Grant Green's Green Street: Jazz Guitar Every Guitarist Should Hear

 In recent years Grant Green has finally begun to see the type of accolades he should have enjoyed when he was alive.

More than any other guitarist, Grant Green Speaks to me, and Green Street speaks volumes.

Grant has a simple Charlie Christian influenced single note style that always seems to cut through the mix.

Miraculously Grant doesn't take a back seat to stone classic trumpet and saxophonists he's sparred with, he always stands toe-to-toe.

 I read that George Benson said Grant realized his tone by minimizing the bass and treble, and then maximizing the mid range.

Whether sparring with the likes of saxophonist Wayne Shorter, or organist Larry Young, Grant was simply one of the best and never failed to add something the any date he was a part of. Green's album Idle Moments is one the best Blue Notes of 60's period, and albums like Street of Dreams have always been underrated as well.

 Green Street though is pretty highly thought of by fellow guitar-men: A crisp and clean trio session with Green on guitar,  Ben Tucker on bass, and Dave Bailey on drums. Hard to imagine a better guitar trio album from any genre, Green has nowhere to hide, it's just his guitar and nothing else to rely on.

Green Street is a nice chill out record too, this particular vinyl copy from around 1970 sounds stupendous to me:  Deep natural bass and crisply played drums. Grant's single picked notes ring true throughout, the tone he displays mentioned above does indeed jump out with out being overly effects driven.

Green passed away on January 31st 1979 at the age of 43.  If you are a guitar player from another genre outside of jazz, and need one jazz guitarist to check out, Grant Green is the guy.