1960 · Album
Space Flight
Recorded June 1, 1960 · Argo Records · Produced by Information not verified
Green Steps Into the Room
A sideman date that accidentally became a document of Grant Green finding his voice.
This is a session that belongs to organist Sam Lazar on paper, but history has been more interested in who was sitting in the guitar chair. Recorded on June 1, 1960 for Argo Records, Space Flight (1960) was Lazar's debut as a leader and only the second time Grant Green ever appeared on a recording. That fact alone makes it worth tracking down if you care about Green's development as a player. He hadn't yet made his own records for Blue Note, hadn't yet become the guitarist everyone pointed to when they wanted to talk about a clean, single-note, blues-drenched approach to the instrument. Here he's still settling in, still figuring out how his style fits inside a working organ combo.
Lazar is a capable organist and this is a solid, unpretentious hard bop date. The organ trio format — organ, guitar, drums — was well-established by 1960, and Lazar doesn't try to reinvent it. What you get is a well-paced, swinging session with plenty of room for the players to stretch. Green's contributions are already recognizable to anyone who knows his later work: that clear tone, the deliberate note choices, the refusal to clutter a phrase. He sounds confident even if the full picture of who he'd become hadn't quite snapped into focus yet.
For Grant Green completists, this is essential listening simply because there is so little from his early period. For everyone else, it's an enjoyable, unpretentious organ record that happens to catch a future giant early in the game. Don't come expecting a revelation — come expecting a good hang.
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