On October 23, 1957, a 29-year-old Chicago tenor saxophonist walked into Van Gelder studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, to document his third album The Congregation, for Blue Note, the influential New York jazz label run by producer Alfred Lion. Johnny Griffin had simply spent seven months working with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers however was now specializing in forging a profitable solo profession.
At 5 foot 5 inches tall, Griffin was deemed quick in stature, however musically, he was an absolute colossus. For a small man, he had a commanding sound. That’s why he was nicknamed “Little Giant.” Griffin was the person who put the “hard” into “hard bop” and was the saxophone-playing equal of a gun-slinger: a fast-draw specialist whose fast fingering approach was awe-inspiring and whose sound was energetic, virile and full-bodied. But whereas he may blow out molten melodic strains at 100 miles an hour, he additionally possessed a supreme sensitivity and was masterful on sluggish ballads.
Listen to The Congregation on Apple Music and Spotify.
Arguably the most effective of Griffin’s three Blue Note albums, The Congregation – which adopted within the wake of Introducing Johnny Griffin and A Blowin’ Session, the latter of which noticed Griffin battle in a titanic saxophone duel with John Coltrane and Hank Mobley – was a quartet session that discovered the diminutive Chicagoan accompanied by pianist Sonny Clark, Detroit-raised bassist Paul Chambers (who had additionally appeared on A Blowin’ Session) and Philadelphia drummer Kenny Dennis.
Gospel-influenced soul jazz
The opening title monitor is a Griffin authentic that’s a gospel-influenced slice of soul jazz whose title signifies, maybe, that it ought to be thought of a companion piece to Horace Silver’s common Blue Note single “The Preacher.” After Griffin’s sturdy solo, Clark’s piano appears delicate by comparability. Chambers, who additionally recorded albums as a frontrunner at Blue Note throughout the identical interval, shines on a strolling bass solo earlier than Griffin and Co. reprise the jaunty fundamental theme.
Penned by fellow Chicagoan and alto saxophonist John Jenkins, “Latin Quarter” finds Griffin revisiting a tune that he had recorded per week earlier as a sideman for bassist Wilbur Ware (on the Riverside album The Chicago Sound). Alternating between a sultry Latin groove and swinging jazz rhythms, the piece options some stupendous blowing from Griffin, who additionally treats us to a elegant saxophone cadenza close to the tip.
The midtempo swinger “I’m Glad There Is You” is Griffin’s tackle a much-covered jazz customary that was co-written in 1941 by huge band jazz man Jimmy Dorsey, and was a success for Frank Sinatra six years later. As nicely as displaying a formidable mastery of saxophone approach, Griffin’s emotionally nuanced efficiency exhibits that he’s no stranger to emotional sensitivity.
Melodic invention
Griffin wrote “Main Spring,” a loping, nocturnal blues propelled by a elegant groove from Chambers and Dennis. The saxophonist’s sense of melodic invention exhibits no signal of drying up as he turns the tune inside out with an extended, lithe solo that remembers the bar-walking blues tenors of the early 50s. By distinction, Sonny Clark’s piano taking part in is lean and economical. “Main Spring” can also be distinguished by an extended arco bass solo from Paul Chambers.
The tempo quickens for the springy “It’s You Or No One,” a Jules Styne-Sammy Cahn tune that was initially sung by Doris Day on the soundtrack to the 1948 Hollywood film Romance On The High Seas. Griffin takes the tune at breakneck velocity in contrast with the jaunty authentic, blowing a storm of notes and coming over like a Windy City hurricane.
Another film tune, a nostalgic ode known as “I Remember You,” was co-written by Johnny Mercer and sung by Dorothy Lamour within the 1942 flick The Fleet’s In (20 years later, it was a giant UK hit for Australian crooner Frank Ifield). Griffin transforms the tune right into a driving arduous bop exposition full with a drum solo by Kenny Dennis, who was making his recording debut on the session.
One of essentially the most technically-gifted arduous bop saxophonists
When it was launched in March 1958 as BLP 1580, The Congregation was housed in a particular cowl designed by Blue Note’s design guru, Reid Miles, that includes an illustration drawn by a then-unknown artist known as Andy Warhol. The music confirmed that Griffin was one of the vital technically gifted saxophonists within the arduous bop idiom.
Sadly, Griffin didn’t make one other album for Blue Note, however went on to document for a raft of different labels, together with Riverside and Prestige, earlier than transferring to Europe in 1963 the place he lived and labored till the tip of his life. The Congregation, although, confirmed the “Little Giant” taking part in a giant half within the rise of arduous bop and represents a high-water mark in each Griffin’s and Blue Note’s historical past.
Listen to the most effective of Blue word on Apple Music and Spotify.