image from the archive

I took this photo of Grant's son about a year before the film was shot. We were on the roof of a loft building in which we lived in Detroit's Greektown. I used a Canon Ftb that was purchased from a former photographer from the Free Press, my former employer. This is my last blog entry for this site. All future entries will be on my Wordpress site. It's time to simplify in a new year. Hope yours is groovy. Stay tuned for more info about the film's premiere in 2016.

begin here

I am sucker for a good book to which I can return again and again. One such book is May Sarton's Journal of a A Solitude. I first discovered it on a shelf in Books and Books (the location in Coral Gables, Florida). I could not have been more than twenty years old. The book opens with two words "Begin here." Sarton's precision and thoughtful placement of words in this book, which is indeed a journal about her life as a writer, immediately drew me in. I knew it was a book I'd cherish forever when I took a road trip with a coworker through New England. As we pulled into Brattleboro, Vermont, I read a sentence in Sarton's journal in which she announces that she, too, is in Brattleboro. The serendipity left me and my fellow traveler speechless. This kind of coincidence happened just one other time. I will spare you the details now. Years later, owing to my friendship with someone who knew her, I was able to visit Sarton's home in Maine. As I maneuvered through my 20s and 30s and even 40s, I returned again and again to this book, but also another one: Hettie Jones' memoir. I recently read Jones' book cover to cover over the course of three days. I finished it on the beach this past weekend, in fact. I plan to assign it next semester in a course I am teaching at the University of Alabama for the first time. The course is titled "Bebop to Hip Hop: Young America and Music." In this course, the students will be challenged to find meaning in the political and social issues bubbling up behind music created between the late 1950s and the present-day. Jones, a Jewish woman was married to then-Leroi Jones, a black intellectual, in the early 1960s. They met in New York City. She saw up close the beatnik moment in which Grant Green, the guitarist whose life is the subject of a documentary before me, briefly participated in St. Louis before heading east to New York himself. Like Sarton's journal, Jones permits us to access interior dialogues about the particular struggle of individuals trying to navigate a changing world. The Vietnam War, the black freedom struggle, the counterculture movement are in the backdrop of Jones' book. Will the students be able to make connections between such developments, the music being created, the musicians creating the music and their audiences? Will the be able to fully talk through why Kendrick Lamar would be drawn to use the music of a jazz musician like Grant under his lyrics? Are their certain themes that resonate across time, across youth cultures? I will be sorting through such issues with them as I continue seeing this film to the marketplace. Just now I typed three keywords that will serve as tags for this blog entry. Grant Green. Hettie Jones. May Sarton. How does the life of a black musician from St. Louis who came of age in the postwar period intersect with two liberal white women, both of whom are writers? He self-identified as a Muslim although his closest friends said he did not always adhere to the teachings of this faith. Like many, he was a complicated man. We will doubtless learn that this is true about other musicians.

life coming full circle

I just got back from New York where I had the pleasure of sharing a spoken word piece from a chorepoem first presented ten years ago. I did as much at a salon co-hosted by Lacy James, the musician whose music is heard on this documentary and choreographer-dancer Marie-Christine Giordano. There, I met some incredible artists, among them members of Awaken Dance Theatre, Alexis Robbins and musician Marta Hernandez. The Swiss Consulate donated wine. This recent visit to New York made me think of earlier moments in this city, which I called home early this century, but also the moments when footage was gathered for this documentary. Among that footage was this image of Flatiron building, which is near my old neighborhood. Years after we shot this footage, I lived in a women's residence in Gramercy Park. I passed by this iconic triangular building quite often. This past Saturday, I ate pancakes with my niece, who is pictured below with me and Lacy, and her two kids, near it. Life comes full circle again and again. Stay tuned for the film's premiere date. I've received some emails regarding it. It will be shown publicly in the next few months. I'll open my own bottle of that Swiss wine, which arrived via FedEx yesterday, to celebrate. For now, I'll remember this rich visit, which included seeing Steve Turre and James Carter's tribute to Rahsaan Roland Kirk at the Iridium, the amazing Hamilton musical on Broadway (I told students in my US to 1865 class yesterday that the Constitution suddenly feels like a breathing document that you can touch. It has that much power. The musical reminded me of this) and the New York City Marathon (I cheered for people I knew and didn't know and was reminded, as I told students in my "The Nineteenth Century City" class yesterday, about the power of our "common humanity." I suggested the university shut down for a day and half of us run while the rest cheers and then vice versa. For a few hours, we can see that we're all on the same team no matter our differences!

going green

During recent trips, I have been struck by how drawn I am to any mention of recycling and the word "green." Given Grant's known love for the word "green" - it shows up on his song and album titles and he drove a green Cadillac, lived in Greenlawn in Detroit and was buried, it is said, in a St. Louis cemetery with the word "green" in its name - I wondered how an album cover riffing on today's interest in recycling might encounter Grant's music. Here's my untrained artistic guess.

thank you, Rudy

It is almost impossible to not see Rudy Van Gelder's name on the credits for a Blue Note album recorded during the label's hey-day, the first half of the 1960s. We were honored to meet him and hear his memories of capturing Grant Green's guitar playing. It was also simply a thrill being in Rudy's Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, studio and knowing that so many greats had come through this space he designed with the best acoustics for recording in mind. Ever-generous, a couple of months after we left he sent us a photograph of our film's slateboard. I didn't know he was an avid photographer in addition to being an amazing sound engineer. Thanks, Rudy. I still treasure the picture that is now framed. Below is a great Youtube posting of "Perfect Takes," a DVD featuring an interview with Rudy.

gentrifying detroit...or not

Much has been made in the media about Detroit's comeback. Graduate students in my Gender, Race and the Urban Space course addressed this issue last spring while reading Thomas Sugrue's study on the origins of America's urban crisis. Sugrue looks at events occurring after World War II, namely the uneven distribution of postwar prosperity as a chief source of African American challenges in Detroit. I took the photograph up top in 1994. This store sidewalk sign was near downtown Detroit, not far from Eastern Market. I loved the reference to Alaga, or Alabama and Georgia. It's always interesting to see tensions between the rural and the urban. For example, I recall a chicken place on the east side with Alabama in its name. Save a lay-over at the airport years ago, I have not been to Detroit since 1998. I hope to show the film on Grant there some day. It will be good to see up close the changes, or lack of change, in the city's built environment and people. I know casinos are there as are community gardens. I have also heard there's still work ahead even with gentrification in certain areas. As a historian who is presently attentive to how African Americans leaving the place with which they have long been associated - cities - I wonder about the implications for Detroit. Along the way, I'll continue thinking about the urban spaces that Grant Green saw before death in 1979. He was born in St. Louis and lived in Brooklyn and Detroit. Sounds of the city are certainly present in pop and R & B music, the Motown label included. How does black urban life in America bubble up in his contributions to jazz? It's worth thinking about since so much of what he created was completed during he years to which Sugrue is attentive. How much of his music was a response to the crisis in question? Was any of his music a celebration over merely surviving this crisis and so much more for as long as he could? After all, he did own a beautiful house on Detroit's west side. That said, he experienced many financial struggles as did many musicians. The second photo is of his house on Greenlawn and the third is documentary still shot of Grant Jr. walking on the rooftop on a loft building above Niki's Pizza in Detroit's Greektown neighborhood.

remembering the final comedown

I recently ordered a copy of the soundtrack for the 1972 motion picture "The Final Comedown." Grant performs on it.  Although this period of Grant's career is dismissed by some fans of his music, I look forward to listening to it again (I have a vinyl copy that I never touch) as I continue being curious about his life, his motivations and his music. Directed by Oscar Williams and starring Billy Dee Williams, this film was one of several from the so-called "blaxploitation" era. This CD for this soundtrack had not yet released when we started working on the film years ago.

Wade Marcus composed and conducted the music, which was produced by George Butler for Blue Note Records. The musicians on this album include Irving Markowitz and Marvin Stamm, trumpet and flugelhorn; Phil Bodnet on flute, piccolo, alto saxophone and oboe; Harold Vick, alto and tenor saxophone; Julian Barber and Harry Zaratzia, viola; Seymour Barab, Charles McCracken, cello; Eugene Bianco, harp; Warren Smith, marimba, tambourine; George Devens, vibes, timpani, percussion; Richard Tee, piano, organ; Cornell Dupree, guitar; Gordon Edwards, electric bass, Grady Tate, drums; and Ralph MacDonald, conga and bongos. .

Over the years, I have often listened to a KSD interview Grant did with the late disc jockey Leo Chears. It must have been done in the early 1970s as songs from "The Final Comedown" are heard in the background.

Grant seemed to be in good spirits as he talked to Chears. I remember reading an interview in which he said he wanted to "get with some strings," meaning violins. I wonder if this soundtrack was something he wanted to do, or had to do during this transitional moment in jazz.

At the time of the interview, Vietnam was still a social fact. There was a hostage crisis in progress and it was very hot. Chears mentioned the heat index. It must have been the middle of summer. I also remember Grant talking to Chears like he was an old friend and I suspect he was just that given their ties to the greater St. Louis area. I only learned recently that Chears was a native of Lamar, Mississippi. At the time we met, he lived in East St. Louis, Illinois, just over the river from St. Louis.

Anheuser-Busch Company was a long-time supporter of Chears' show. In fact, many know that he was known as "The Man in the Red Vest," which he wore in part to help promote the brand. The name apparently came about when he wore a red vest to a meeting with beer company representatives to discuss sponsorship. They would eventually purchase several red vests for him.

Prior to working as a disc jockey, he served in the U.S. Army and worked for the U.S. Postal Service. Learn more about his life via this obituary.

Chears was among the many incredible supporters of music made by musicians like Grant. He gave us a tour of East St. Louis while he shared as much as he could about Grant's life. May they both rest in peace.

documentary inspires teaching (and vice versa)

This memoir helps paints the beatnik scene.

I also appreciate how much Tupac's work serves as an archive.

One of the real joys experienced while seeing this documentary to completion has been observing how much my interest in Grant Green's life, not just his music, overlaps with my teaching and research at the University of Alabama. I am presently thinking through the components of an HY 430  course for next semester tentatively titled "From Bebop to Hip Hop: Young America and Music." It is an undergraduate seminar so the course is mostly geared toward the students writing a research paper. One of their most essentials tasks will be using an archive - perhaps sheet lyrics in the UA's Hoole Special Collections - that will help them sort through how young people exert some measure of control over their lives via music, performing it or listening to it. There will be an effort to be inclusive, which is to say see the issue from all political and social perspectives.

Because the course has to be pitched at the right level, in order to bring in some of the concerns of young people in the late 1950s and 1960s through the 1970s through the present day, I am thinking of assigning a memoir I read as a young woman on the life of Hettie Jones, former wife of Amari Baraka and a book a poems by Tupac Shakur.

Right away, they will have some sources permitting them to sense what was happening in the backdrop of a lot of the music to which some of them listen today (indeed, music samples of music from this fertile moment of  recording: the 1950s and 1960s will figure in).

Along the way, they will have shorter readings uncovering more information about specific music genres as well as on-the-ground social developments like the black freedom struggle, the beatnik period, the arrival of bebop, Motown, and yes, hip hop. Postwar wealth, urban changes and rising conservative climate in America as well grassroots movements of more recent years will also be topics on which to focus. I look forward to working with this new group of students.

As I continue finishing this film, it will also be great to see Grant's life inside of certain historical developments. As mentioned earlier on this blog, as a young African American man, he performed alongside white musicians in the short-lived St. Louis beatnik club The Holy Barbarian in 1959, upsetting many. His 1965 recording "The Selma March," which was part of National Public Radio (NPR) Civil Rights playlist five years ago, and 1969 "Cease the Bombing" speak to the issues of the time.

He was a resident of St. Louis' Mill Creek community, a target of urban renewal/"black folks removal," as the late Sylvia Shabazz, Grant's childhood friend, once said. All this as Gaslight Square, a strip of nightclubs on Olive Street, some in which he performed, flourished from the early 1950s through the mid-1960s. He went on to live in New York and Detroit where he died in 1979. Not unlike many musicians and artists, he lived so much of the music he recorded. Try listening to Kendrick Lamar's "Sing About Me," which samples Grant's "Maybe Tomorrow," and not hear the tragic timelessness, but also specific histories, in the music of many people, including young America.

infamous intersection

Grant Jr. standing at a famous San Francisco intersection.

This San Francisco intersection appeared on a 1964 album cover.

Another memorable moment had while documenting Grant Green's life: standing at the Grant and Green intersection in San Francisco while driving from St. Louis, where we wrapped up filming  in 1995.  This corner appeared on the cover of his 1964 album "Street of Dreams."  I can't be sure, but I believe the intersection became quite popular after that album.

It is amazing what a young boy who grew up in St. Louis could do for two streets hundreds of miles from his home (and one in the greater San Francisco-Oakland region, which has been seeing more gentrification than easily discussed, according to several news reports). If you're interested, historian Robert Self provides historical context in a broader narrative dating back to the New Deal era , something that interests in me as I continue researching black Miami's racial and spatial politics.

I never met Larry Young, who plays organ on the "Street of Dreams" date, but did have the pleasure of meeting Bobby Hutcherson, who played vibes, and his wife, Rose, twice. I also spoke to this date's drummer Elvin Jones before his passing in 2004.

Up top is a photo of Grant Jr. standing at this intersection. At the time, we were on our way to Villa Montalvo, now the Montalvo Arts Center, where I had a two-month residency to write a biography on his father's life.

By the way, if you use the keywords "Grant Green San Francisco" in a Google search, you will see how some local businesses invoke these two words. For example, there is a little bar that does as much. If memory serves, in 1995 we saw a laundromat with Grant and Green in its name, too.

Graphic designer Reid Miles and Frank Wolff, photographer and founder of Blue Note Records, the label on which the elder Grant first made a name for himself, did an amazing job on numerous album covers, which have been featured on posters and in books. Here's one site that presents some of them. Tina Brooks' True Blue is among my favorites.

One of Reid Miles' incredible covers for Blue Note.

Unrelated: I received an email this week from Bob Andersen, the Director of Photography, for the film. I welcome hearing from others who helped us make this film. We started working on it 20 years ago and have been out of touch. Again, it's a privilege and pleasure to finally see it through to completion.

Finally, owing to this Labor Day weekend, I've offered Grant's "Lazy Afternoon" via a Youtube clip. It's from the "Street of Dreams" date.

grant and lee

Lou Donaldson - the real deal

Lou near the Brooklyn Bridge during the shooting of this film.

Without question, alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson is the man who was most responsible for bringing Grant Green to the attention of  Blue Note Records. I appreciated Lou's down to earth ways during interviews for the film and book on Grant's life, which were done separately over a period of several years. I never for a moment thought he'd ever say anything he didn't mean. If anything, he'd say nothing at all. He's a classy guy (and a U.S. Navy veteran who studied at A & T State University in his native North Carolina, something I did not know for years).

One of my most vivid memories was visiting his home and hearing his wife say that he loved to give away their records. Sounds familiar as in my present household we tend to give away ours, too. May be a sign of how much we love sharing this incredible music.

thank you, Jan and John

I was touched  by the chance today to "attend" Jan Van Dyke's memorial service at UNC-Greensboro via a live stream.  Here's a vintage clip of Jan performing with my MA in Dance  & Related Studies (Film, Theatre and History) advisor John Gamble. Van Dyke also served on my committee. Without question, I thought of everything they taught me about choreography as I approached the editing of this documentary on my former father-in-law Grant Green. I did not know then how valuable the instruction in capturing, editing and using video in dance at UNCG would be even after I went on to continue my doctoral work in History. I often use video as a tool for teaching and even historical research at the University of Alabama. Jan and John, thank you for taking a chance on a mid-career journalist who wanted to go back to school 13 years ago. You continue to inspire.

he knew what to say and when to say it

Saxophonist Eli Fontaine is one of several musicians in this documentary who help us learn more about the special qualities of Grant Green's skills as a guitarist. A lot of what he and others had to say concerned Grant's phrasing. In other words, many agreed that Grant knew when to play, not just how to play.

I think this idea has resonance with Fontaine himself.  Listen to him on the film's trailer . While editing the film, I was struck again by how Fontaine has such a lovely speaking voice. Every word he said  was worth waiting for.  His horn-playing was something else, but so was the way he painted a picture by simply speaking.

What a human being. Session musicians like him in and outside of Detroit are worthy of their own documentaries. I am grateful for the time he shared with us twenty years ago.
Now, many of us "know" Fontaine because of his solo at the beginning of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On."  In this documentary on Grant Green, Fontaine talks briefly about his days of being on the road with Gaye.

One aside: The video posted here is one I show in two of my classes addressing urban history in America. The video presents Gaye's "What Going On" and "What's Happening Brother" under a videoscape of black Chicago, circa 1970s. That urban decay that became synonymous with black life in America is also visible in the documentary. It's never in your face, but I wanted to be sure that the viewer understood that this part of American history has a soundtrack that includes Grant Green's music - his Blue Note moments, but also that critical shift he made in the late 1960s to his death when he and other jazz  musicians, and this country, were trying to find their way through a lot of change. Some of them did better than others, a point this project emphasizes.

"I had a nice body"

Without question, one of the most colorful moments in this documentary center around the time spent with Lottie "the Body" Graves, a former exotic dancer who, "co-starred," as she once said, with many musicians for Motown and jazz performers in and outside of Detroit, among them Grant Green.

 

I had heard the name Lottie "The Body" before we met her at Bomac's Lounge in Detroit in 1995 while shooting the film. I just didn't know it. She is the Lottie "the Body" to which Fred Sanford referred in his hit show "Sanford and Son." Born in Syracuse, New York, Graves' family relocated to New York City where she learned modern dance and ballet, among other types of styles. 

How did she get the name? As Ms. Graves  - who was still beautiful at the time of our meeting -  told Grant Jr., a male dance classmate recognized her curvy appeal (said Lottie, "I had a nice body"). He named her "The Body," deciding that he would also add "Lottie" to the title. The name stuck.

Ms. Graves first met Grant Green, the father, in the 1960s at the Champagne Supper Club in San Francisco, an after-hours spot that found artists fellowshipping while dining over great meals that included lobster. They crossed paths more often in the 1970s after Grant relocated from New York to Detroit, his final home (he is a native of St. Louis). I won't say too much more as she says it all in the documentary, but know that she found him to be an incredible human being. 

For more on Ms. Graves, see this writing.

I recently sent a letter to Ms. Graves and everyone still living who appeared in this film, which, again,  was shot 20 years ago and is only now being completed. I wanted to share the news that the film is finally almost done. One letter has already been returned.

I hope that I will be able to meet some of the folks we met years ago in the near future. I am also trying to find some members of the film crew. If you participated on this project, please email me. 

Ollie Matheus, another one gone too soon

The late Ollie Matheus, former owner of the short-lived The Holy Barbarian nightclub, a beatnik hang-out in St. Louis, is one of the real heroes of this film. In the late 1950s, Matheus boldly put black and white musicians onstage and paid a heavy cost.

As he liked to say when we first met him in 1994, he went on to fight for freedom in Mexico and later, in Haiti. He was some kind of guy. In one of the photos below, he is pictured with his brother John, and Virgil, the latter who was pretty special, too. On the eve of starting my doctoral work, Virgil and his wife, Joan, graciously agreed to do a swing dance demonstration in a lesson I was teaching on the influence of Africa on American vernacular dance.

Olllie Matheus, rebel with a heart.

The Matheus Brothers during filming.

Ollie in front of his car. Check out the license plate.

Emmanuel Riggins, 1942-2015

Earlier this week, I spoke to Calvin Brooks, a guitarist who appears in the documentary. Formerly of Detroit, Brooks now plays and lives in Las Vegas. Brooks shared the May 28 passing of Emmanuel Riggins, keyboardist on Grant's Green Is Beautiful (1970), Visions (1971) and Shades of Green (1972) albums. Riggins, a native of Ohio, apparently had diabetes. I signed his funeral guest book which is still online.

While reading his obituary, I learned a lot more about Emmanuel than he shared in his interview for the book or the film. Like me, he appears to have grown up in the church. I also learned that he served in Vietnam.

Rest in peace, Emmanuel.

During our time with Emmanuel in his Michigan home in 1995, he shared stories about how, among other things he and Grant were very close as they were Muslims, but often fell out partly owing to how often musicians had to wait to be paid by shady nightclub owners. Although Emmanuel was impatient, Grant always wanted him to come back and play. Emmanuel even shared how Grant had to essentially ask his father if he could even leave his Ohio home for New York to perform with Grant. It was the late 1960s. Social unrest was commonplace. Emmanuel's father wanted Grant to assure him that his son would be safe.

The late 1960s was also a difficult moment for jazz. Musicians often resorted to funkier playing to sell records and as the documentary reveals, it was often that very music that was sampled by hip hop artists and pop musicians from the 1990s to the present day.

Emmanuel appears about 34 seconds into the trailer.  As he says in the film, he and Grant eventually settled in Detroit, Grant's last home. It was clear from the stories Emmanuel shared that he and Grant often had a good time on and offstage.

Notably, he's the son of Karriem Riggins, a talented drummer who has performed with everyone from Diana Krall, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Donald Byrd, Cedar Walton to Bobby Hutcherson, Kenny Burrell, Benny Green, Mulgrew Miller, Ron Carter, Gary Bartz, Common and Erykah Badu.

His father's passing was hard to hear as he joins a list of people with whom I've crossed paths since work on this documentary began: greater St. Louis disc jockey Leo Chears, Cornelius Watts, owner of Detroit's historic Watts Club Mozambique, which was recently destroyed in a fire; Ollie Matheus, St. Louis nightclub owner who put blacks and whites onstage in his The Holy Barbarian club, angering many; Ollie's brother Virgil, a Ohio businessman who has distributed recordings made in the Barbarian; St. Louis drummer Joe Charles; organist Jack McDuff; saxophonists Stanley Turrentine and Joe Henderson; Ruth Lion, widow of Alfred Lion, founder of Blue Note Records, the label on which Grant was the house guitarist in the early 1960s; and Bruce Lundvall, former president of Blue Note when it was relaunched in the mid-1980s. I could go on and on. May they all rest in peace.

One aside: I have started reaching out to people who appear in the film and worked on the film to let them know that it is finally in post-production. It would have been great to share as much with Emmanuel.

story behind the film's title track

Lacy James' "Today in the City" energizes opening and closing credits.

One of my biggest joys while editing this film has been listening to the lyrics in Lacy James’ “Today in the City,” the song heard at the beginning and during the scrolling credits at the end. I first met Lacy when I was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (believe it or not, I ended up at that school not only because it had one of the best dance programs in the country, but because it was in a city with the name “green” in it). 

The towers had recently fallen. I was living in New York City. I decided if the world was coming to an end, I wanted to have fun so I pursued an MA in Dance and Related Studies (Theatre, Film and History). John Gamble and the recently departed Jan Van Dyke served on my committee. I am honored to have worked with them and others.

While at UNCG, I learned how to edit using Final Cut. And while there, I met Lacy, one of the graduate students with prior dance training. She was also a musician, something I did not learn until after I graduated and went on to continue my graduate work in Illinois. 

 

See her blog entry to learn more about how she came up with the inspiration to write “Today in the City.” I was drawn to it for a number of reasons among them her initial mention of seeing a “friend.” This is said alongside of other things that suggested loss, even loss experienced when the Twin Towers fell.

When Grant, my former husband, interviewed alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson in 1995 under the Brooklyn Bridge, you can see the towers still there. I could feel multiple layers of a narrative in her song and most especially the loss of Grant Green, the father. I’ll leave it there for now. 

Please check out her song which is a jazz tune she had not planned to write or perform. Her line up of musicians include saxophonist Tom Tallitsch whose sound has been compared to Blue Note’s tenor saxmen Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson who passed away just a few months before the towers fell. I love that Tallitsch's horn takes the film to the very last scrolling credit. I am no music critic, but his sound captivates as one sees the words "for Joan" at the very end. This is the name of dear friend who passed away in 2013. Like Jan, she was a huge inspiration. Also performing on this track: Charles Patierno on drums, Jeff Hiatt on double bass and Tony Mascara on vibes and percussion.

One aside: given my love for the Philly soul sound, I was intrigued to learn about Lacy’s recordings in Philadelphia in the Gamble-Huff studios. Jim Gallagher, the co-producer for her first album, was Philly International's main engineer. She later found out that the Jackson 5 had probably recorded on the very same mixing board.

Finally, I am also working to secure the rights to use one of Grant's songs. More to come.

beer garden moment

I took this photo during the shooting of the documentary in 1995. Grant Jr., not to be confused with his guitar playing brother who plays professionally under that name, is sitting in Molly's Tavern, a St. Louis beer garden, with Virgil and Ollie Matheus. The latter owned the short-lived Holy Barbarian nightclub in St. Louis where Grant's father performed before being discovered in nearby East St. Louis, Illinois, by Blue Note Records saxophonist Lou Donaldson. Concert promoter Jorge Martinez, organist Terry Williams and drummer Kenny Rice, saxophonist Chuck Tillman and John Matheus were also present. It wasn't until years later that I learned how the German presence in America by the middle of the 19th century probably contributed to the proliferation of beer gardens in this country. I look forward to discussing interactions between African Americans and Germans in the urban space next month when I start teaching "The Nineteenth Century City" for the third time at the University of Alabama. Roll Tide!

one of my all time favorite Grant tunes

"Empanada" is hands-down one of my all-time favorite Grant Green tunes. It was recorded on "Easy," his last album. If you look at his eyes on the inside sleeve, you can see the fatigue in his body. It hardly shows up in his playing in this energetic tune.

I love, among things, the sounds of Karen Joseph, flutist and piccolo player on this album, which was released in 1978 by Versatile. Jorge Dalto's performance on piano is also wonderful.

P.S. This song is one of George Benson's favorite Grant Green tunes, too. It is also on heavy rotation as editing on the documentary continues.

all things green

Editing on the documentary continues. I also got the domain name for the website today. It's been a 20-plus year journey. I am trying to get as much done now as the semester and other duties call. Meanwhile, here is a photo of the first two okra growing in our garden. When a dear friend saw this photo of it, she remarked, "Guess your last name ain't 'Green' for nothing." I recalled stories of how Grant Green drove a green Cadillac, wore green suits and lived on Greenlawn in Detroit. I hadn't thought about that kind of serendipity in a while. It was nice to be reminded. Onward.

coming soon

 "Grant Green: A Blue Note" presented by Sharony Green in association with Zone V Productions.