Johnny Griffin [The Cat]
I discovered Johnny Griffin when i bought the cassette of this in a second hand shop, and really loved it, so i bought the disc, i don't bother with tapes anymore, but they really helped me delve into some out of the way music, it's good to play a Jazz disc today, roughly 5% of my Blog, and 4% of my disc collection is Jazz i would guess, and yet it's such great stuff, but finding the 'great' out of the 'good' is a hard task, at one time i used to own 150 jazz discs, now i own half that much, i've purged myself of a lot of dross, yet i don't seem to be delving into much new Jazz, there's so many genres to concentrate on, i've played this disc 15 times, and it's been in my Blog before [27th February 2010].
Johnny Griffin was an American [1928-2008], he came out with this disc in 1990, the front cover is excellent [by Jules Allen], showing Griffin in a portrait, basically a double exposure, a slow shutter speed makes the picture blurred, but at the same time the flash captures the subject frozen, it's actually fairly hard to get exactly right, but the results here are great, shows Griffin pin sharp, and yet there's movement too.
Well i really enjoyed this disc today, it's been over two years since i last played it, and i guess i've missed just how good it is, and why i initially fell in love with it in the first place, well on this listen i liked tracks 2, 5 & 7-9 the most, with tracks 2 & 9 especially great, here's a synopsis of both,
2 Wistful [7:09] - My favourite track on the album, the drummer Kenny Washington is so subtly good, creating i ticking rhythm at the beginning, Griffin plays the wonderful theme tune [0:10-1:32], a sort of jumpy hiccup of playing, which is really quite affecting, in the middle of the theme comes a 'chorus' [0:52-1:11], after the theme Griffin's off on his solo [1:32-4:12], he can make it cry and get really into it, Washington is excellent here, the best sideman on this record, his choice of hits and rhythms brings out the best in Griffin, the Pianist Michael Weiss takes his solo [4:13-5:30], a good one, though not in the league of truly good, Griffin brings the theme back in [5:30-7:09], and it's so good to hear this repeated, a lovely number.
9 Waltz For Ma [2:37] - A short little closer tacked on the end, almost an encore if you like, a waltz for Griffin's Mother, featuring the duo of just Griffin and Dennis Irwin on bass, it's a lovely ditty, Griffin playing sharp and bright, Irwin a simple bass accompaniment, it's a simple and innocent tune theme [0:00-1:00], afterwards Griffin plays a more complex variation [1:00-1:57], and brings back the theme again [1:57-2:31], it should be noted there's a point where he purposely plays out of tune in the theme, which is really quite cute, it's a touching short tune.
Johnny Griffin was an American [1928-2008], he came out with this disc in 1990, the front cover is excellent [by Jules Allen], showing Griffin in a portrait, basically a double exposure, a slow shutter speed makes the picture blurred, but at the same time the flash captures the subject frozen, it's actually fairly hard to get exactly right, but the results here are great, shows Griffin pin sharp, and yet there's movement too.
Well i really enjoyed this disc today, it's been over two years since i last played it, and i guess i've missed just how good it is, and why i initially fell in love with it in the first place, well on this listen i liked tracks 2, 5 & 7-9 the most, with tracks 2 & 9 especially great, here's a synopsis of both,
2 Wistful [7:09] - My favourite track on the album, the drummer Kenny Washington is so subtly good, creating i ticking rhythm at the beginning, Griffin plays the wonderful theme tune [0:10-1:32], a sort of jumpy hiccup of playing, which is really quite affecting, in the middle of the theme comes a 'chorus' [0:52-1:11], after the theme Griffin's off on his solo [1:32-4:12], he can make it cry and get really into it, Washington is excellent here, the best sideman on this record, his choice of hits and rhythms brings out the best in Griffin, the Pianist Michael Weiss takes his solo [4:13-5:30], a good one, though not in the league of truly good, Griffin brings the theme back in [5:30-7:09], and it's so good to hear this repeated, a lovely number.
9 Waltz For Ma [2:37] - A short little closer tacked on the end, almost an encore if you like, a waltz for Griffin's Mother, featuring the duo of just Griffin and Dennis Irwin on bass, it's a lovely ditty, Griffin playing sharp and bright, Irwin a simple bass accompaniment, it's a simple and innocent tune theme [0:00-1:00], afterwards Griffin plays a more complex variation [1:00-1:57], and brings back the theme again [1:57-2:31], it should be noted there's a point where he purposely plays out of tune in the theme, which is really quite cute, it's a touching short tune.
