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Hey there everyone, I hope all is well with you. Thanks for tuning in again and checking out the ‘ol newsletter. We appreciate it.
Like any head into music, I love witnessing live music. That’s where it’s at for sure. Seeing, hearing and feeling great music performed in person is the best. In recent years, that has been something that I haven’t been doing a lot of and it sucks. Partly due to the covid years and not wanting to be in crowds again too soon, but mostly down to my old broken-down body not being able to take it anymore. My legs, knees and feet are usually giving me a lot of pain by the end of any given day and so standing for long periods of time, especially in place, amongst a crowd is verging on agony now for me. As a result, I barely go out much at all now let alone go to shows and stuff. I’m saying this not for pity but as a lead into my pick for you all this week. Because I have not been attending shows, I have been going through my record collection and spinning some of the live albums I have. That and watching concert footage on TV and streaming live audio via the internet. Here at Sorry State, whenever I work with John Scott, we typically play at least one live show during a shift. It has started to become our ritual to fire up his Nugs account during the last hour and play a Billy Strings show or something similar.
One live album that I did pull from my jazz shelf this past weekend was the fabulous double by Grant Green titled Live At The Lighthouse, on Blue Note Records from 1972. What a killer record and thoroughly recommended for fans of Jazz, Soul and Funk music. To paraphrase Big Daddy Digs, this one is so hot it smokes across all four sides; you’ll need a fire extinguisher standing by.
Jazz fans will not need any introduction to ace guitar slinger Grant Green, but if you are new to him, then this record is a fine place to begin. This was his last album for the great Blue Note label, one that he had been with since the early sixties, with a couple of excursions to other labels here and there, and for which he had cut nearly two dozen albums. These records are great, but many have argued that Green really excelled in the live environment. Perhaps a case that could be made for many a performer. Two years previously to the Lighthouse session, Blue Note released another album by Green recorded live at a club in New Jersey called the Cliché Lounge. This, Alive! is a great record too, capturing Green and fellow musicians in fine form. You really can feel the atmosphere of the room in the recording. Soul Jazz in its purest and simplest form. Funky and groovy and current but with the jazz and blues roots upfront instead of perhaps the new fusion and psychedelic elements that were now becoming in vogue. Highlight of that set for me being the cover of the Don Covay tune Sookie Sookie that rockers Steppenwolf helped popularize a couple of years previously. On Alive!, Green is supported by the ace drumming of Idris Muhammed and by Ronnie Foster on keys. Those names alone should be enough to convince you of the pedigree of the record.
However, in my opinion, and I don’t think I am alone in saying this, Live At The Lighthouse is even better than Alive! Two years later and a change of coasts and venue and with a different line up, albeit just as talented. This time around the drummer’s stool is occupied by Greg Williams, a young cat at the beginning of his career who started with Lou Donaldson and in the same year as the Lighthouse session would play drums on Jack McDuff’s great Heatin’ System album, ably demonstrating his ability to keep it funky. Shout outs and mentions must be given to all the musicians, so on vibes was Gary Coleman who had played on dates for everyone from David Axelrod to Quincy Jones. On organ was Shelton Laster who gets a writing credit for the tune Flood In Franklin Park. Bass duties were filled by Wilton Felder of the Jazz Crusaders. On tenor and soprano sax was Claude Bartee who had previously been playing with Pucho And The Latin Soul Brothers. Lastly, special mention must be made for Bobbye Porter Hall on percussion. A native of Detroit who played, often uncredited, on countless Motown recordings alongside the Funk Brothers in Detroit and the Wrecking Crew in Los Angeles. She changed the spelling of her first name to distinguish herself as a female musician. Her bongo skills can be heard on Marvin Gaye’s Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler) for one example. She has played with everyone from Marvin Gaye to Bill Withers, Gene Clark to Carole King and many, many more.
Green selected his bandmates well, and together they put on a barnstormer of a performance for the lucky folks crammed into the Lighthouse for these recordings. The Lighthouse is an historic venue that started as a restaurant and then became a bar in the 1940s and beginning in the 1950s a venue for jazz music. Located at 30 Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, it became a hub for the burgeoning West Coast Jazz scene and a must play venue for touring musicians. It’s still there, although it’s added Café to its name. Years ago, after I left college, I flew to California with a view to try and get a job and stayed in Hermosa Beach with a friend of my old boss. The job didn’t pan out, but I was staying just up the street from Pier Avenue and the famous Lighthouse venue and would walk past often and did catch a show there. I was just beginning my journeys into jazz back then so wasn’t hip to the history of the club necessarily, but it was cool to have been there.
On the recordings, each tune is introduced by announcers Hank Stewart and Ed Hamilton and throughout the audience plays their part also. You hear quite a few shouts of “Right On!” and rightfully so. There isn’t a dull moment on any of the four sides of the album, but I really dig their interpretation of the Donald Byrd tune Fancy Free along with the workout they give to the song Jan Jan from The Fabulous Counts. Both stellar performances worth the price of admission alone. This is top-notch stuff, funky and groovy, right on and just plain fun. Green’s guitar playing here is some of the best you’ll ever hear. With the band cooking behind him, his solos are sublime. Funky, bluesy and driving, yet simple and always soulful. He doesn’t need to be flash and doesn’t hog the spotlight, giving plenty of room for all the musicians to soar on their solos. Almost all the numbers are stretched out to ten plus minutes, but you could easily see and want them to keep going on longer. Reading a few reviews from then and now, it seems that in not following the rush to fusion territory this record has perhaps aged better than some of those that did. Funny how things circle around, although in more recent years, fusion is becoming more popular again. Whatever. Just enjoy it all I say.
Grant Green has left us. He tragically died in his car of a heart attack aged 43 whilst in New York to play at George Benson’s Breezin’ Lounge. He had gone back out on the road against doctor’s orders after having spent much of the previous year in hospital. Since his death there has been more music released in his name than when he was alive. He literally recorded on hundreds of sessions whether as a leader or sideman and his legacy is as one of the greats. Several of his recordings have been sampled in the hip-hop world and the Acid Jazz boom of the late 80s and early 90s picked up on his rare groove classics, keeping his name alive with the next generations of music lovers. One of his six children, Grant Green Jr., is an accomplished jazz guitarist himself and plays in a similar style. In addition, his daughter-in-law Sharony Andrews Green has authored an informative and heartfelt book titled Grant Green: Rediscovering The Forgotten Genius Of Jazz Guitar. The book concentrates more on Green the man rather than being a dry diary of recording sessions, etc.
If after listening to Alive! and Live At The Lighthouse and are hungry for more jazz guitar, then you will be in for a treat with pretty much any Green album you pick next. Released the same year is the soundtrack to The Final Comedown, which Green provides the music for. A good movie and a great soundtrack, which has the distinction of being the first soundtrack on Blue Note. A record that is popular with the samplers and rare groove guys is The Main Attraction, released in 1976 on Kudu. You can dip in with confidence to any of his 60s recordings. Street Of Dreams from 1967 is a good one. The Latin Bit from 1963 is a favorite too.
Personally, as far as instrumentation in jazz goes, I love the guitar and vibes the most. Add in some Afro-Cuban percussion and a funky drummer and we’re off to the races. My collection features a lot of albums with guitar and my favorite artists other than Grant Green are many. George Benson, Boogaloo Joe Jones, O’Donel Levy, Jim Hall, Wes Montgomery, Gabor Szabo, Kenny Burrell, Pat Martino, Larry Coryell, Sonny Sharrock, Charlie Christian, Joe Pass, Django Reinhardt, Les Paul and John McLaughlin are the first few names off the top of my head, and I know I’m missing many more. You get the point. If you dig the sound of guitar in your music and see any of those names in the credits, you’re guaranteed some top playing no questions asked. Go explore.
Signing off now and getting back to work. Tonight, John Scott is going to see the Dead in concert and Jeff is preparing for his weekend of gigs and as I have been writing I’ve been spinning The Great Society live at The Matrix from 1966. It’s all live music action around here and always where it’s at.
Cheers - Dom