3-63522-2

Grant Green - Live At Club Mozambique

Released - 2006

Recording and Session Information

"Club Mozambique", Detroit, MI, 1st set, January 6, 1971
Houston Person, tenor sax; Clarence Thomas, tenor, soprano sax; Ronnie Foster, organ; Grant Green, guitar; Idris Muhammad, drums.

Patches Blue Note rejected
More Today Than Yesterday -
One Less Bell To Answer -
Bottom Of The Barrel -
Jan Jan -
Make It Easy On Yourself -
Farid Blue Note unissued
One More Chance Blue Note rejected

"Club Mozambique", Detroit, MI, 2nd set, January 6, 1971
Houston Person, tenor sax; Clarence Thomas, tenor, soprano sax; Ronnie Foster, organ; Grant Green, guitar; Idris Muhammad, drums.

Patches Blue Note rejected
One Less Bell To Answer -
Bottom Of The Barrel Blue Note unissued
I Am Somebody -
Glenda Blue Note rejected
One More Chance -
Walk On By Blue Note unissued

"Club Mozambique", Detroit, MI, 3rd set, January 6, 1971
Houston Person, tenor sax; Clarence Thomas, tenor, soprano sax; Ronnie Foster, organ; Grant Green, guitar; Idris Muhammad, drums.

Jan Jan Blue Note rejected
More Today Than Yesterday -
One More Chance Blue Note unissued

"Club Mozambique", Detroit, MI, 1st set, January 7, 1971
Houston Person, tenor sax; Clarence Thomas, tenor, soprano sax; Ronnie Foster, organ; Grant Green, guitar; Idris Muhammad, drums.

One More Chance Blue Note rejected
Jan Jan -
More Today Than Yesterday Blue Note unissued
Farid Blue Note rejected

"Club Mozambique", Detroit, MI, 2nd set, January 7, 1971
Houston Person, tenor sax; Clarence Thomas, tenor, soprano sax; Ronnie Foster, organ; Grant Green, guitar; Idris Muhammad, drums.

I Am Somebody Blue Note rejected
Patches -
Bottom Of The Barrel -
Walk On By -
Glenda Blue Note unissued
Make It Easy On Yourself -

"Club Mozambique", Detroit, MI, 3rd set, January 7, 1971
Houston Person, tenor sax; Clarence Thomas, tenor, soprano sax; Ronnie Foster, organ; Grant Green, guitar; Idris Muhammad, drums.

Jan Jan Blue Note unissued
Patches -
I Am Somebody Blue Note rejected
Walk On By -
One More Chance Blue Note unissued

Track Listing

Title	Author	Recording Date
Jan Jan	M. Davis	January 6/7 1971
Farid	Clarence Thomas	January 6/7 1971
Bottom Of The Barrel	Unknown Artist	January 6/7 1971
Walk On By	B. Bacharach-H. David	January 6/7 1971
More Today Than Yesterday	Patrick N. Upton	January 6/7 1971
One More Chance	The Corporation	January 6/7 1971
Patches	G. Johnson-R. Dunbar	January 6/7 1971
I Am Somebody	Arthur Snyder	January 6/7 1971

Liner Notes

Grant Green's Live at Club Mozambique is a long awaited release from the Blue Note vaults. Listed in the Blue Note Discography for years, fans have wondered just what was on those tapes and why they were never issued. The clues were tantalizing; the rhythm tandem of Ronnie Foster and Idris Muhammad, soul tenor star Houston Person, 13 sets recorded at a hip, urban location. Grant had a love affair with both the city of Detroit and Club Mozambique (including the club owner, Cornelius Watts). Grant had moved to Detroit in the late-'60s and used the city as a base (as his gigs were mostly in the industrial north and midwest). That way he could be involved in a thriving local music scene but still be considered a national star. The club itself was central to determined, inner-city working class residents as a venue for beauty pageants, business meetings, and private parties, which were all part of Mr. Watt's social outreach.

So begs the question: Why was this music unreleased for 35 years? Only conjecture will suffice as there are rarely written records as to the decisions of record companies. (Even to this day much of a record company's business is still spoken, as if to leave no clues.) If one were to look at what recorded music Blue Note Records had in the can (unissued, probably 15 Green albums by 1 971 ) and then compare that to what was current at the time (Alive had been recorded just 5 months earlier at a Newark club, and Visions and The Final Comedown, both studio outings, were recorded and 11 months later), the A&R staff probably saw the Mozambique sessions as overkill. But a closer look reveals a distinct change in the repertoire from Alive to Visions. The live recording environments of Alive and Live at Club Mozambique focus on songs that appealed directly to the inner-city audience. The studio recordings, Visions (1971) and Shades of Green (1972), seemed to be shaped by the emerging FM market, a production sound that had to compete with Creed Taylor and the CTI releases at the time (and a socioeconomic demographic shift in the black communities' taste in music). Grant's studio album song list came from Pop-AM-FM playlists. Clearly this distinction may explain the natural suppression of another inner-city live recording in support of a studio-derived pop-crossover recording by a West Coast-based label (where Blue Note had relocated by 1972).

By 1973, after Grant had left Blue Note (literally caught in the middle), the company was now managed in Los Angeles and the A&R focus was firmly established. Any interest in additional Grant Green albums was probably considered unnecessary. With Grant's passing in 1979 and the reconsideration of his talents (with the considerable help of the Blue Note reissued series, some well-informed jazz critics, Mosaic Records, and of course, jazz musicians), the unissued Green material became somewhat hallowed and more often revered. As the nineties brought groove music back into commercial reality, Grant's overlooked and demeaned crossover albums from 1969 onwards became sought after by collectors and DJs, eventually crossing over into mainstream pop with the Us3 hit based on "Sookie, Sookie." Albums of Grant's that would sell for $2 in 1980 now sold for $75 in 1995. With this newfound enthusiasm for Grant's soul-funk period, the lingering curiosity about what could be uncovered in the Mozambique sessions began to mount. And now, here it is...

The band Grant assembled for the session was made up of his working musicians, Clarence Thomas and Ronnie Foster, and augmented for this recording session with Houston Person and Idris Muhammad. Houston had a long-term relationship with Grant and even had Grant guest on his Prestige LP Person to Person (recorded October 1970). Coincidentally, one of Grant's final live recordings would also be for Houston (Eastbound, 1973). Houston is a true soulful tenor giant who can communicate directly with whatever audience for which he performed. His feel has not diminished by the passing years and if one were to compare this recording with any new CD on High Note, one would see the elegance and consistency of a master.

Another master of his art, Idris Muhammad, was flown in from New York (along with producer Frank Wolff and engineer Ed Greene) because this recording had to have "that thing." Idris's style was the signature of the new Blue Note sound that emerged from 1967 onward, a style that brought the label back to the black neighborhoods and to the jukebox dance crowd. It was because of the beat provided by Idris (and other drummers on Blue Note and its competitors) that made the connection between current popular music and jazz return to the urban jazz crowd (even if for a brief fling until the mid-seventies).

Organist Ronnie Foster soon became a Blue Note recording artist in his own right, no doubt due to the support of Grant Green, who "discovered" him. Ronnie's trademark is his strong bass lines that never drop out and always remain bass lines. He and Idris get tight right away and propel the music into a groove paradise. And it's in the pocket all the time. "Unrelenting," as Woody Herman would have said.

Clarence Thomas remains a mystery today, one of many who graced the music scene for a hot minute and then faded away. But his style was concurrent with others who graced Grant's bandstand. Organist Lonnie Smith, upon mentioning Thomas's name, recalls "a cat from Florida" but doesn't remember a cat of that name really sticking out on the scene. He and Houston do make a nice complement, with each sharing a common language yet having distinct traits. Clarence's leanings towards Coltrane would reflect Grant's desire to have some of that energy. After all, Grant did record with McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones.

The songs were again staples of black Urban or crossover radio. Clarence Carter's "Patches" was on both black and white stations at the time as well as "Walk on By: made famous by Dionne Warwick. Not exactly urban, but very soulful nonetheless, "More Today Than Yesterday" was a big interracial hit by The Spiral Staircase (especially in the south during the '60s). "I Am Somebody" was a regional hit for Johnnie Taylor (later of "Disco Lady" fame). Somewhat derived from the James Brown formula, it still carries a lot of groove. "One More Chance" was a hit for the Jackson 5 at the time (and co-written by the Mizell Brothers, later of Donald Byrd Blackbyrd fame). "Farid" is an original by Clarence Thomas. This would be the musician track, or the one song that was not meant for radio. As a result, Grant's playing is looser and more like his work from the mid-sixties. "Jan Jan" is a groove track taken at a brisk tempo. The composer is the mysterious M. Davis (not Miles Davis). "Bottom of the Barrel" is probably an original but there is no listed composer. It is really a jam piece on one chord — but what a chord!

Grant Green sounds like Grant Green. Every note is perfect. Perfect. I've never, ever complained. Why? Because to me, inside those notes are the echoes of beauty and peace that he could only express in the elegance of his music. Not in spoken words. Only musical phrases. Sometimes that's the only way an artist can communicate with the outside world. It's very dangerous due to its nature of insularity, but for the most part it's unavoidable. For Grant, you can hear, in the notes, something innocent but surrounded by avarice. His way of dealing with the world was by way of a connection with eternal music. The melody. And the way he soloed, like a long-form melody. So his melodies became the elixir for the avarice that surrounded him. In the end, melodies are not enough. I think he just gave up.

It is difficult to discuss in detail the actual music on this CD. Feeling can't be quantified nor qualified. My only suggestion is to listen from all places. It is the past and the present because you are hearing this for the first time. But this recording has no past, as time has not allowed contemplation. You have it all to yourselves...and Grant Green!

Bob Belden, 2006