Grant Green – Green Is Beautiful

Blue Note Classic Vinyl Reissue Series All-Analog 180g Vinyl LP Mastered by Kevin Gray Directly from the Original Master Tapes and Manufactured at Optimal in Germany

The Classic Vinyl Reissue Series is the continuation of Blue Note’s acclaimed Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series, which was created in celebration of the 80th anniversary of Blue Note Records in 2019. The series presents affordable, high-quality reissues in standard packaging that are mastered by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio and manufactured on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media in Germany. The pressings are all-analog whenever an analog source is available, with Gray mastering directly from the original master tapes.

Blue Note Records has recorded the legends of Jazz and has traced the entire evolution of the music from the early days of Boogie Woogie, Hot Jazz and Swing, through the innovations of Bebop, Hard Bop, Post-Bop, Soul Jazz, Avant-Garde, and 70s Fusion, and into the vibrant sounds of Jazz’s many modern-day incarnations. The Classic Vinyl Series is curated by Don Was and Cem Kurosman and is broad in its scope. The series reissues the best-known Blue Note classics from the 1950s and 60s, but also goes deeper, exploring the many different eras and styles of the legendary label’s eight-decade history with the aim of telling our story and fully representing the Blue Note motto: The Finest In Jazz Since 1939.

Guitarist Grant Green was prolific on Blue Note through the early-60s recording more than 20 hard bop and soul jazz sessions as a leader forthe label between1961-1965. By the time Green returned to the label in 1969 his musical style had evolved to wholly embrace jazz-funk as first heard on his album Carryin’ On. As the decade turned to 1970, Green was in back in Van Gelder Studio that January to record his vibrant album Green Is Beautiful, which remains one of the highlights of the era with the guitarist joined by Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Claude Bartee on tenor saxophone, Emmanuel Riggins and Neal Creque on organ, Jimmy Lewis on bass, Idris Muhammad on drums, Candido Camero on congas, and Richie Landrum on bongos.

Throughout Green’s distinctive tone shines on this grooving 5-song set that opens with a 10-minute funk workout on James Brown’s “Ain’t It Funky Now” and includes covers of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” and Burt Bacharach’s “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” as well as two memorable originals by Creque: “The Windjammer” and “Dracula.”

Musicians:
Grant Green, guitar
Blue Mitchell, trumpet
Claude Bartee, tenor saxophone
Emmanuel Riggins / Neal Creque, organ
Jimmy Lewis, bass
Idris Muhammad, drums
Candido Camero, congas
Richie Landrum, bongos

Features:
• Blue Note Classic Vinyl Reissue Series
• All analog 180g vinyl LP
• Mastered by Kevin Gray directly from the original master tapes
• Manufactured at Optimal in Germany
• Standard packaging