Blue ‘n’ Boogie

Johnny Griffin (tenor sax), Wes Montgomery (electric guitar), Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (doble bass) and Jimmy Cobb (drums). From the album Full House (1962).

Johnny Griffin was an American tenor saxophonist who played in the hard bop style. He was able to easily play the difficult harmonic changes and fast rhythms of modern jazz, but he also knew how to play tender ballads with skill. He started playing alto sax with blues musician T-Bone Walker. After high school graduation in 1945 he toured with the Lionel Hampton’s big band, switching from alto sax to tenor, and moved to New York, where he saw Charlie Parker and other bebop musicians play.

After leaving Hampton in 1947 he played with rhythm and blues bands before doing his military service. Then he returned to Chicago and earned a reputation as one of the city’s leading saxophonists. In 1956 he recorded his first album Introducing Johnny Griffin and in 1957 he briefly joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. That same year he recorded the album A Blowing Session with John Coltrane and Hank Mobley.

This theme is a swift blues shortly introduced by the rhythm section. Montgomery comes in at once to make an impetuous and intense solo without giving the instrument a break and then makes his solo using octaves. He is followed by Kelly with a quick discourse full of exciting and enthusiastic phrases including chords at the end. Then Griffin arrives at full speed playing complicated rhythmic patterns. After that, Montgomery exchanges four-bar solos with Cobb alternating with Griffin and then it’s Kelly who exchanges the four-bar solos. To close, they let Cobb do a short solo freely and the group re-exposes the theme.