Johnny Griffin

John Arnold Griffin III (April 24, 1928 – July 25, 2008) was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.

Video:Johnny Griffin solo

Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax. While still at high school at age 15, Griffin was playing with T-Bone Walker in a band led by Walker's brother.

Alto saxophone was still his instrument of choice when he joined Lionel Hampton's big band three days after his high school graduation, but Hampton encouraged him to take up the tenor, playing alongside Arnett Cobb. He first appeared on a Los Angeles recording with Hampton's band in 1945 at age 17.

By mid-1947, Griffin and fellow Hampton band member Joe Morris had formed a sextet made up of local musicians, including George Freeman, where he remained for the next two years. His playing can be heard on various early Rhythm and Blues recordings for Atlantic Records. By 1951 Griffin was playing baritone saxophone in an R&B sextet led by former bandmate Arnett Cobb.

After returning to Chicago from two years in the Army, Griffin began establishing a reputation as one of the premiere saxophonists in that city. Thelonious Monk enthusiastically encouraged Orrin Keepnews of Riverside Records to sign the young tenor, but before he could act Blue Note Records had signed Griffin.

He joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1957, and his recordings from that time include a memorable album joining together the Messengers and Thelonious Monk. Griffin then succeeded John Coltrane as a member of Monk's Five Spot quartet; he can be heard on the albums Thelonious in Action and Misterioso.

Griffin's unique style, based on an astounding technique, included a vast cannon of bebop language. He was known to quote generously from classical, opera and other musical forms. A prodigious player. he was often subjected to and victorious at "cutting session" involving a legion of tenor players, both in his hometown Chicago with the likes of Hank Mobley and Gene Ammons, and on the road. Diminutive, he was distinctive as a fashionable dresser, a good businessman, and a well-liked bandleader to other musicians.

Recording career

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Griffin performing with Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay, CA. 1985

Griffin was leader on his first Blue Note album Introducing Johnny Griffin in 1956. Also featuring Wynton Kelly on piano, Curly Russell on bass and Max Roach on drums, the recording brought Griffin critical acclaim.

A 1957 Blue Note album A Blowin' Session featured him with fellow tenor players John Coltrane and Hank Mobley. He played with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for a few months in 1957, and in the Thelonious Monk Sextet and Quartet (1958). During this period, he recorded a set with Clark Terry on Serenade To a Bus Seat featuring the rhythm trio of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones.

At this stage in his career, Griffin was known as the "fastest tenor in the west", for the ease with which he could execute fast note runs with excellent intonation. Subsequent to his three albums for Blue Note, Griffin did not get along with the label's house engineer Rudy Van Gelder, he recorded for Riverside Records. From 1960 to 1962 he and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis led their own quintet, recording several albums together.

Move to Europe

He went to live in France in 1963, moving to the Netherlands in 1978. Apart from appearing regularly under his own name at jazz clubs such as London's Ronnie Scott's, Griffin became the "first choice" sax player for visiting US musicians touring the continent during the 1960s and '70s. He briefly rejoined Monk's groups (an Octet and Nonet) in 1967.

Griffin and Davis met up again in 1970 and recorded Tough Tenors Again 'n' Again, and again with the Dizzy Gillespie Big 7 at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 1965 he recorded some albums with Wes Montgomery. From 1967 to 1969, he formed part of The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, and in the late '70s, recorded with Peter Herbolzheimer And His Big Band, which also included, among others, Nat Adderley, Derek Watkins, Art Farmer, Slide Hampton, Jiggs Whigham, Herb Geller, Wilton Gaynair, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Rita Reys, Jean "Toots" Thielemans, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Grady Tate, and Quincy Jones as arranger. He also recorded with the Nat Adderley Quintet in 1978, having previously recorded with Adderley in 1958.

On July 25, 2008, Johnny Griffin died of a heart attack at the age of 80 in Mauprévoir, near Availles-Limouzine, France. He had lived there for the past 24 years. His last concert, July 21, 2008, was played in Hyères, France.

Discography

As leader

• 1956: Johnny Griffin (released in 1958 by Argo)
• 1956: Introducing Johnny Griffin (Blue Note)
• 1957: A Blowing Session (Blue Note)
• 1957: The Congregation (Blue Note)
• 1958: Johnny Griffin Sextet (Riverside)
• 1958: Way Out! (Riverside)
• 1959: The Little Giant (Riverside)
• 1960: The Big Soul-Band (Riverside) – rereleased as Wade in the Water
• 1960: Battle Stations (Prestige) – with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
• 1960: Johnny Griffin’s Studio Jazz Party (Riverside)
• 1960: Tough Tenors (Jazzland) – with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
• 1960: Griff & Lock (Jazzland) – with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
• 1961: The First Set (Prestige) – with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
• 1961: The Tenor Scene (Prestige) – with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
• 1961: The Late Show (Prestige) – with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
• 1961: The Midnight Show (Prestige) – with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
• 1961: Lookin' at Monk! (Prestige) – with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
• 1961: Change of Pace (Riverside)
• 1961: Blues Up & Down (Jazzland) – with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
• 1961: White Gardenia (Riverside)
• 1961: The Kerry Dancers (Riverside)
• 1962: Tough Tenor Favorites (Jazzland) – with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
• 1963: Grab This! (Riverside)
• 1963: Soul Groove (Atlantic) – with Matthew Gee
• 1963: Do Nothing 'til You Hear from Me (Riverside)
• 1964: Night Lady (Philips)
• 1967: The Man I Love (Polydor)
• 1967: You Leave Me Breathless (Black Lion)
• 1967: A Night in Tunisia (Trio)
• 1967: Body and Soul (Moon)
• 1968: Jazz Undulation (Joker) – with Dexter Gordon
• 1968: Lady Heavy Bottom's Waltz (Vogue)
• 1970: Tough Tenors Again 'n' Again (MPS) – with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
• 1973: Blues for Harvey (SteepleChase)
• 1974: Johnny Griffin Live at Music Inn (Horo)
• 1975: All the Things You Are (Timeless)
• 1976: Johnny Griffin Live in Tokyo (Philips)
• 1976: The Little Giant Revisited (Philips)
• 1978: Sincerely Ours (Four Leaf Clover) – with Rolf Ericson
• 1978: Return of the Griffin (Galaxy)
• 1978: Bush Dance (Galaxy)
• 1978: Birds and Ballads (Galaxy)
• 1979: NYC Underground (Galaxy)
• 1979: To the Ladies (Galaxy)
• 1980: Live / Autumn Leaves (Verve)
• 1981: Meeting (Jeton)
• 1983: Callitwhachawanna (Galaxy)
• 1984: Tenors Back Again! – with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (Storyville)
• 1985: Three Generations of Tenor Saxophone with Sal Nistico and Roman Schwaller
• 1986: Have You Met Barcelona, with Ben Sidran
• 1988: Take My Hand with Michael Weiss, Dennis Irwin, Kenny Washington (Who's Who of Jazz)
• 1990: The Cat with Michael Weiss, Dennis Irwin, Kenny Washington, Curtis Fuller, Steve Nelson (Antilles)
• 1992: Dance of Passion with Michael Weiss, Peter Washington, Kenny Washington, John Clark, Steve Turre, Dave Bargeron (Antilles)
• 1999: In and Out (Dreyfus)
• 2000: Johnny Griffin and Steve Grossman Quintet with Michael Weiss, Pierre Michelot, Alvin Queen (Dreyfus)

As sideman

With Ahmed Abdul-Malik

• Jazz Sahara (Riverside, 1958)

With Nat Adderley

• Branching Out (Riverside, 1958)

With Art Blakey

• Selections from Lerner and Loewe's... (Vik, 1957)
• Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk (Atlantic, 1957)
• Hard Drive (Bethlehem, 1957)

With Tadd Dameron

• The Magic Touch (1962)

With Dizzy Gillespie

• The Giant (America, 1973)
• The Source (America, 1973)
• The Dizzy Gillespie Big 7 (Pablo, 1975)

With Bennie Green

• Glidin' Along (1961)

With Philly Joe Jones

• Blues for Dracula (Riverside, 1958)

With Johnny Lytle

• Nice and Easy (Jazzland, 1962)

With Blue Mitchell

• Big 6 (1958)

With Thelonious Monk

• Thelonious in Action (1958)
• Misterioso (1958)

With Bud Powell

• Bud in Paris (1975, Xanadu Records) (recorded live 1960)
• Earl Bud Powell, Vol. 8: Holidays in Edenville, 64 (1964, Mythic Sound)

With Clark Terry

• Serenade to a Bus Seat (Riverside, 1957)

With Wilbur Ware

• The Chicago Sound (Riverside, 1957)

With Randy Weston

• Little Niles (United Artists, 1958)

Bibliography

• Mike Hennessey The Little Giant: The Story of Johnny Griffin. London: Northway Publications, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9550908-5-1

External links

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