Grant Green - Green Is Beautiful
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Guitar – Grant Green [click here to see more vinyl featuring Grant Green]
Trumpet – Blue Mitchell [click here to see more vinyl featuring Blue Mitchell]
Drums – Idris Muhammad [click here to see more vinyl featuring Idris Muhammad]
Tenor Saxophone – Claude Bartee
Bass – Jimmy Lewis
Bongos – Richard Lendrum
Congas – Candido Camero
Organ – Emmanuel Riggins (A1, A2, B2-3), Earl Neal Creque (B1)
Written by James Brown (A1), John Lennon & Paul McCartney (A2), Neal Creque (B1, B3), Burt Bacharach & Hal David (B2)
1 LP, standard sleeve
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33RPM
Size : 12”
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : Optimal Media GmbH
Label : Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
Original Label : Blue Note
Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder on January 30th 1970 at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Produced by Francis Wolff
Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
Lacquer cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
Cover Illustration by Bob Venosa
Liner Notes by Morton Roth
Originally released in July 1970
Reissued in January 2023
Tracks :
Side A:
- Ain't It Funky Now
- A Day in the Life
Side B:
- The Windjammer
- I'll Never Fall in Love Again
- Dracula
Reviews :
“The second album of Grant Green's thorough jazz-funk makeover, Green Is Beautiful finds the guitarist growing more comfortable with harder, funkier R&B than he seemed on the softer-hued Carryin' On. The switch from Fender Rhodes electric piano back to the more traditional Hammond organ certainly helps give the session a little extra grit, but it doesn't return Green to the land of soul-jazz by any means. Green Is Beautiful is still explicitly commercial and accessible to non-jazz audiences, and (purist objections notwithstanding) that's not necessarily a bad thing. Green's take on James Brown's "Ain't It Funky Now" is one of the funkiest items in his rare-groove period; it may be chordally very simple, but the groove is tight and percolating, and Green, tenor saxophonist Claude Bartee, and trumpeter Blue Mitchell all come up with hot, exciting solos. The album also benefits from Green's discovery of composer and occasional organist Earl Neal Creque, who contributes two bright, slinky, horn-driven originals: "The Windjammer," which became one of the signature tunes of Green's late period, and "Dracula." They help give the album a more original voice, and indicate that Green was actively making himself at home in his new musical environment, not just mixing dull originals with phoned-in covers of pop and R&B hits (as he and many other '70s Blue Note artists were accused of doing). Of course, there are still pop covers present -- the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" is a mellow, mid-tempo groove, and Bacharach's "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" doesn't stray far from the melody. Even if those aren't particularly distinctive, the remainder of Green Is Beautiful proves that Green's reinvention as a jazz-funk artist wasn't the misguided disaster it was initially made out to be.” AllMusic Review by Steve Huey
Ratings:
AllMusic 3 / 5 , Discogs 4.65 / 5