Personnel: Grant Green (guitar); Wilbur Ware (bass); Al Harewood (drums) (1961)
Producer: Alfred Lion.
Reissue producer: Michael Cuscuna.
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on August 29, 1961. Includes liner notes by Pete Welding.
Digitally remastered using 20-bit technology by Ron McMaster.
Grant Green has always been somewhat neglected in the pantheon of jazz guitarists. Lacking the flash of Wes Montgomery and the cerebral intensity of Jim Hall, his strengths tended to be overlooked, but these strengths are well exhibited on STANDARDS.
Green brings a geometric simplicity to the melody of "You Stepped Out of a Dream," his solos unfolding with more light than heat. On Gershwin's charming "Love Walked In," his solo tumbles gently through the changes. He pauses to reflect on a note now and then, giving the time elasticity and looseness rather than propulsion. Bassist Wilbur Ware is similarly underrated. It's hard to understand why--his pulse and sense of the architecture of a tune are without parallel. His rock-solid time on the ballad "If I Had You" shows why he was held in such high esteem by other musicians. Green and Ware work together like a pair of safecrackers, each deftly anticipating and complementing the moves of the other, while drummer Al Harewood keeps steady watch. This set of terse, swinging jazz goes a long way towards fixing Grant Green's place in the jazz guitar firmament.
great musician, maybe underestimated!
stopthatnoise 1 year ago