Legends of Jazz Guitar - Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop

GRANT GREEN
“Green consolidated the place of the guitar in the
‘soul-jazz’ movement of the early 1960s.”
— Norman Mongan, The History of the Guitar in Jazz
St. Louis-born
Grant Green (1931-
1975) was introduced
to the guitar by an
uncle he recalled playing
“old Muddy Waters-type
blues.” His
first instrument was a
Harmony with an amplifier,
Green recalled,
that “looked like an
old-timey radio.” After
a stint with a St. Louis
gospel group, he
served an apprenticeship
playing standards
with accordionist Joe
Murphy, who Green remembered
as “a rarity
and novelty. You just
didn’t find any black people playing accordion then.”
Green’s emergence in the 1960s was hailed by some
critics as a renaissance of Charlie Christian’s style: “Green
is particularly concerned with the guitar’s horn-like possibilities,”
wrote Robert Levin, “and has reduced certain
elements of Charlie Christian’s approach to their basics.”
Without denying an affinity, Green said he was less consciously
influenced by Christian than he was alto sax giant
Charlie Parker. “Listening to Charlie,” he told Gary
N. Bourland, “was like hearing a different man play every
night.” Listening to Charlie brought Green to jazz.
In 1960, Green moved from St. Louis to New York
after tenor saxophonist Lou Donaldson recommended
Green to Blue Note Records. Green’s debut album,
Grant’s First Stand (Blue Note BLP 4086), met with rave
reviews and initiated a decade which found Green busy
Photo by Tom Copi
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