The Complete Quartets With Sonny Clark

Product Description:

THE COMPLETE QUARTETS WITH SONNY CLARK includes the albums NIGERIA, GOODEN'S CORNER and OLEO as well as 3 additional tracks.

Personnel: Grant Green (guitar); Sonny Clark (piano); Sam Jones (bass); Art Blakey, Louis Hayes (drums).

Producer: Alfred Lion.

Reissue producer: Michael Cuscuna.

Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on December 23, 1961 and January 13 & 31, 1962. Includes liner notes by Ben Sidran, Michael Cuscuna and Bob Porter.

This two-disc set gathers together the cuts for three Blue Note sessions teaming Grant Green with Sonny Clark. The first, NIGERIA, was originally release posthumously in 1980 and features Green's only collaboration with drummer Art Blakey. GOODEN'S CORNER and OLEO were both only released in Japan in 1979 and 1980, respectively. The latter two sessions featured Louis Hayes on drums along with Sam Jones, the bassist for all three albums. Luckily these sessions have been carefully restored and release for all to hear.

The focus of all three session is mainly on standards. In the hands of Green and Clark, however, these familiar tunes become something else entirely. The force of their strong musical personalities is so consuming that works like Gerswin's "It Ain't Necessarily So," here taken as a grungy shuffle, take on a whole new light. Likewise, the Kern-Hammerstein classic "The Song Is You" and Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love" are both as fresh and exciting as the day they were written. Disc two features Henry Mancini's "Moon River" reshaped into a delightful bounce and Green's shockingly unusual read of Sonny Rollins' "Oleo." Also found here are some Green originals including the dynamic "Hip Funk."