Grant Green
Nigeria (180Gm Analogue – Tone Poet Series)
£39.99
Format: LP, Vinyl
‘Nigeria’ was recorded on 13th January 1962 but not released until 1980. This quartet date features, pianist Sonny Clark, bassist Sam Jones and the phenomenon that is Art Blakey on drums as well as Green on guitar. The album starts with a vibrant take on Sonny Rollins’ classic ‘Airegin’ (Nigeria spelt backwards). This is a tremendous piece of Hard Bop with Clark hitting the keys as if his life depended upon it. George and Ira Gershwin’s ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’ has been recorded countless times, yet Green, a great interpreter of standards, takes it by the scruff of the neck and makes it his own. Clark smokes it too. Cole Porter’s ‘I Concentrate On You’ is sedate by comparison but it is still a superb version. The ballad ‘The Things We Did Last Summer’ is ultra-mellow, Green’s playing encapsulates its dreamy quality perfectly. The album’s finale, Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern’s ‘The Song Is You’ is given the Green treatment, fast, bright and breezy as well as an absolute joy. Indeed, Grant Green is masterful throughout, but then so is Blakey, Jones and especially Clark.
Track listings:
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01 Airegin by Grant Green
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02 It Ain’t Necessarily So by Grant Green
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03 I Concentrate On You by Grant Green
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04 The Things We Did Last Summer by Grant Green
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05 The Song Is You by Grant Green
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