Legends of Jazz Guitar - Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop

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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 8
as session man on Blue Note recordings fronted by Lee Morgan, Stanley Turrentine, and Jimmy Smith, among others. Green won down beat’s New Star Award in 1962, and as part of the 1969 triumvirate of Kessel, Burrell, and Green, burned through Kessel’s “Blue Mist” with soulful fervor. WES MONTGOMERY “It doesn’t matter how much artistry one has; it’s how it’s presented that counts.” — Wes Montgomery Photo by Chuck Stewart By any measure of artistry and the presentation thereof, Wes Montgomery was a giant. Born John Leslie Montgomery on March 6, 1925, in Indianapolis, Indiana, Wes was a late bloomer. He took up the guitar at 19, first a tenor and then a six-string electric. His interest was fired by the recordings of Charlie Christian: “I don’t care what instrument a cat played,” Montgomery said, “if he 9
Page 1 and 2: Legends of Jazz Guitar Volume Two f
Page 3 and 4: BARNEY KESSEL “Above all, the hum
Page 5 and 6: personal mannerisms — the upward
Page 7: Photo by Tom Copi 7
Page 11 and 12: versions of pop tunes (“Going Out
Page 13 and 14: CHARLIE BYRD “Some guitarists imp
Page 15 and 16: Photo by Michael P. Smith JOE PASS
Page 17 and 18: 17 Photo by Tom Copi

Legends of Jazz Guitar - Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop

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