GXF-3058

Grant Green - Gooden's Corner

Released - 1979

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 23, 1961
Sonny Clark, piano; Grant Green, guitar; Sam Jones, bass; Louis Hayes, drums.

tk.3 Moon River
tk.8 On Green Dolphin Street
tk.17 What Is This Thing Called Love
tk.25 Shadrack
tk.26 Gooden's Corner
tk.27 Two For One

Session Photos

Grant Green, December 23 1961

Sam Jones

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
On Green Dolphin Street	B. Kaper-N. Washington	December 23 1961
Shadrack	Blakey-Drew-Heath-MacGimsey	December 23 1961
What Is This Thing Called Love	C. Porter	December 23 1961
Side Two
Moon River	H. Mancini-J. Mercer	December 23 1961
Gooden's Corner	G. Green	December 23 1961
Two For One	G. Green	December 23 1961

Liner Notes

The tragedy of Grant Green's death in early 1979 was compounded by the fact that his recorded output for the last decade or more of his life was, for the most part, commercial, uncreative and lacking in individuality. He deserved better, but the economics of keeping a band working and holding down a record contract forced him into situations far below his talent.

Fortunately, Blue Note thoroughly documented his artistry on a number of sessions under Grant's leadership in the early sixties. Moreover, he was the resident guitarist for Blue Note's stable of premier organists such as Jimmy Smith, John Patton and Larry Young and participated on dates by Lee Morgan, Horace Parlan, Don Wilkerson, Lou Donaldson and others.

Unknown outside of his hometown St. Louis except through his Delmark recordings with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest, Grant was brought to the label and to New York in 1960 by Lou Donaldson. Blue Note always operated on a family basis, developing an impressive, cross-fertilizing repertory group of musicians. Grant was quickly and fully instated in mid-1960.

Green represented not only a fresh, vibrant new voice on an instrument that had become rather sleepy in style in the fifties, but he was also a major link with the all too often neglected pioneer of the hollow body electric guitar in jazz, Charlie Christian. Grant executed bright, clean lines that never fully abandoned the melody, emphasized concise, linear, single note improvisations and possessed a unique rhythmic momentum that remains unmatched. He absorbed Christian, then bypassed such heroes of the day as Tal Farlow, Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery and moved directly to the formation of his own identity.

This album Gooden's Corner, recorded on December 23, 1961, features a beautifully compatible quartet of Grant, pianist Sonny Clark, bassist Sam Jones and drummer Louis Hayes. Ike Quebec joined the group for one tune "Count Every Star", which was then extracted and used on Quebec's album Blue and Sentimental (Blue Note BST 94098). The rest of the session, previously unissued and without Quebec, is presented here in its entirety.

This particular quartet had a run of sessions for Blue Note under Grant's name, and they all remain unissued. On January 13, Ike Quebec 1962, the band with Art Blakey subbing for Hayes was recorded. On January 31 the quartet with Hayes back again recorded yet another album. And finally on March 1, 1962, the same group, this time with Quebec playing throughout the session, made yet another album's worth of material. Why these dates were never issued will never be known. Most likely, it is because Grant, like other Blue Note artists, recorded prolifically during these years, and there was just no way to get everything released.

As this set bears out, the Green-Clark-Jones-Hayes combination is completely compatible and comfortable. Each man has an easy, natural sense of swinging that interlocks perfectly with his fellow musicians.

Sam Jones has been previously present on a handful of Blue Note dates, led for the most part and by another guitarist Kenny Burrell. Louis Hayes was a familiar face at the label through his long term membership in Horace Silver's quintet and his frequent sideman appearances with Curtis Fuller and other Blue Note artists. From the fall of 1959 well into the mid-sixties, Jones and Hayes were the pivot of Cannonball Adderley's successful band. They had been together in that capacity for more than two years when this album was recorded, and their empathy is clearly evident.

Although none of the Green dates with Sonny Clark at the piano have ever been issued, their pairing was a natural. Both men possessed the ability to swing hard in an effortless, instinctive manner. Clark is his usual brilliant self here, adding richly to the group texture and urging Grant on with some inspired comping. His solo work is typically two-handed, cooking and always interesting.

It is a testament to Grant Green that he can breath such life into "On Green Dolphin Street" and "What Is This Thing Called Love" as well as the overdone Henry Mancini hit of the day "Moon River". He swings on "What Is This Thing"...like no one else on his instrument could. And "Moon River" is a perfect example of his ability to construct a solo using the tune's melody as the substance of his variations. His rhythmic sense is best illustrated on the familiar sounding "Shadrack".

Grant contributes two originals, "Gooden's Corner" and "Two for One". "Gooden's Corner" is a solid blues, given an irresistible performance by the entire group. "Two for One", not to be confused with the Sonny Clark tune of the same name, is based on Miles Davis' modal "So What", but after the theme, Grant breaks into some straight ahead playing. This album is a lovely freeze frame in the career of one of the foremost guitarists of modern jazz, a man whom we lost to the commercial world in the late sixties and whom we lost forever in 1979.

Michael Cuscuna