StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Grant Green Story

This week, let's take a look at the legacy of another notable jazz musician from St. Louis, as seen in the documentary film The Grant Green Story.

Born in St. Louis in 1931, Grant Green was a popular jazz guitarist in the 1960s and '70s, recording for Blue Note and other labels and playing most of the major venues of the era. He was just 43 years old when he died of a heart attack in 1979, leaving behind six children and a discography that included more than 100 sessions just for Blue Note alone, plus numerous other recordings.

Though Green's musical legacy was underappreciated for some time after his death, he was rediscovered in the 1990s, thanks in part to the short-lived "acid jazz" phenomenon, and, more importantly, from his work being sampled by hip-hop artists and producers including A Tribe Called Quest, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim, and most recently, Kendrick Lamar.

Directed by Charles F. Cirgenski and Sharony Green, who's the ex-wife of one of Green's sons, The Grant Green Story reveals details of Green's biography while it "follows the story of a son's search for his father," incorporating interviews with the likes of George Benson (who once called Green his favorite guitarist), Lou Donaldson, Blue Note recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, St. Louis drummer Kenny Rice, and others.

The film was an official selection for the 2016 Harlem Film Festival, and also was shown at a selection of film festivals that year. Now that it's been released to YouTube, you can see it right here, starting with part one up above and continuing after the jump with parts two and three.

After that, you can see what seems to be the only footage of Green performing that's available online, recorded in October 1969 in Paris, France. Specifically, the fourth video is a set of music featuring Green in a trio setting, backed by bassist Larry Ridley and drummer Don Lamond. In the fifth video, recorded as part of the same session, the trio is joined by guitarists Kenny Burrell and Barney Kessel for another short set.

For more about Grant Green, check out his page at the Blue Note Records site, and this 1972 interview with Green, unearthed and republished in 2015.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...









This post originally appeared in slightly different form in 2018.