Green Is Beautiful

Green Is Beautiful

by Grant Green
Green Is Beautiful

Green Is Beautiful

by Grant Green

Vinyl LP(Long Playing Record)

$29.99 
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Overview

The second album of Grant Green's thorough jazz-funk makeover, Green Is Beautiful finds the guitarist growing more comfortable with harder, funkier R&B than he seemed on the softer-hued Carryin' On. The switch from Fender Rhodes electric piano back to the more traditional Hammond organ certainly helps give the session a little extra grit, but it doesn't return Green to the land of soul-jazz by any means. Green Is Beautiful is still explicitly commercial and accessible to non-jazz audiences, and (purist objections notwithstanding) that's not necessarily a bad thing. Green's take on James Brown's "Ain't It Funky Now" is one of the funkiest items in his rare-groove period; it may be chordally very simple, but the groove is tight and percolating, and Green, tenor saxophonist Claude Bartee, and trumpeter Blue Mitchell all come up with hot, exciting solos. The album also benefits from Green's discovery of composer and occasional organist Earl Neal Creque, who contributes two bright, slinky, horn-driven originals: "The Windjammer," which became one of the signature tunes of Green's late period, and "Dracula." They help give the album a more original voice, and indicate that Green was actively making himself at home in his new musical environment, not just mixing dull originals with phoned-in covers of pop and R&B hits (as he and many other '70s Blue Note artists were accused of doing). Of course, there are still pop covers present -- the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" is a mellow, mid-tempo groove, and Bacharach's "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" doesn't stray far from the melody. Even if those aren't particularly distinctive, the remainder of Green Is Beautiful proves that Green's reinvention as a jazz-funk artist wasn't the misguided disaster it was initially made out to be. ~ Steve Huey

Product Details

Release Date: 01/20/2023
Label: Blue Note
UPC: 0602448595454
Rank: 18619

Tracks

  1. Ain't It Funky Now
  2. A Day in the Life
  3. The Windjammer
  4. I'll Never Fall in Love Again
  5. Dracula

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Grant Green   Primary Artist,Guitar
Candido Camero   Guest Artist,Congas
Idris Muhammad   Guest Artist,Drums
Blue Mitchell   Guest Artist,Trumpet
Jimmy Lewis   Bass,Keyboards,Fretless Bass,Guitar (Bass),Bass (Electric)
Neal Creque   Organ
Richard Landrum   Bongos
Emmanuel Riggins   Organ
Richard Lendrum   Bongos
Claude Bartee, Jr.   Sax (Tenor)

Technical Credits

Paul McCartney   Composer
James Brown   Composer
Francis Wolff   Producer
John Lennon   Composer
Lonnie Donegan   Composer
Rudy Van Gelder   Engineer,Digital Remastering
Neal Creque   Composer
Jim Currie   Composer
Burt Bacharach   Composer
Hal David   Composer
Patrick Roques   Design
Bob Venosa   Design,Cover Design,Illustrations,Cover Illustration
Neal Creoe   Composer
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