Saturday October 8, 2022

Guitarist and singer Grant Green Jr. has kept it funky with his Masters of Groove music project (with Bernard Purdie and Rueben Wilson) and his own jazz and original funk band. His newest project, a tribute album to Burt Bacharach, was born from hearing his late father’s (jazz great Grant Green) homage to him in his Blue Note Records days. “He is one of my favorite American composers,” Grant says. “His sense of melody in a song like ‘Alfie’ is beautiful and timeless.” Grant says his love for all types of music made him the multidimensional musician that he is today. The self-proclaimed Led Zeppelin and Johnny Cash fan recalls how one-time pop songs such as “Days of Wine and Roses,” “Misty,” and “Stella by Starlight” later became jazz standards. “Basically that’s what I’m doing with the Burt Bacharach stuff, he says. “It’s great material that you want to put your own spin on.” While Bacharach is an inspiration, he has many others. Grant Jr. spent part of his childhood in Detroit where Motown legends would jam at his house, and New York City, where he had a bird’s eye view of the jazz scene. His Detroit neighbors included Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight along with members of the Four Tops and the Temptations. Miles Davis was known to join impromptu jam sessions in their home. The musicianship of Grant’s father, however, has had the greatest sway over him. “He highly influenced me,” Grant says. “He’s why I play the guitar.” The elder Grant, who inspired the likes of Carlos Santana and George Benson, was not interested in his son following in his footsteps. He preferred that young Grant become a doctor or a lawyer. But from adolescence the son had studied his father playing the guitar, and at age 17 Grant gained his musical respect.