Grant green

GRANT GREEN - Visions ℗ 1971, Blue Note Records

Grant Green was born in St. Louis on June 6, 1931, learned his instrument in grade school from his guitar-playing father and was playing professionally by the age of thirteen with a gospel group. He worked gigs in his home town and in East St. Louis, IL, until he moved to New York in 1960 at the suggestion of Lou Donaldson. Green told Dan Morgenstern in a Down Beat interview:

Elemental Music on Instagram: ““I stone got crazy when I saw somebody run down them strings with a bottleneck. My eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and I said that I had…”

The striking musicianship of Grant Green was at once refined and raw, intellectual and instinctive. Where and how do we hear his influence today?

Lee Morgan's 'Search for the New Land' is one of the tracks that really turned me on to jazz: its moody, its a journey, and above all its a great groove. I've come back to it many times over the years, and I got to thinking about the guitar solo on it: there's something about the unexpected, bright, single note guitar tones of that section that really make the track. It inspired me to look up the guitarist, Grant Green, and see what else he's played on. I read that Grant was a bedrock of…

blues

“Bill Burrough’s Recurring Dream,” David Wojnarowicz, 1978 I think it’s safe to say that many, many more people have heard William Burroughs’ 1990 Dead City Radio album than have ever picked up one of his books and read it from cover to cover. I don’t feel this way at all, but I’ve heard from a lot of people that they think it’s the best thing Burroughs ever did. Ignoring that uniformed sentiment and moving on, for most people, seeing the “A Thanksgiving Prayer” video every year on bOING…

Grant Green