In Spring 1964, guitarist Grant Green recorded two blazing post-bop albums—Matador and Solid—both of which would go unreleased for more than a decade as Blue Note instead decided to release the guitarist’s organ-based soul jazz outings of the time. Green had hinted at this post-bop direction on his 1963 masterpiece Idle Moments, and for the Matador session assembled a quartet with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and Elvin Jones. A month later Green returned to Van Gelder Studio and expanded the band to a state-of-the-art sextet with the addition of tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson and alto saxophonist James Spaulding. The high-octane set kicks into gear right from the jump on Duke Pearson’s “Minor League” and burns through George Russell’s hard-charging “Ezz-Thetic” with other highlights including Green’s evocative “Grant’s Tune,” the Sonny Rollins blues “Solid,” and an emphatic version of Henderson’s “The Kicker.”
