Johnny Griffin - A Blowing Session

Griffin while not being the most obscure saxophonist today he definitely is largely overlooked. Perhaps this is because he never really made any groundbreaking records but he did play really good and fast bebop.

From my point of view I'd say he's a mix of Coltrane and Rollins. He's ridiculously fast but he's melodic and always on the safe zone of tonality. As with most saxophonists from the heyday of jazz Griffin released a truckload of albums. He is perhaps most known for his contributions on two Monk albums and several Messengers albums but the album I'm sharing is something different. A Blowing Session initially got my attention because of the personnel list. You see, it's full of stars (or soon to become stars in those days).

The rundown is:

Johnny Griffin - tenor saxophone
John Coltrane - tenor saxophone
Hank Mobley - tenor saxophone
Lee Morgan - trumpet
Wynton Kelly - piano
Paul Chambers - bass
Art Blakey - drums

But despite that Griffin still manages to shine as a player and this was surprising for me since it was my first album to hear him as a leader and I half expected him to be placed behind of all the other players. Considering all the stars here I'd say the weakest link for me here is Wynton Kelly who is just kinda there in the background, not really doing anything. Everyone else is great here, especially the saxophonists. You could get an impression that three would be too much and that they would lose their uniqueness but in fact, if you're familiar with how each man plays, you can discern them really well. So all in all this a great little jam session. It's just a bunch of talented players and friends jamming in a studio. Nothing groundbreaking but really quality work.

Get it.