‘Little Giant’ Swings Mighty Jazz
The Louisville Jazz Society brought a giant of the tenor saxophone to Louisville last night for a concert at Downstairs at Actors, in fact, saxophonist Johnny Griffin is known as the “Little Giant” to his many fans all over the world.
Griffin, 58, was born in Chicago and is a graduate of Dusable High School, the same school that produced singer Nat King Cole, saxophonist Gene Ammons, and trombonist Benny Green, among others.
His first major job was with Lionel Hampton’s band in the forties. He later went on to play and record with a virtual pantheon of jazz that included pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk and drummers Art Blakey and Max Roach.
In 1963 he left the United States for Europe and didn’t return until 1978. He still lives in Paris, visiting the U. S. only for concert tours.
Last night’s near capacity audience was treated to one of Griffin’s rare American appearances. It’s a concert few of them will ever forget.
After he was announced by WFPL-FM’s “Jazz Tonight” host Gerry Weston, Griffin gingerly walked on the stage to join his rhythm section: pianist Harry Pickins, bassist Curtis Lundy, and drummer Kenny Washington. He exchanged a couple of tuning notes with Pickins and then went head first into an up tempo number he later called, appropriately for the season, “The Hay Fever Blues.”
Griffin is one of the fastest tenor men on the scene today. But a lot of thought also goes into his playing. As jazz critic Nat Hentoff once said, “Griffin thinks as swiftly as he swings.”
During the first set last night Griffin interpolated humorous quotes from a number of songs like “Pop-eye the Sailor Man,” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” into his solos.
Before playing “If I Should Lose You,” Griffin announced he was going to play a nice ballad with a businessman’s bounce. The bounce turned into a ball of fire as he raced through the song’s changes. Bassist Lundy also turned in a fine solo on this tune, wrapping his tall, thin frame around the large acoustic instrument.
In an interview before the concert, Griffin said that of all the musicians he’d played with, his favorite was Thelonious Monk.
He showed his allegiance to Monk during the second set when he played “I Mean You.” Griffin, a master of dynamics, used the song to showcase all the different sounds he can coax from his horn. A very “vocal” player, Griffin regularly moved from a soft, breathy whisper of a tone to a loud honk.
Griffin also saluted another jazz legend last night. Billie Holiday or “the lady from Baltimore,” as Griffin called her, was remembered during Griffin’s emotional rendering of “Lover Man.” Pianist Pickins also contributed a moving solo on this song.
Danny O’Bryan
The Louisville Times
April 1986
From the up-coming book “Derby City Jazz.”
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