BLP 4202

Grant Green - I Want To Hold Your Hand

Released - May 1966

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, March 31, 1965
Hank Mobley, tenor sax #1-3,5,6; Larry Young, organ; Grant Green, guitar; Elvin Jones, drums.

1550 tk.2 Corcovado (aka Quiet Nights)
1551 tk.4 At Long Last Love
1552 tk.10 Speak Low
1553 tk.11 This Could Be The Start Of Something Big
1554 tk.16 I Want To Hold Your Hand
1555 tk.21 Stella By Starlight

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
I Want to Hold Your Hand	John Lennon, Paul McCartney	March 31 1965
Speak Low	Kurt Weill, Ogden Nash	March 31 1965
Stella by Starlight	Victor Young, Ned Washington	March 31 1965
Side Two
Corcovado (Quiet Nights)	Antônio Carlos Jobim	March 31 1965
This Could Be the Start of Something	Steve Allen	March 31 1965
At Long Last Love	Cole Porter	March 31 1965

Liner Notes

FOR YEARS jazz musicians have been interpreting the popular songs of the day, using them as vehicles for their special brand of playing attitude and thereby ofttimes enriching them beyond the expectations of their composers. Jazz musicians have been known to make silk purses out of sow's ears but usually they don't make life that difficult for themselves if given the opportunity to choose their material. They seem to have a faculty for picking tunes that have both intrinsic value and the kind of possibilities that make further exploration rewarding. Theme and variation may be an ancient practice by now but in the right hands its timelessness is verified. If ever it be abandoned we Will find ourselves at a dead end worse than the blind alley certain jazz — or so- called jazz — musicians have followed up behind their "pioneering" brethren in the classical field.

The themes in this album are representative of two different but connected areas of popular music. On one hand we have the tried and true material that because of its durability has earned the appelation "standard." Songs like Kurt Weill's Speak Low and Victor Young's Stella By Starlight fit into this Category. Then there are the songs that have come to the fore in recent years like Steve Allen's This Could Be The Start Of Something; Antonio Carlos Jobim's Corcovado; and Paul McCartney's I Want To Hold Your Hand. They have been played and recorded by many different people; whether they reach the "standard" position of Speak Low and Stella By Starlight remains to be seen but the performances in this album can only help them in this direction.

In a class all by itself is Cole Porter's At Long Last Love from You Never Know. First published in 1938, it enjoyed its greatest success when Frank Sinatra did it a few years ago.

If in jazz the material doesn't necessarily make the group, the group definitely makes the material. This group — one that is out of the ordinary — makes the most out of the very fine fabric it has chosen to use. If it is not a combo that regularly works as a team it still has the advantage of the members having played and recorded together before. Grant Green, Larry Young and Elvin Jones were three-fourths of the quartet that Young fronted on his Into Somethin' (Blue Note BLP4187) Hank Mobley had Green as his aide in the front-line when he did Workout (Blue Note BLP4080).

It is not the usual tenor-organ combo either. The 25-year-old Young (born October 1940) eschews the bombastic side of the Hammond, choosing to lend his more than able support and articulate solo lines in a subtler manner than most jazz organists. As critic Don Nelsen pointed out in his highly favorable review of Into Somethin': "Most immediately winning in Young's style is his deft, controlled touch."

All the soloists are capable of imparting the heat of the beat without contortions Or obvious devices, and Jones has long since proven himself the master of any situation. The key to this set is relaxation underlined by a firmness of delivery. Without being directly in the style of Lester Young it demonstrates that the musicians involved learned some of the basic lessons that Lester left behind. The bossa nova they make of the Beatles specialty, I Want To Hold Your Hand finds Green and Mobley floating in the seemingly effortless fashion that was so familiar to Pres.

There are many reasons to wish that Young had lived long beyond his 49 years but one Of them has to be how well bossa nova would have suited him and vice versa. Corcovado is one of the loveliest melodies to arrive from Brazil and has already proved quite enduring. Green introduces the melody in his horn-like style with Mobley commenting. After Hank's statement of pure beauty, Young follows with a solo interlude that is kept quite simple, smoothing the way as it were for Green's unstoppable flow of lyricism. As on I Want To Hold Your Hand the mood is languid but never limp.

Loping along — but without the bossa beat — is At Long Last Love, in which Green calls the melody and Mobley answers him. Things gradually heat up without any increase in tempo. Jones knows how to intensify a mood without making it faster. Green is insinuating without the help of funky cliche and by the time Mobley comes in things are in a solid groove. In Young's solo, Larry's great touch is very evident in the way he conveys the high melodic content of his single-line. This version of At Long Last Love is the "real turtle soup," never "merely the mock."

The classic Stella By Starlight is walked along the milky way, like, in keeping With the tone of the majority of the album. Green solos the melody; then all three "hornmen" receive a chance to embellish on the chords that lend themselves so well to improvisation. While they are lending, they all pay back With interest.

This Could Be The Start Of Something is taken at medium bounce with Elvin effectively switching to brushes with no diminution of power. Grant carries the ball once more with his clear, singing lines and heats it up some once he eases into the improvised section. It never fails to put me in mind of Charlie Christian. Again, Young's dexterity and invention stand out When he gets his chance in the solo spotlight. Mobley lays out on this one.

Hank is very much with it on Speak Low, the only up-tempo of the date. After Green spins out the line, Mobley takes off into a lean, declarative solo in which he neither speaks low nor loud but with confidence and authority. (As a measure of his growth it is interesting to compare this version with a slower Speak Low he did With Lee Morgan on Peckin' Time (Blue Note BLP1574) back in the '50s.) Green is next with his incisive single-line; his rhythmic alternations are marvelous as he manipulates the beat. Jones manages to cram many trenchant thoughts into a relatively short solo before Green returns to punch to a fitting climax and fade.

The guitarist who started playing professionally around his native St. Louis, Mo. at the age of 13, in 1944, has made a wide variety of albums for Blue Note since coming to New York in the early '60s. He has long since proven why pianist Duke Pearson has called him "one of the most versatile of jazz guitarists." But he is more than that. You can hear his accomplishment when he is doing something as primary as stating a melody. However, the talent doesn't stop but rather continues from there.

This set amply illustrates how to lay "commercially" without sacrificing artistic integrity. It is an attribute not to be taken lightly. Green should never be taken for granted.

—IRA GITLER

Cover Photo and Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER

Elvin Jones performs by courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.