My radio show tends to focus on music that would serve well as an accompaniment to a whacked out acid trip or a long night at the bong. There’s nothing wrong with that but it’s not really representative of my music tastes as a whole. In 1994 I did a stint working music retail near Cleveland, Ohio. This was a time where people actually bought music in a record store. This store was jamming. There were often weeks at a time that were just blurs of helping customers, taking in trade items and lots of pot smoking in the back.
I got my musical Masters degree working at this store. Our big sellers were rap and R&B but almost anything could be found either on our shelves or coming through the door as trade. Some of the greatest treasures in the store were the people who shopped there. We had regulars of all sorts but my favorites at the time were the old guys who dug “soul jazz”. Stuff like Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Smith, Lou Donaldson, Lonnie Smith, Melvin Sparks and the guy who I’m dedicating this post to—Grant Green.
Grant Green was a smoking guitar player in the mold of Montgomery or Sparks. He played with the heavyweights of his era either on his own albums or guested on theirs. We would jam these albums all day and often would sell the CD right off the player.
The track I’m throwing down for you is off his “Green is Beautiful” album called “Ain’t It Funky Now”. Legendary drummer Idris Mohammed plays on this track too.
Grant had a heroin problem for much of his life and died of a heart attack in 1979 at the age of 43. There is a great book written by his daughter in law called Grant Green: Rediscovering the Forgotten Genius of Jazz Guitar. If you dig his music the book is well worth checking out.
