The Latin Bit [Remaster]

Performer: Grant Green
Artist: Willie Bobo; Carlos "Patato" Valdez; Ike Quebec
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Grant Green (guitar); Ike Quebec (tenor saxophone); Johnny Acea (piano); Wendall Marshall (bass); Willie Bobo (drums); Carlos "Potato" Valdez (congas); Carvin Masseaux (chekere). Producer: Alfred Lion. Reissue producer: Michael Cuscuna. Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on April 26 and September 8, 1962. Includes liner notes by Nat Hentoff. Digitally remastered by Ron McMaster. Personnel: Grant Green (guitar); Ike Quebec (tenor saxophone); John "Johnny" Adriano Acea, Sonny Clark (piano); Wendell Marshall (bass guitar); Willie Bobo (drums); Carlos "Patato" Valdes (congas); Garvin Masseaux (unknown instrument). Audio Remasterer: Rudy Van Gelder. Grant Green, being known mainly as a soul-jazz guitarist, eventually gravitated into the popular boogaloo sound, a derivation of Latin music. The Latin Bit is the natural bridge to that next phase, though a bit premature for most in 1961-1963, even relative to the subsequent bossa nova craze. Pianist Johnny Acea, long an underrated jazzman, is the nucleus of this session, grounding it with witty chops, chordal comping, and rhythmic meat. The Latino rhythm section of drummer Willie Bobo and conga player Carlos "Patato" Valdes personify authentic, seasoned spice, while at times the chekere sound of Garvin Masseaux makes the soup too thick. At its collective best, the group presents a steady, serene, and steamy "Besame Mucho" and the patient, slow, slinky, sultry "Tico Tico." Just a small step below is a classy take on Charlie Parker's "My Little Suede Shoes," a premier jazz bebop (emphasis) tune with a Latin undertow and Green's tiniest staccato phrases, slightly marred by the overbearing constant chekere, but still classic. "Mambo Inn" is played inaccurately, but forgivable. "Mama Inez" ranks high for its calypso-infused happy feeling and wry stop-start lines. The straight-ahead hard bopper "Brazil" and lone soul-jazz tune, "Blues for Juanita," display the single-note acumen that made Green's style instantly recognizable. Tacked on the end are two selections with pianist Sonny Clark and tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec. While Clark is not known for Latin or soul-jazz, he's quite good, while Quebec, who emphasized Brazilian rhythms in the last years of his life, plays hip secondary harmonies on the bossa nova-flavored "Granada," but is in the complete background and a non-factor on the pop tune "Hey There." This CD always yielded mixed results for staunch fans of Green, but a revisit shows it to be a credible effort, even if slightly flawed in part. [This edition of The Latin Bit was remastered by Rudy Van Gelder in 2007.] ~ Michael G. Nastos

JazzTimes (11/96, p.88) - "...the guitarist's fat sound and unflappable technique...serve these tunes especially well....And, as it turns out, these tunes serve Green especially well, with melody lines as bright and uncluttered as his own solos..."

St. Louis-born guitarist Grant Green was a giant of what came to be known as soul-jazz. His singular style incorporated the influences of Gospel, blues, and R&B, and defined a unique post-bop language for electric guitar. His classic early-1960s Blue Note recordings are high-water marks of both the soul-jazz sound and of jazz guitar in general. Drug abuse sadly hampered his later career; he died in 1979, but his son, the jazz guitarist Grant Green, Jr., continues his legacy.

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