Street of Dreams

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Street of Dreams
Grant Green's studio album

Publication
(s)

1966

Label (s) Blue note

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

4 (LP) / 4 (CD)

running time

33:24 (CD)

occupation

production

Alfred Lion

Studio (s)

Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey

chronology
His Majesty King Funk
(1965) 		Street of Dreams Iron City
(1967)
Template: Info box music album / maintenance / parameter error

Street of Dreams is a jazz album by Grant Green , recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey on November 16, 1964 and released in 1966 on Blue Note Records . The album was re-released in 2008 as a remastered CD in the label's RVG edition.

The album

Grant Green was recorded in various line-ups by the Blue Note label in the 1960s; So with Ben Dixon and Baby Face Wilette (1961), with Sonny Clark and Sam Jones , and finally with Larry Young and Elvin Jones in November 1964. As with the previous album Idle Moments , the vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson also worked here . Green had already met Coltrane musicians Elvin Jones (and McCoy Tyner ) at the (unpublished) Matador session in June 1964.

Bringing vibraphone and Hammond organ together in a jazz combo goes back to the tradition of collaboration between Lionel Hampton and Milt Buckner and had already been continued by Johnny "Hammond" Smith and Johnny Lytle . In a trio with Larry Young and Elvin Jones, Green first played the (initially unreleased) album Talkin 'About! In September 1964 . (Blue Note BLP 4183). Green continued working with Jones and Young after recording Street of Dreams with a few New York club appearances and with the Blue Note album I Want to Hold Your Hand in March 1965 , before leaving the Blue Note label for one take a more commercial direction. Young and Jones continued their collaboration on the Unity album (1965).

Street of Dreams did not contain any original compositions by the organist and the musicians involved, but only cover versions of songs that were popular at the time, such as Charles Trenet's " I Wish You Love ", which was popular in the 1960s with singers like Gloria Lynne and Keely Smith . “Lazy Afternoon” was also a pop song from the 1950s; the title track "Street of Dreams" was a Victor Young standard , and finally "Somewhere in the Night". The song was originally sung by Vivian Blaine in the film musical Three Little Girls in Blue (1946) and then made famous by the version by Ella Fitzgerald ; it had been popular in the United States since the late 1950s as the "Naked City Theme" from the television series of the same name and by jazz singer Teri Thornton .

After Larry Young's introduction to create the mood, Green plays the first track "I Wish You Love", to which he adds a slight Latin touch in the background. Leonard Feather points out the effects of the background accompaniment by the vibraphonist Hutcherson and mentions three aspects of Grant Green's playing style:

On the one hand, he plays the melody, a seething theme in the minor key; on the other hand, he moves on the main melody of the chorus , varying its lines only slightly and subtly; There is also a third aspect, namely that he is working towards a climax, not the excitement, but the intensity and enthusiasm.

Finally, Feather points to the connection to Charlie Christian as a role model for Green: "If Christian had ever recorded numbers with a rhythmic Latin background, this would be the way they would sound." The following "Lazy Afternoon", hardly as a jazz instrumental piece, but only known from pop music of the early 1950s, Green gives it an unconventional character by playing it in 5/4 time; Hutcherson plays a second solo here. In contrast, the Victor Young number “Street of Dreams” was an established standard in jazz; here the musicians don't create a Latin rhythm, rather a straight-ahead style of playing that swings in orthodox 4/4 meter. Feather refers to Green's triplets at some points in his solo when he picks up and continues Larry Young's intense playing. The theme of "Somewhere in the Night" is introduced by Grant and Hutcherson in unison after Young's introduction ; the closing cadenza of the piece, played at a moderate tempo, reminds Feather of Django Reinhardt .

rating

Steve Huey only rated Street of Dreams with three stars for Allmusic , but praised the wonderfully light and atmospheric atmosphere of the session, to which Hutcherson was the perfect complement, as he contributed his clear, shimmering tone with a modal playing posture . The musicians neither played with the soul-jazz touch of Talkin 'About nor did the record have too romantic an approach; it is rather contemplative and flowing: “There is no fireworks and funky grooves ; the music is more like one piece, which makes it difficult to identify the highlights of this album. "

Richard Cook and Brian Morton particularly highlighted the impressive opening track “I Wish You Love” in the Penguin Guide to Jazz and praised the overall quality of this session. They regret that there is no other previously unpublished material from this.

In All About Jazz, Chis May went into the role of organist Larry Young and drummer Elvin Jones in this session, who as a “potentially turbulent duo” bring Grant Green and Hutcherson into a mild groove. Compared to Idle Moments , which was largely determined by the arrangements of the pianist Duke Pearson , Street of Dreams seems more like a blowing session - simple themes serve as vehicles for solos; the selection of the songs, however, "releases a wealth of structural and harmonic concerns".

Elvin Jones (1977)

The pieces

  • Blue Note BST 84253
  1. I Wish You Love ( Léo Chauliac / Charles Trenet ) - 8:43
  2. Lazy Afternoon (John Latouche / Jerome Moross ) - 7:41
  3. Street of Dreams ( Victor Young / Sam M. Lewis) - 8:59
  4. Somewhere in the Night (Josef Myrow / Mack Gordon ) - 8:01

The cover design is by Reid Miles and the cover photo by Jim Marshall.

literature

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ cf. Cook / Morton 2001, p. 612 f.
  2. ↑ a b Blumenthal. Liner Notes (2008)
  3. ^ Grant Green discography at jazzdisco.org
  4. ↑ Originally entitled “Que reste-t-il de nos amours”.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Leonard Feather, Liner Notes 1966
  6. ↑ Drummer Pete LaRoca also recorded the piece the following year with Joe Henderson , Steve Kuhn and Steve Swallow for Blue Note.
  7. ↑ In the original: thoughtful and introspective, floating along as if buoyed by clouds. There aren't really any fireworks or funky grooves, as the music is all of a piece, which makes it difficult to choose the highlights (...)
  8. ^ Review of Steve Huey's album in Allmusic
  9. ↑ Review by Chris May in All About Jazz