Sunday Mornin' (High Definition Remaster 2023) Grant Green

• 1 Freedom March (Remastered 2023) 08:39
• 2 Sunday Mornin' (Remastered 2023) 03:59
• 3 Exodus (Remastered 2023) 06:58
• 4 God Bless The Child (Remastered 2023) 07:20
• 5 Come Sunrise (Remastered 2023) 04:31
• 6 So What (Remastered 2023) 09:44
• Total Runtime 41:11

Info for Sunday Mornin' (High Definition Remaster 2023)

Grant Green was a Blue Note mainstay and is a jazz icon. He has played on hundreds of recordings and released over 30 albums. Sunday Mornin' was his fourth record and first with a pianist, Kenny Drew. About 3 minutes in on side one Drew makes his presence known and he keeps getting further and further out... the rhythm section of bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Ben Dixon "hold it down" throughout with transcending solos and Grant's playing is just mind blowing. Legendary recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder is like a 5th member of the session capturing the instruments, the air, the vibe of the studio, the stereo soundstage (unusual in those days) just perfectly.

Upon hearing the Sunday Mornin' analog tapes used for cutting this release, mastering engineer Kevin Gray gleefully proclaimed, "Rudy's sound doesn't get any better than this, it really doesn't!". He would know, Kevin has cut more Blue note lacquers than anybody in the world.

Grant was seemingly always ahead. He composed the lead off song, "Freedom March" in 1961... 2+ years before what most consider the start of the modern day Civil Rights Movement. Jazz musicians, certainly not Grant Green, seldom receive the credit they deserved for their profound impact on the Civil Rights movement. Another Green original, the title cut, "Sunday Mornin'" is influenced by gospels but in a more spiritual, positive, happy way. Same goes for the cover of "God Bless The Child"...aching and beautiful.

The record closes with a cover of the Miles Davis standard, "So What"... at the time barely a year old but Grant's intuition told him the tune would become a vital piece of jazz history.

"Grant Green's fourth album, Sunday Mornin', was the first time Green recorded (as a leader) with a piano instead of an organ. Joined by pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Ben Tucker, and drummer Ben Dixon, Green makes Sunday Mornin' less of a soul-jazz session than his previous work, instead turning in a solid -- if not quite exceptional -- set of modal hard bop and laid-back grooves. Pianist Drew's sparse chording leaves plenty of room for Green's lilting tones to ring out, and since Green's approach relies on single-note lines rather than chords, the whole session ends up with a spacious, light feel. Half of the original six tracks are Green originals, including the Martin Luther King-inspired "Freedom March" and the gospel-tinged title track; the others are well-known repertory: "God Bless the Child," Miles Davis' "So What," and Eddie Harris' then-recent hit adaptation of the theme from "Exodus." Green is tasteful and elegant as always, and the results make for an enjoyable addition to his discography, even if there are more distinctive Green albums available." (Steve Huey, AMG)

Grant Green, guitar
Kenny Drew, piano
Ben Tucker, bass
Ben Dixon, drums

Digitally remastered

Grant Green
was born in St. Louis on June 6, 1931, learned his instrument in grade school from his guitar-playing father and was playing professionally by the age of thirteen with a gospel group. He worked gigs in his home town and in East St. Louis, IL, until he moved to New York in 1960 at the suggestion of Lou Donaldson. Green told Dan Morgenstern in a Down Beat interview: "The first thing I learned to play was boogie-woogie. Then I had to do a lot of rock & roll. It's all blues, anyhow."

His extensive foundation in R&B combined with a mastery of bebop and simplicity that put expressiveness ahead of technical expertise. Green was a superb blues interpreter, and his later material was predominantly blues and R&B, though he was also a wondrous ballad and standards soloist. He was a particular admirer of Charlie Parker, and his phrasing often reflected it. Green played in the '50s with Jimmy Forrest, Harry Edison, and Lou Donaldson.

He also collaborated with many organists, among them Brother Jack McDuff, Sam Lazar, Baby Face Willette, Gloria Coleman, Big John Patton, and Larry Young. During the early '60s, both his fluid, tasteful playing in organ/guitar/drum combos and his other dates for Blue Note established Green as a star, though he seldom got the critical respect given other players. He was off the scene for a bit in the mid-'60s, but came back strong in the late '60s and '70s. Green played with Stanley Turrentine, Dave Bailey, Yusef Lateef, Joe Henderson, Hank Mobley, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and Elvin Jones.

Sadly, drug problems interrupted his career in the '60s, and undoubtedly contributed to the illness he suffered in the late '70s. Green was hospitalized in 1978 and died a year later. Despite some rather uneven LPs near the end of his career, the great body of his work represents marvelous soul-jazz, bebop, and blues.

A severely underrated player during his lifetime, Grant Green is one of the great unsung heroes of jazz guitar. Like Stanley Turrentine, he tends to be left out of the books. Although he mentions Charlie Christian and Jimmy Raney as influences, Green always claimed he listened to horn players (Charlie Parker and Miles Davis) and not other guitar players, and it shows. No other player has this kind of single-note linearity (he avoids chordal playing). There is very little of the intellectual element in Green's playing, and his technique is always at the service of his music. And it is music, plain and simple, that makes Green unique.

Green's playing is immediately recognizable -- perhaps more than any other guitarist. Green has been almost systematically ignored by jazz buffs with a bent to the cool side, and he has only recently begun to be appreciated for his incredible musicality. Perhaps no guitarist has ever handled standards and ballads with the brilliance of Grant Green. Mosaic, the nation's premier jazz reissue label, issued a wonderful collection The Complete Blue Note Recordings with Sonny Clark, featuring prime early '60s Green albums plus unissued tracks. Some of the finest examples of Green's work can be found there. ~ Michael Erlewine and Ron Wynn

This album contains no booklet.