Although
Grant Green provided his share of groove-oriented soul-jazz and modal post-bop, his roots were hard bop, and it is in a bop-oriented setting that the guitarist excels on
Born to Be Blue. Most of the material on this five-star album was recorded at
Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey studio on December 11, 1961, when
Green was joined by tenor titan
Ike Quebec, pianist
Sonny Clark, bassist
Sam Jones, and drummer
Louis Hayes. Tragically,
Quebec was near the end of his life -- the distinctive saxman died of lung cancer at the age of 44 on January 16, 1963 -- but there is no evidence of
Quebec's declining health on
Born to Be Blue. He was playing as authoritatively as ever well into 1962, and the saxman is in fine form on hard-swinging interpretations of "Someday My Prince Will Come" and
Al Jolson's "Back in Your Own Back Yard." It's interesting to hear
Quebec playing bop, for his big, breathy tone was right out of swing and was greatly influenced by
Coleman Hawkins and
Ben Webster. Although
Quebec and
Green (who was 14 years younger) had very different musical backgrounds, they were always quite compatible musically. They clearly enjoyed a strong rapport on the uptempo selections as well as ballads like "My One and Only Love" and
Mel Torme's "Born to Be Blue." Originally a vinyl LP, this album was reissued on CD in 1989, when Blue Note added an alternate take of the title song and a previously unreleased version of
Charlie Parker's "Cool Blues." ~ Alex Henderson