Grant green

Grant Green is an American jazz guitarist born in St. Louis, Missouri on June 6, 1935 and died in New York on January 31, 1979.

Grant Green is one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 1960-1970s. His particular style is due to the fact that he only plays in single notes, his rare chords often consisting of two or three notes.

This is probably because he was a big fan of Charlie Parker: according to an interview, he would spend the night replaying Bird's solos note by note.

Very clearly based on the blues, he is nevertheless very comfortable in the bebop, and always favors the rhythmic and melodic efficiency compared to the technical prowess.

A great favorite of the Blue Note label, Alfred Lion has contributed to countless albums, both as a leader and a sideman.

He is very appreciated by the organists, testify his records with Jimmy Smith, Big John Patton or Larry Young.

He also played with Lou Donaldson, Hank Mobley, Herbie Hancock, Lee Morgan, Donald Byrd, Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Bobby Hutcherson, etc.

Green was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He took his first steps as a professional guitarist at the age of 13 in a set of gospel>. His influences were Charlie Christian, Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Jimmy Raney. He first played boogie-woogie before switching to jazz. His first recordings in St. Louis were with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest for the United label. The drummer of the group was Elvin Jones, who will later be the power behind John Coltrane. Grant will record with Elvin again in the early 1960s.

Lou Donaldson found Grant playing at a bar in St. Louis and encouraged him to come play in New York. Grant arrived in New York around 1959-1960.

Lou Donaldson introduced Grant Green to Alfred Lion of Blue Note. Lion was so impressed with Grant that, rather than testing Grant as a sideman, as was the usual practice of Blue Note, Lion offered him the opportunity to record as leader of a band. However, due to a lack of self-confidence on the part of Green, the initial recording session was only published in 2001 as First Session.