1962 · Album
The Kerry Dancers
Recorded Late 1961–early 1962 · Riverside · Produced by Information not verified
Griffin's Irish Dance Card, Late '61
Griffin's tenor cuts clean and direct, never overshooting the moment, always finding the pocket.
The Kerry Dancers catches Johnny Griffin in a solid stretch of his career, recorded across late 1961 and into early 1962 when he was doing dependable work for Riverside. This isn't Griffin at his most explosive or experimental—it's Griffin being a working saxophonist, engaged and professional, playing material that sits comfortably in the tenor tradition without pushing hard against its boundaries.
Griffin was a fast player, all facility and breath control, and The Kerry Dancers lets you hear both strengths without demanding you sit through pyrotechnics for their own sake. He had that particular gift of making the horn sound conversational, like he was talking directly to you rather than performing at you. The tunes move at a steady clip. Nothing here feels forced or tired, which is worth noting—a lot of hard-working players in this era made records that sound like they were checking a box. Griffin doesn't give you that. He's present and engaged, which isn't nothing.
In his catalog, this is solidly mid-tier material. If you're building a Griffin collection, you don't start here—his earlier work has more fire, and his later recordings show different sides of what he could do. But if you've already spent time with Griffin and want to hear him in a straightforward, no-frills setting doing his job well, The Kerry Dancers is worth your time. It's the sound of a good musician on a good day, without pretense.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Johnny Griffin
All 43 albums →
The musicians on this record
Where? 1961
Ron Carter
plays bass here
plays bass here
Barry Harris at The Jazz Workshop 1960
Barry Harris
plays piano here
plays piano here
