1. Ain't It Funky Now
2. Cantaloupe Woman
3. The Windjammer
4. Sookie, Sookie
5. Ease Back
6. The Final Comedown

Personnel:
Grant Green — guitar
Claude Bartee, Jr. — tenor sax
Harold Vick — soprano sax
Irwin "Marky" Markowitz, Marvin Stamm, Blue Mitchell — trumpets
Phil Bodner — woodwind
Billy Wooten, William Bivens — vibes
Cornell Dupree — guitar
Ronnie Foster, Neal Creque — organ
Clarence Palmer, Emanuel Riggins — piano
Richard Tee — keyboards
Jimmy Lewis, Gordon Edwards, Chuck Rainey — bass
Ralph MacDonald — percussion
Ray Armando, Joseph Armstrong, Candido Camero — congas
Richard Landrum — bongos
Idris Muhammad, Grady Tate — drums

Blue Breakbeats is an essential collection of six of the funkiest breakbeat heavy songs in Grant Green's deep Blue Note catalog. Prolifically sampled by beat thirsty hip-hop producers and stylistically influential in separating Green from Wes Montgomery's ever-looming shadow, these songs were compiled from Green Is Beautiful, Visions, Alive!, Carryin' On, and The Final Come Down by DJ Smash. While certainly nothing new here for the collector, it's a great starter piece for newcomers and those seeking out the original breaks sampled over and over on late 20th century hip-hop records. Playful grooves and classic drumbeats thump underneath some of the slickest jazz guitar work of the 1970s, while stellar instrumentation alone is worth the price of admission. With it being said that these groundbreaking Blue Note soul/jazz records are the foundation of hip-hop, these cuts are brick-by-brick testimonials. ---Nicholas Gordon, Rovi

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1.Ain't It Funky Now (Brown) 9:58
2.A Day in the Life (Lennon/McCartney) 9:02
3.The Windjammer (Creque/Creque) 5:42
4.I'll Never Fall In Love Again (Bacharach/David) 6:46
5.Dracula (Creoe/Creque) 6:05

Personnel:
Blue Mitchell - trumpet
Claude Bartee – tenor sax
Emmanuel Riggins - organ
Neal Creque - organ*
Grant Green - guitar
Jimmy Lewis – bass (electro)
Idris Muhammad - drums
Candido Camero - conga
Richie "Pablo" Landrum - bongo

The second album of Grant Green's thorough jazz-funk makeover, Green Is Beautiful finds the guitarist growing more comfortable with harder, funkier R&B than he seemed on the softer-hued Carryin' On. The switch from Fender Rhodes electric piano back to the more traditional Hammond organ certainly helps give the session a little extra grit, but it doesn't return Green to the land of soul-jazz by any means. Green Is Beautiful is still explicitly commercial and accessible to non-jazz audiences, and (purist objections notwithstanding) that's not necessarily a bad thing. Green's take on James Brown's "Ain't It Funky Now" is one of the funkiest items in his rare-groove period; it may be chordally very simple, but the groove is tight and percolating, and Green, tenor saxophonist Claude Bartee, and trumpeter Blue Mitchell all come up with hot, exciting solos. The album also benefits from Green's discovery of composer and occasional organist Earl Neal Creque, who contributes two bright, slinky, horn-driven originals: "The Windjammer," which became one of the signature tunes of Green's late period, and "Dracula." They help give the album a more original voice, and indicate that Green was actively making himself at home in his new musical environment, not just mixing dull originals with phoned-in covers of pop and R&B hits (as he and many other '70s Blue Note artists were accused of doing). Of course, there are still pop covers present -- the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" is a mellow, mid-tempo groove, and Bacharach's "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" doesn't stray far from the melody. Even if those aren't particularly distinctive, the remainder of Green Is Beautiful proves that Green's reinvention as a jazz-funk artist wasn't the misguided disaster it was initially made out to be. --- Steve Huey, Rovi

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A1 	Idle Moments	14:58
A2 	Jean De Fleur	6:49
B1 	Django	8:45
B2 	Nomad	12:16

Bass – Bob Cranshaw
Drums – Al Harewood
Guitar – Grant Green
Piano – Duke Pearson
Tenor Saxophone – Joe Henderson
Vibraphone [Vibes] – Bobby Hutcherson

This languid, seductive gem may well be Grant Green's greatest moment on record. Right from the opening bars of the classic title cut, Idle Moments is immediately ingratiating and accessible, featuring some of Green's most stylish straight jazz playing. Whether he's running warm (pianist Duke Pearson's "Idle Moments"), cool (the Modern Jazz Quartet's "Django"), or a bit more up-tempo (Pearson's "Nomad," his own "Jean de Fleur"), Green treats the material with the graceful elegance that was the hallmark of his best hard bop sessions, and that quality achieves its fullest expression here. He's helped by an ensemble that, as a sextet, is slightly larger and fuller-sounding than usual, and there's plenty of room for solo explorations on the four extended pieces. Pearson's touch on the piano is typically warm, while two players best known on Blue Note for their modernist dates mellow out a bit -- the cool shimmer of Bobby Hutcherson's vibes is a marvelously effective addition to the atmosphere, while Joe Henderson plays with a husky, almost Ike Quebec-like breathiness. That cushion of support helps spur Green to some of the loveliest, most intimate performances of his career -- no matter what the tempo, it's as if his guitar is whispering secrets in your ear. It's especially true on the dreamy title track, though: a gorgeous, caressing, near-15-minute excursion that drifts softly along like a warm, starry summer night. Even more than the two-disc set The Complete Quartets With Sonny Clark, Idle Moments is the essential first Green purchase, and some of the finest guitar jazz of the hard bop era. ---Steve Huey, AllMusic Review

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01. Matador (Grant Green) – 10:49
02. My Favorite Things (Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers) – 10:20
03. Green Jeans (Grant Green) – 9:06
04. Bedouin (Duke Pearson) – 11:38
05. Wives And Lovers (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) – 8:59

Personnel:
- Grant Green - guitar
- McCoy Tyner - piano
- Bob Cranshaw - double bass
- Elvin Jones – drums

Grant Green recorded so much high-quality music for Blue Note during the first half of the '60s that a number of excellent sessions went unissued at the time. Even so, it's still hard to figure out why 1964's Matador was only released in Japan in 1979, prior to its U.S. CD reissue in 1990 -- it's a classic and easily one of Green's finest albums. In contrast to the soul-jazz and jazz-funk for which Green is chiefly remembered, Matador is a cool-toned, straight-ahead modal workout that features some of Green's most advanced improvisation, even more so than his sessions with Larry Young. Part of the reason for that is that Green is really pushed by his stellar backing unit: pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Elvin Jones. Not only is Green leading a group that features one-half of the classic Coltrane Quartet, but he even takes on Coltrane's groundbreaking arrangement of "My Favorite Things" -- and more than holds his own over ten-plus minutes. In fact, every track on the album is around that length; there are extended explorations of two Green originals ("Green Jeans" and the title track) and Duke Pearson's Middle Eastern-tinged "Bedouin," plus the bonus cut "Wives and Lovers," a swinging Bacharach pop tune not on the Japanese issue. The group interplay is consistently strong, but really the spotlight falls chiefly on Green, whose crystal-clear articulation flourishes in this setting. And, for all of Matador's advanced musicality, it ends up being surprisingly accessible. This sound may not be Green's claim to fame, but Matador remains one of his greatest achievements. ---Steve Huey, Rovi

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