Grant Green – Idle Moments (1965) [Analogue Productions 2010]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 64:12 minutes | Scans included | 2,66 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1,02 GB

This languid, seductive gem may well be Grant Green’s greatest moment on record. Right from the opening bars of the classic title cut, Idle Moments is immediately ingratiating and accessible, featuring some of Green’s most stylish straight jazz playing. Whether he’s running warm (pianist Duke Pearson’s “Idle Moments”), cool (the Modern Jazz Quartet’s “Django”), or a bit more up-tempo (Pearson’s “Nomad,” his own “Jean de Fleur”), Green treats the material with the graceful elegance that was the hallmark of his best hard bop sessions, and that quality achieves its fullest expression here. He’s helped by an ensemble that, as a sextet, is slightly larger and fuller-sounding than usual, and there’s plenty of room for solo explorations on the four extended pieces. Pearson’s touch on the piano is typically warm, while two players best known on Blue Note for their modernist dates mellow out a bit — the cool shimmer of Bobby Hutcherson’s vibes is a marvelously effective addition to the atmosphere, while Joe Henderson plays with a husky, almost Ike Quebec-like breathiness. That cushion of support helps spur Green to some of the loveliest, most intimate performances of his career — no matter what the tempo, it’s as if his guitar is whispering secrets in your ear. It’s especially true on the dreamy title track, though: a gorgeous, caressing, near-15-minute excursion that drifts softly along like a warm, starry summer night. Even more than the two-disc set The Complete Quartets With Sonny Clark, Idle Moments is the essential first Green purchase, and some of the finest guitar jazz of the hard bop era.

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Grant Green – Green Street (1961) [Analogue Productions Remaster 2010]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 54:11 minutes | Artwork |2,19 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Artwork | 1,03 GB
Mastered for SACD by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman at AcousTech Mastering, Camarillo, CA.

As a trio, this edition of guitarist Grant Green’s many ensembles has to rank with the best he had ever fronted. Recorded on April Fool’s Day of 1961, the band and music are no joke, as bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Dave Bailey understand in the most innate sense how to support Green, lay back when needed, or strut their own stuff when called upon. Still emerging as an individualist, Green takes further steps ahead, without a pianist, saxophonist, or — most importantly — an organist. His willpower drives this music forward in a refined approach that definitely marks him as a distinctive, immediately recognizable player. It is also a session done in a period when Green was reeling in popular demand, as this remarkably is one of six recordings he cut for Blue Note as a leader in 1961, not to mention other projects as a sideman. To say his star was rising would be an understatement. The lean meatiness of this group allows all three musicians to play with little hesitation, no wasted notes, and plenty of soul. Another aspect of this studio date is the stereo separation of Green’s guitar in one speaker, perhaps not prevalent in modern recordings, but very much in use then. Check out the atypical (for Green) ballad “‘Round About Midnight,” as the guitarist trims back embellishments to play this famous melody straight, with a slight vibrato, occasional trills, and a shuffled bridge. The trio cops an attitude similar to Dizzy Gillespie for the introduction to “Alone Together,” with clipped melody notes and a bass filler from Tucker. Three of Green’s originals stamp his personal mark on rising original soulful post-bop sounds, as “No. 1 Green Street” has basic B-flat, easy-grooving tenets similar to his previously recorded tune “Miss Ann’s Tempo.” Two interesting key changes and chord accents identify the outstanding “Grant’s Dimensions” beyond its core bop bridge and jam configuration — not the least of which contains a hefty bass solo from the criminally underrated Tucker and Bailey trading fours. “Green with Envy” should be familiar to fans of Horace Silver, as it is almost identically based on the changes of “Nica’s Dream,” a neat adaptation full of stop-starts and stretched-out improvising over ten minutes. (The alternate take of this one on the expanded CD reissue is a full two minutes shorter.) If this is not a definitive jazz guitar trio, they have not yet been born, and Green Street stands as one of Grant Green’s best recordings of many he produced in the ten prolific years he was with the Blue Note label.

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Grant Green – Grantstand (1962) [APO Remaster 2011]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 42:44 minutes | Scans included | 1,75 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 816 MB

Grant Green’s third album to be released, Grantstand teams the clear-toned guitarist with an unlikely backing group of musicians who rarely appeared with Blue Note otherwise: tenor saxophonist Yusef Lateef (who doubles on flute), organist Brother Jack McDuff, and drummer Al Harewood. Although Lateef was beginning to delve deeply into Eastern tonalities and instruments around the same time, his playing here is pretty straightforward and swinging, fitting the relaxed, bop-tinged soul-jazz that makes up most of the session. For his part, McDuff is mellower than his usual ferocious self, laying back and swinging with a blissful ease. Green contributes two bluesy originals, the nine-minute title track and the 15-minute “Blues in Maude’s Flat,” which are turned into loose, loping jams that rank as some of the best examples of Green’s ability to work an extended groove. (The CD bonus track, “Green’s Greenery,” is in much the same vein, though not as long.) Elsewhere, Green leads a delicate, sensitive exploration of “My Funny Valentine” that ended up as his greatest standard performance to date, setting the stage for a great deal more work in this vein that was soon to be forthcoming (including his brilliant sessions with Sonny Clark). Still, the groove is what reigns supreme for most of the album; if you’re looking for Green the soul-jazz groovemaster, Grantstand is an excellent place to find him.

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