Grant Green: Green Is Beautiful (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series) LP

Blue Note, 1970

Guitarist Grant Green was prolific on Blue Note through the early-60s recording more than 20 hard bop and soul jazz sessions as a leader forthe label between1961-1965. By the time Green returned to the label in 1969 his musical style had evolved to wholly embrace jazz-funk as first heard on his album Carryin’ On. As the decade turned to 1970, Green was in back in Van Gelder Studio that January to record his vibrant album Green Is Beautiful, which remains one of the highlights of the era with the guitarist joined by Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Claude Bartee on tenor saxophone, Emmanuel Riggins and Neal Creque on organ, Jimmy Lewis on bass, Idris Muhammad on drums, Candido Camero on congas, and Richie Landrum on bongos. Throughout Green’s distinctive tone shines on this grooving 5-song set that opens with a 10-minute funk workout on James Brown’s “Ain’t It Funky Now” and includes covers of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” and Burt Bacharach’s “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” as well as two memorable originals by Creque: “The Windjammer” and “Dracula.”