Grant Green - Idle Moments (2021 Reissue, Remastered) LP

2021 reissue 180g vinyl LP as part of Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series - The third-best jazz guitar album you’ll ever hear. Idle Moments is a 1964 jazz album by guitarist Grant Green. best known for the title piece, a slow composition in C minor which lasts for nearly 15 minutes.

Grant Green was, along with Wes Montgomery, the top new jazz guitarist to become prominent in the early 1960s. Due to his single-note style (Green rarely every played a chord) and his ability to create fast lines on the spot, he was in some ways the Charlie Parker of the guitar. He gained experience playing in St. Louis in the 1950s including with Jimmy Forrest, Harry “Sweets” Edison and Lou Donaldson, moved to New York, and immediately became Blue Note’s house guitarist.

When it came to playing soul jazz with organ combos, jamming bebop with a quartet, caressing ballads or coming up with fresh approaches to Latin jazz and spirituals, the versatile Green was at the top of his field. But among his many recordings, Grant Green’s most vital and adventurous was Idle Moments. With such inspiring sidemen as Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson and Duke Pearson, Green is heard at the absolute apex of his creativity throughout this stunning set.

He builds up statements like a masterful speaker, sounds both passionate and thoughtful at every tempo, and never runs out of brilliant and personal ideas to express. Every phrase leads to the next one yet all of his solos are spontaneous. While the other musicians are inspired and in top form, Idle Moments is particularly notable as the height of Grant Green’s musical genius!