrical solos, were not released until after his death in 1986.
Stanley Turrentine
Tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine possesses a big, slightly raw tone, and a powerful sense of swing, but is also quite at home with subtle expressions of tenderness. He achieved considerable success in the '60s working live and recording with Jimmy Smith and later, Shirley Scott. Together, they provided some of the finest examples of the tenor/organ soul-funk-jazz approach.
Ike Quebec
Ike Quebec was a talented tenor sax player who recorded some beautiful sides for the Blue Note label in the 1940s and '50s; however, he remains underrated and little-known for his playing. His lasting influence came from his behind-the-scenes work as an A&R man and talent scout for Blue Note, steering them in the direction of a more contemporary repertoire and introducing legends such as Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and Dexter Gordon to the label.
Lee Morgan
Along with Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan was one of the leading trumpeter/composers of the 1960s hard-bop era. His composition "The Sidewinder" is perhaps THE signature piece of the genre, and is practically the textbook definition of the "boogaloo" groove that became popular in the mid-'60s. Influenced by Clifford Brown, Morgan possessed fleet fingers and a robust tone, and his enormously influential approach utilized blues-based harmony, simple melodic motives, and funky, groove-oriented rhythms. The jazz world was robbed of an innovator when Morgan was shot dead by a jealous girlfriend in 1972.
Herbie Hancock
One of the most open-eared and forward-thinking jazz musicians of his day, Hancock has, more than just about anyone else, consistently tried to broaden the music's horizons by mixing it with the most interesting elements of contemporary pop. Hancock has consistently pushed the envelope, from his earliest days with Miles Davis to his jazz-rock fusion of the early '70s and his early embrace of synthesizers and electronic instruments, his early-'80s experiments with hip-hop and sampling, or more recently, his acoustic piano reinterpretations of songs--the new standards, in his parlance--by everyone from Don Henley to Nirvana.
