To say this is not Grant Green at his best would be a
polite understatement. To say ‘Easy’ is perhaps a comment on Greens attitude to
making this record would be nothing but entirely correct.
After a line of funkified jazz albums that had met
with varying successes, Green again left Blue Note, his home for the most and
best part of his career, and recorded for a number of different labels.
Obviously aiming at a more commercial market the output was frequently less
than stellar, and more often than not completely dire. This manages to fall
into the latter camp. Hell, it practically owns it.
The seventies were often awash with jazz stars
capitalising on the success and popularity of soul, rock and R&B, and Green
himself had done very well mining this field with his ‘Caryin’ On’, ‘Visions’
and ‘Green Is Beautiful’ albums, not to mention a string of live albums. Here
though Green is clearly not in charge, and the effect is obvious.
A huge band is the first problem, with Grant Green
often at his best when working in small tight groups with every player able to
crucially make their mark. Here instead we have a cast of thousands creating a
distinctly unfunky funk gloop, with Green himself almost all but buried in the
mix.
That’s not to say there aren’t great solos here. There
are. And lots of them. You just won’t hear them unless you find some way of
remixing the album yourself, such is the sheer number of instruments competing
in their way. If you listen closely you can hear Green still close to his peak,
playing with the technique and soul that you would expect. Why someone felt the
need to suddenly add strings on top of him afterwards is a mystery only
compounded further by the insult. Why bother having a star if he’s the one
person you can’t hear?
‘Easy’ then is for the completist only. But even
they’d be better off just ignoring it’s existence and accepting that Grant
Green pretty much started and ended on Blue Note, with just a few small
exceptioins. Remember him that way, not this.
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