First Recordings

Anyone casually searching for guitarist Grant Green's first recordings might easily wind up standing at a discographical crossroads, as three different albums claim to contain his earliest work. Technically speaking, Gambit's 2007 reissue of Grant Green's First Recordings is the definitive article; even if tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest was the leader on these sessions, what you hear are the guitarist's first performances in a recording studio. Recorded in New York City on December 10 and 12, 1959, this music represents Forrest's transition from a decade-long adventure as an R&B star to a jazzier, more stretched-out phase of his existence. Seven of these tracks were issued by Delmark records as Jimmy Forrest's album All the Gin Is Gone. This little group initially discovered itself as the backup band for trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison. Supported by the formidable rhythm section of Green, pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Gene Ramey and drummer Elvin Jones, Forrest blew some of the best jazz of his entire career. The producers of this compilation have rearranged the sequencing, beginning with the tracks that contain Green's first recorded solos, and have added eight alternate takes, including six numbers on which Green either lays out or only plays rhythm guitar. As for those other two "firsts": Grant's First Stand was the first album to be issued under Grant Green's name; it was recorded for Blue Note on January 28, 1961, with organist Baby Face Willette and drummer Ben Dixon. First Session, on the other hand, combines Green's debut session as a leader (November 16, 1960 with Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones) and a pair of alternate takes from a session that took place on October 27, 1961 with Sonny Clark, Butch Warren and Billy Higgins. Producer Alfred Lion decided not to issue this material; it languished in the shadows until it was pulled from the Blue Note vaults and released to the public many years later. All of these albums are excellent, and you need them. ~ arwulf arwulf|