Alive!

After a prolific 5-year run from 1961-1965 when he made more than 20 great hard bop & soul-jazz albums for Blue Note, guitarist Grant Green took a 4-year hiatus from recording. When he returned to Blue Note in 1969, Green’s style had moved into funkier territory as was perfectly captured on his first-ever live album Alive! which captured a hard-driving set of jazz-funk at the Cliché Lounge in Newark, New Jersey in 1970. The band is propelled by drummer Idris Muhammad who keeps a fire burning under Green, saxophonist Claude Bartee, vibraphonist Willie Bivens, organists Ronnie Foster & Neal Creque, and Joseph Armstrong on congas. The closing track “Down Here On The Ground” was famously sampled by A Tribe Called Quest for the track “Vibes and Stuff” on their hip-hop classic The Low End Theory.

Experience the thrill of live jazz with Blue Note Live, a selection of 7 spectacular live albums to be reissued as part of the Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series. From hard bop and organ soul to jazz-funk and modern jazz, these recordings capture how the spontaneity inherent in jazz improvisation thrives in a live club setting with the most creative musicians of all-time feeding off the energy of an audience. This Blue Note 80 Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.