Like fellow Blue Note session player/solo artist Kenny Dorham, guitarist Grant Green’s genius was overshadowed by other players; in his case, Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell. Blame it on too many sideman sessions, industry politics, his too-raw funk, whatevah, he just didn’t blow up like he shoulda. Nine years after his death, Green’s stylings can be heard in the musics of guitarists from Pat Martino to Ronnie Jordan. On A Tribute To Grant Green, six more of his acolytes (son Greg, Ed Cherry, Peter Bernstein, Russell Malone, Mark Whitfield, Dave Stryker) plus Idris Muhammad and Larry Golding do a credible job of interpreting nine GG originals. With great playing like the lopsy-loopy runs of Ed Cherry on “Gooden’s Corner”, Dave Stryker’s bacon-greasy viscosities on “Jean De Fleur” and the younger Green’s fresh extrapolations on “Matador”, “A Wee Bit ‘O Green” and “California Green”, A Tribute To Grant Green for the most part, is indeed a righteous praise to a undervalued master.
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