Johnny Griffin has left us...

[tkeith]

I'll be featuring Johnny's music tonight, as a leader and as a sideman, on my radio program, "Jazz from Studio Four" from 8p-midnight, on WGBH, 89.7FM, Boston

Tune in or log on!

PS I was at The RegattaBar (In Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA)that night. I just got off the phone with pianist Michael Weiss who ws on that gig!

Nice to have a witness.

Saw him at the 1369 when I was about 13-14 with my Dad. He went in in front of me and they almost didn't let me in. Rhythm section didn't bring much that night, but then, Griff rarely needed help.

[clifford_thornton]

Sad news. RIP and thanks for your work and your sound.

[Niko]

often over the last months, while this site was loading i had the vision that this thread would be there... my favorite tenor player

[sheldonm]

Here are a couple shots I made of him the last time I saw him.....

Edited July 25, 2008 by sheldonm

[sheldonm]

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[sheldonm]

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[sheldonm]

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[Stereojack]

I was at The RegattaBar (In Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA)that night. I just got off the phone with pianist Michael Weiss who ws on that gig!

Saw him at the 1369 when I was about 13-14 with my Dad. He went in in front of me and they almost didn't let me in. Rhythm section didn't bring much that night, but then, Griff rarely needed help.

I'm in good company! I was at the 1369 gig, also saw him at the Regattabar one time (he played there a few times). The first time I saw him was at Jonathan Swift's in Harvard Square around 1980. Steve, I expect you were there as well!

Always played his ass off!!

[Tom 1960]

An early favorite of mine when I first started listening to jazz over 20 years ago. Looks like I'll be playing quite abit of his music this weekend. RIP Johnny.

[John L]

RIP

[Larry Kart]

The amount and quality of music he made was amazing. I believe he knew how grateful we were.

[alocispepraluger102]

until stevebop comes on at 8pm eastern, wkcr is featuring all johnny until 9pm eastern.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/wkcr/

[mikeweil]

Sorry to hear this. Saw him many years ago - what can you say about a jazz life as fulfilled as his ......

I'm especially fond of the ballads he wrote, Soft and Furry, When we Were One ..... will play some of them tomorrow.

R.I.P.

[Joe G]

I saw him a couple of times at the Jazz Showcase when it was on Grand Ave. Johnny was such a bad ass. I mean, so thorougly and completely. Others will probably tell me I'm wrong, but I think you can really hear how much DEPTH he really had on the couple of live sides he did with Monk. Dude had speed, humor, technique, everything that a well rounded musician should have.

Listening to Misterioso now.

I'm gonna miss him.

Those Monk sides were my introduction to him, about 12 years ago--agree completely with you. JG had to be a badass to hold down a gig with Monk.

Mine as well, then the live date with Wes Montgomery. I listened to those sides more times than I can count, and can easily recognize Johnny's playing anywhere.

[Shawn]

...I'm here because I did something wrong on my planet. I'm not really from this planet. I did something wrong on my planet and they sent me here to pay my dues. I figure pretty soon my dues should be paid, and they're going to call me home so I can rest in piece. - Johnny Griffin to Art Taylor in Notes and Tones

Johnny Griffin was walking, breathing, living proof that no matter how much ugly, nasty, supremely fucked up bullshit there is in this life, that there was always that much more beauty and joy to be had if you could/would just let yourself believe and go ahead on, take the leap of faith, and simply go there.

I'm always talking about using my horn like a machine gun, but not to kill anybody. I want to shoot them with notes of love. I want them to laugh. I want to give them something positive. - Ibid

Johnny Griffin's was the energy of the truth, and you can not kill the truth.

I absolutely refuse to believe that as indomitable a spirit as Johnny Griffin's has "died", has been extinguished. To do so violates everything in which I believe, much less the basic law of the universe that energy can be neither created nor destroyed.

What I will believe, and sadly but ultimately acceptingly, is that the cat finally got called back home for another gig and had no choice but to take it. That, I can and will believe.

Anything/everything else is a lie.

Beautiful! Thanks Jim.

[Harold_Z]

Not much I can say hear that hasn't already been said. RIP Johnny.

[woofy]

The odd thing is I borrowed the Monk at the 5 Spot CD from the library yesterday, and was enjoying listening to it in my car yesterday and today. I've heard Monk with Rouse and I've heard Monk with Coltrane, but I never heard Monk with Griffin on tenor. He had his own style, it kicked ass.

I loved his playing. I saw him with Lockjaw twice in the same week at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago when it was at the Blackstone Hotel. I was seventeen and just getting into jazz.

A few years later, after Lockjaw had passed , I saw Griffin in a quartet setting. I got his autograph on the liner notes of a reissue of the Introducing Johnny Griffin CD. He looked at the CD (this was maybe 1989) and said with a smile:

"Thats an ooooooooold one!"

[GA Russell]

RIP

Johnny Griffin holds a special place in my heart because he was featured on one of my first jazz albums, my first Monk album, Thelonious In Action.

To this day, Light Blue and Blue Monk from that album are two of my favorite Monk recordings.

[Shawn]

When We Were One should be a jazz standard...one of my absolute favorite songs, hauntingly beautiful.

[Kalo]

Rest in Peace, Mr. Griffin.

I saw him a few times at the Regattabar in Cambridge during the '90s with that Michael Weiss and Kenny Washington group. Hearing him play Monk's "Coming on the Hudson" in person sticks with me to this day as one of the finest musical experiences I have ever had.

[ghost of miles]

When We Were One should be a jazz standard...one of my absolute favorite songs, hauntingly beautiful.

Nice version of it with Ronnie Mathews on RETURN OF THE GRIFFIN...just played it on the radio last week.

[Michael Weiss]

Saw him at the 1369 when I was about 13-14 with my Dad. Rhythm section didn't bring much that night...

Amazing, the sophisticated ears you had at 13-14 years of age. Are you fucking for real? You might want to rethink that statement. I can't believe you haven't already been called on that yet.

Edited August 12, 2008 by Michael Weiss

[stevebop]

Playlist from Johnny Griffin Tribute:

Friday, July 25, 8pm=­midnight, WGBH 89.7

REMEMBERING THE "LITTLE GIANT" JOHNNY GRIFFIN (d.7/25/2008)

Listed by artist: selection, album (label)

8:00pm

THEME: Horace Parlan Quintet: Wadin', Speakin' My Piece (Blue Note)

8:05pm

Johnny Griffin: Nocturne, Change of Pace (Riverside)

Johnny Griffin: The Cat, The Cat (Antilles)

Johnny Griffin; Martial Solal: When You're in My Arms, In & Out (Dreyfus)

8:31pm

Johnny Griffin; with Strings and Brass: Don't Explain,

White Gardenia (Riverside)

Tadd Dameron; featuring Johnny Griffin: On A Misty Night,

The Magic Touch (Riverside)

Johnny Griffin: Meditation, The Big Soul Band (Riverside)

8:53pm

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers; featuring Johnny Griffin:

Off The Wall (comp. Griffin), A Night in Tunisia (RCA Bluebird)

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers; featuring Johnny Griffin: Purple Shades

(comp. Griffin), With Thelonious Monk (Atlantic)

Thelonious Monk; featuring Johnny Griffin: Blues Five Spot,

The Complete Riverside Recordings (Riverside)

9:22pm

Johnny Griffin: For Dancers Only; Flyin' Home; Chicago Riffin'; Till We Meet

Again, Okeh Jazz (Okeh/Sony)

Johnny Griffin: I Cried For You; Satin Wrap; These Foolish Things; Lollypop,

Johnny Griffin Quartet (Argo)

9:50pm

Johnny Griffin; featuring Roy Hargrove: Without A Song,

Chicago-New York-Paris (Verve)

Johnny Griffin: Dance of Passion, Dance of Passion (Antilles)

Roy Hargrove; featuring Johnny Griffin: When We Were One (comp. Griffin),

With The Tenors of Our Time (Verve)

10:17pm

Chet Baker; featuring Johnny Griffin: Fair Weather,

Chet Baker in New York (Riverside)

Wes Montgomery; featuring Johnny Griffin: Blue 'n' Boogie,

Encores, Volume 2 Blue 'n' Boogie (Milestone)

10:38pm

Phil Woods; featuring Johnny Griffin:

We Could Make Such Beautiful Music Together, The Rev and I (Blue Note)

Johnny Griffin; Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis: Blue Lou,

Tough Tenor Favorites (Riverside)

Dexter Gordon; featuring Johnny Griffin: Blues Up and Down,

Live at Carnegie Hall (Columbia)

11:08pm

Johnny Griffin; John Coltrane; Hank Mobley: Ball Bearing,

A Blowin' Session (Blue Note)

Johnny Griffin: These Foolish Things, Introducing Johnny Griffin (Blue Note)

Johnny Griffin: It's You or No One, The Congregation (Blue Note)

11:29pm

Johnny Griffin: Please Send Me Someone To Love, Groff 'n Bags (Rearward)

Johnny Griffin: What's New, Sextet (Riverside)

Johnny Griffin: Woe Is Me, The Cat (Antilles)

11:53pm

Johnny Griffin; Martial Solal: You Stepped Out of A Dream, In & Out

(Dreyfus)

[GA Russell]

Here is his LA Times obituary:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,3780519.story

Johnny Griffin, 80; tenor saxophonist known as the 'Little Giant'

Robert Vos AFP / Getty Images Tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, known as the "Little Giant" and celebrated for his lightning-fast musical style, performs at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam in 2007. By Jocelyn Y. Stewart, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 26, 2008 Johnny Griffin, the tenor saxophonist known as the "Little Giant," whose big, rich sound and lightning speed made for a distinct musical signature during an era when bebop was king, has died. He was 80.

Griffin died Friday at his home in France, his agent, Helene Manfredi, told Bloomberg News. The cause was not reported.

Though he was often called the "world's fastest saxophonist," Griffin -- who jammed with such greats as Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Art Blakey -- did not see speed as the key element of his playing.

"Everybody called me a racehorse, but feeling good is my thing," Griffin said in a 1995 Times article. "Art Blakey used to say to me, 'You fire that [saxophone] like it's a machine gun.' I'd say, 'Yeah, man, but those are pellets of love.' "

Griffin is credited with helping to spark renewed interest in bebop in the 1970s, with performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1975, in Tokyo in 1976 and throughout the U.S. in the latter part of the decade.

"He was very original," said drummer Louis Hayes, who performed with Griffin and many other jazz artists. Griffin "had a great knowledge of his instrument and music and . . . he had a tremendous impact on this art form we call jazz."

Born John Arnold Griffin III in Chicago on April 24, 1928, Griffin grew up in a house that was often filled with music. His mother played piano and sang in the church choir; his father had played cornet. At 6, Griffin began studying the piano and later added the Hawaiian steel guitar.

At DuSable High School in the 1940s, under bandmaster Capt. Walter Dyett, Griffin learned clarinet and oboe, and then the alto saxophone. His true love was the tenor sax -- a big instrument for the diminutive musician, who did not reach his final height of about 5 feet 5 until after high school. Outside of school, he played alto sax in a band with T-Bone Walker.

Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, who while visiting DuSable heard Griffin play, invited him to join his band in 1945. Griffin, who was 17, graduated on a Thursday and on Sunday began his first professional gig with one of the most celebrated musicians of the day. While playing with Hampton, Griffin switched to tenor sax.

In the 1950s, he moved to New York, where he played with R&B trumpeter Joe Morris, drummers Philly Joe Jones and Jo Jones and saxophonist Arnett Cobb. Older musicians who had influenced him -- saxophonists Ben Webster, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins -- took Griffin under their wing when he moved to the city. His friends included pianists Monk, Bud Powell and Elmo Hope.

"They had so much respect for each other," Griffin said in the 1995 Times article. "I'd walk the streets of Harlem with them every day. That was my education."

While serving in the Army in the early 1950s, Griffin formed a small band of his own. A colonel was impressed and ordered Griffin to be placed in the Army band -- a decision that kept him out of combat in Korea.

In 1957, Griffin joined Blakey and later played in a Monk quartet. With tenor saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Griffin co-led a quintet in the early 1960s. Their "battles," high-energy feats of improvisation, can be heard on "Tough Tenor Favorites," released in 1962.

Griffin's many recordings also include "Introducing Johnny Griffin" (1956), "A Blowin' Session" (1957) with saxophonists Hank Mobley and John Coltrane, and "Change of Pace" (1961).

Disheartened by the changes in jazz -- which he called "noise" -- and plagued by tax troubles, Griffin moved to Europe in the early 1960s. He lived in the Netherlands for many years and later settled in a chateau in southwest France. In Europe, jazz had a higher profile and racism a lesser presence, he said.

But beginning in 1978, with a performance with saxophonist Dexter Gordon, he returned regularly to the United States to perform and celebrate his birthday.

In a review of a 1978 concert, then-Times critic Leonard Feather called Griffin "a hard-driving performer with a crackling energetic sound and the ability to create flawlessly swinging lines that never let up."

In later years, Griffin, who was also a composer, often performed with his longtime drummer, Kenny Washington. Griffin's album "Smokin' Sax" was released Tuesday, according to Billboard.com.

Griffin had an explanation for the speed that defined his style.

"I got so excited when I played, and I still do," he once said. "I want to eat up the music like a child eating candy."

[JohnS]

Such sad news, another giant gone.

For me Studio Jazz Party sums him up. I'll give it a spin later today.