Customer Reviews

Green Street

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This is not only a great guitar album; it's a great jazz album. Grant Green was a master improvisor and on this CD we hear him in just the company of bass and drums. He makes the most of his opportunity. Green's high, bright guitar sound is on display, but it's his constant improvisational ideas which are so fascinating. Green never hurries but weaves his melodic lines together in a coherent way that captures your attention and invites repeat hearings. Bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Dave Bailey provide swinging and unobstrusive support for the leader's lines throughout. Every tune is a highlight, though special mention must be made of "Round About Midnight" and the 2 takes of "Green With Envy" (based on Horace Silver's "Nica's Dream"). The remastering job by Rudy Van Gelder is superb. There is not a dull moment in this highly recommended 54 minute CD.

For those of you who missed the opportunity to get this fantastic album when it was available domestically in Blue Note's limited edition Connoisseur series, here's another chance thanks to the RVG series. I'm always fascinated by the concept of a guitar jazz trio. I mean it's the same instrumentation as say Nirvana or The Police, and yet the sound is so incredibly different. This power trio of Green, Ben Tucker on bass and Dave Bailey on drums glides through the album's five tunes (and two alternate takes) with smooth licks and excellent musical communication. The three Grant originals and the two standards, Monk's "'Round Midnight" and "Alone Together" are all so good I can't single one out as the best. Since Green's material on Blue Note ranges from everything to hard bop to soul jazz to latin-tinged jazz to funk, it should be metioned that this album is of the solid straight ahead variety. Don't blow the chance again to move in on "Green Street."

Green Street truly features one of the greatest jazz guitarists in a trio setting. With Ben Tucker on bass and Dave Bailey on drums this is one of the few albums that Grant Green ever made that truly shows what an amazing soloist and improvisor he really was. The opening track, No. 1 Green Street, is really a masterful solo by Green. It is so amazing how you can really tell how much Grant is getting in to the music he is making. Those trills. Oh! Man! Those TRILLS! This album is one of the finest jazz guitar trio session ever recorded. This is a must for any one only familiar with Grant Green, Wes Montgomery or any one who just really wants a really awesome guitar album.

Everything about this album screams "classic". The music is finely graded and chiseled from strong tunes with beautiful hooks,twists and releases. The soloing is pristine and fresh. The material is strong without, 43 years later, so much as a wrinkle in sight. The sound quality and mix are 5 stars. A perfect recording, with a great cover photo. A jewel in Green`s discography and a setting that let his music and playing shine. Enjoy!

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

This disc just bristles with clean, pure musicality. Grant Green has always been the most sparse, soulful jazz guitarist out there -- and in the intimate trio setting his superlative sense of timing and melody shine. I guess I own just about everything Green has recorded -- as a leader and sideman -- and this one still gives me chills every time I hear it. The remastering is suberb and on a good system you will find yourself thoroughly immersed in the groove. If you're a Grant Green fan, if you dig soul jazz, if you love the guitar, if you're a jazz fan, or if you cherish all that is good about music, you must own this disc. Definitely one of my Grant Green favorites and among my all time jazz favorites. Check it out.

To be honest and up front, I'm not entirely familiar with the music of Grant Green nor am I familiar with his history as an artist. However, I must say that upon hearing his classic album "Green Street", I was highly impressed.
Recorded for Blue Note in 1961, "Green Street" finds Grant Green performing in a stripped down power trio setting. Because of the absence of other instruments such as piano or horns, this gives Green plenty of room to show off his relentless guitar chops. Most of the pieces are on the bluesy side such as the opening title track, "Grant's Dimensions" and the cover version of the standard "Alone Together". His version of Thelonious Monk's "Round About Midnight" shows off a tender yet still blues-oriented side of his playing while "Green With Envy" reminded me a bit of the instrumental/fusion side of the Allman Brothers Band (for some reason the Allman's "In memory of Elizabeth Reed" came to mind while listening to this track).
Rounding out the disc are two bonus alternate takes of "Alone Together" and "Green With Envy" which are a bit shorter than their master take counterparts.
As mentioned above, I'm not overall familiar with Grant Green's music but have found this release to be highly enjoyable. Grant was definitely a guitarist who was ahead of his game and his influence can be heard in guitarists that came to prominence after him in both Jazz and rock.
This is my first purchase of a Grant Green CD and I highly recommend this one to anyone looking for some great guitar Jazz. There's a lot of it here.
Definitely a classic!!!

I've been a fan of guitar-based jazz for years, but just came across this album by chance for the first time late last month when listening to Bobby Hutcherson's 'The Kicker" on Blue Note. On that recording, Mr. Green performs with a larger ensemble, wherein his guitar plays farther back in the mix to Mr. Hutcherson's vibes. But on "Green Street", Grant Green makes his own statement via his sparse, angular playing, which effectively fills the room, backed only my bass and drums. It is precisely this limited ensemble line-up that makes Green Street so wonderful, as you can focus on the guitar and how Grant Green plays it note-for-note, line-for-line, without really any chords to fall back on throughout the entire recording. Instead, the listener is treated to very linear playing, which develops and concludes as the music progresses; you feel as if the music takes you somewhere. This is especially the case considering that these takes are rather lengthy; extending themselves over eight, nine and ten minutes of more, in order to give full expression to Mr. Green's playing. In addition, and what I really appreciate about this album maybe more than anything, is that fact that almost all of the songs are original compositions by Grant Green himself, indicating that he had his own ideas about what he wanted to do with the music, and where he wanted to take it, without being confined by the stylistic cliches of worn-out "standards", which lend themselves to predictability for both the performer and listener.

This album is an excellent example of being able to do a lot with a little, and so the listener is not overwhelmed by the presence of unnecessary instrumentation. This is especially true in terms of the absence of piano accompaniment on this cd. The piano, by the nature of how it is usually played in most jazz settings, limits the playing possibilities of other melody-instruments, such as the saxophone, trumpet, or in this case the guitar, by requiring them to have to "play over" the chords the piano lays down as a foundation of the song. This need to play melody based on piano chords restricts the opportunity for other melody based instruments to "open up" and play what they want. As a result, other musicians are less "free" to improvise, which is one of the hallmarks of all great jazz (for other examples of this, please listen to Gerry Mulligan's piano-less quartets, or the piano-less records of Ornette Coleman).

Since Mr. Green is liberated from such chordal confines, he is free to let his melodic muse roam, improvising and stretching out at will, and giving Green Street a freshness and energy that make the collection stand out even today, when so much of this era's music has now been relegated (justifiably in many cases) to the realm of "museum jazz".
In addition, this is one jazz album that works really well played at high-volume.

Grant Green may not be one of the better-known names in guitar jazz, unlike Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery and Pat Metheny, but he deserves to be. If you are a fan of guitar jazz have not heard Green Street, you owe it to yourself to take a listen, as once you hear it, you will wonder how you got this far into jazz without having come across it before.

What I think is cool about this album is its just Grant, a bass player and a drummer. There are no horns and there isn't even a keyboard player. So you really hear the guitar. And there are also some great jazz standards here, like 'Round Midnight and Alone Together. If you like jazz guitar, you must have this album. Just buy it!

This one features some great playing by Green, you hear his normal bag of tricks with some surprises. Nobody has a touch like Green did, this is a great cd to study his sound, it is very clear. Also notice how Green outlines the changes with no piano. Ben Tucker and Dave Bailey give great performances too, listed to Bailey's snare drum comping, he brings the best out of Green. Listen and try to figure out what tune is based on Nica's Dream.

Green Street is a really sharp trio album from guitarist Grant Green. He's joined on this session from April of 1961 by bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Dave Bailey. All of the songs except "'Round About Midnight" and "Alone Together" were composed by Green. The CD adds alternate takes of "Green With Envy" and "Alone Together".

This album is deceptively simple sounding, as the playing seems almost effortless, starting with "No. 1 Green Street", a solid blues piece that showcases Green's tone and economy. He acquits himself equally well on Monk's "'Round About Midnight", an unusual, wandering kind of piece. "Grant's Dimensions" is kind of a blues shuffle, backed by a meandering Tucker bassline. There's some choice fretwork by Green on this one. This is probably my favorite piece on the record. "Green with Envy" begins with a fantastic phrase that recurs in the piece, but there's some razor sharp and liquid fast stringwork throughout. Tucker turns in a solid solo performance here, backed by some magnificent chording from Green. The album closes with "Alone Together", appropriately ending on the most relaxed piece, a carefree sounding cover.

Green Street is simply a beautiful album, bluesy and mellow. Grant's style is very smooth and elegant, with just a touch of grit. It makes for great atmosphere music for rainy days and smoky nights. Grant and company are superb in all aspects on this one.