FROM WIKIPEDIA
John Arnold Griffin III (April
24, 1928 – July 25, 2008)[2] was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Nicknamed
"the Little Giant" for his short stature and forceful playing,
Griffin's career began in the mid-1940s and continued until the month of his
death. A pioneering figure in hard bop, Griffin recorded prolifically as a
bandleader in addition to stints with pianist Thelonious Monk, drummer Art
Blakey, in partnership with fellow tenor Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and as
a member of the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band after he moved to Europe in
the 1960s. In 1995, Griffin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from
Berklee College of Music
Griffin studied music at DuSable
High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before
moving on to oboe and then alto saxophone. While still at high school at the
age of 15, Griffin was playing with T-Bone Walker in a band led by Walker's
brother
Alto saxophone was still his
instrument of choice when he joined Lionel Hampton's big band, three days after
his high school graduation, but Hampton encouraged him to take up the tenor,
playing alongside Arnett Cobb. He first appeared on a Los Angeles recording
with Hampton's band in 1945 at the age of 17.
By mid-1947, Griffin and fellow
Hampton band member Joe Morris,[1] had formed a sextet made up of local
musicians, including George Freeman, where he remained for the next two years.
His playing can be heard on early rhythm and blues recordings for Atlantic
Records. By 1951, Griffin was playing baritone saxophone in an R&B septet
led by former bandmate Arnett Cobb.
After returning to Chicago from
two years in the Army, Griffin began to establish a reputation as one of the
premiere saxophonists in that city. Thelonious Monk enthusiastically encouraged
Orrin Keepnews of the Riverside label to sign the young tenor, but before he
could act Blue Note had signed Griffin.
He joined Art Blakey's Jazz
Messengers in 1957, and his recordings from that time include an album joining
together the Messengers and Thelonious Monk. Griffin then succeeded John
Coltrane as a member of Monk's Five Spot quartet; he can be heard on the albums
Thelonious in Action and Misterioso.
Griffin's unique style, based on
an astounding technique, included a vast canon of bebop language. He was known
to quote generously from classical, opera and other musical forms. A prodigious
player, he was often subjected to and victorious at "cutting
sessions" (a musical battle between two musicians) involving a legion of
tenor players, both in his hometown Chicago with Hank Mobley and Gene Ammons,
and on the road. Diminutive, he was distinctive as a fashionable dresser, a
good businessman, and a well-liked bandleader to other musicians.
Griffin was leader on his first
Blue Note album Introducing Johnny Griffin in 1956. Also featuring Wynton Kelly
on piano, Curly Russell on bass and Max Roach on drums; the recording brought
Griffin critical acclaim.
The album A Blowin' Session
(1957) featured John Coltrane and Hank Mobley. He played with Art Blakey's Jazz
Messengers for a few months in 1957 and in the Thelonious Monk Sextet and
Quartet (1958). During this period, he recorded a set with Clark Terry on
Serenade to a Bus Seat, featuring the rhythm trio of Wynton Kelly, Paul
Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones.
Griffin moved to France in 1963
and to the Netherlands in 1978. His relocation was the result of several
factors, including income tax problems, a failing marriage and feeling
"embittered by the critical acceptance of free jazz" in the United
States, as journalist Ben Ratliff would write.[6] Apart from appearing
regularly under his own name at jazz clubs such as London's Ronnie Scott's,
Griffin became the "first choice" sax player for visiting US
musicians touring the continent during the 1960s and 1970s. He briefly rejoined
Monk's groups (an Octet and Nonet) in 1967.
Griffin and Davis met up again in
1970 and recorded Tough Tenors Again 'n' Again, and again with the Dizzy
Gillespie Big 7 at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 1965, he recorded albums with
Wes Montgomery. From 1967 to 1969, he was part of the Kenny Clarke/Francy
Boland Big Band and, in the late 1970s, recorded with Peter Herbolzheimer and
His Big Band, which also included, among others, Nat Adderley, Derek Watkins,
Art Farmer, Slide Hampton, Jiggs Whigham, Herb Geller, Wilton Gaynair, Stan
Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Rita Reys, Jean "Toots" Thielemans,
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Grady Tate, and Quincy Jones as arranger. He
also recorded with the Nat Adderley Quintet in 1978, having previously recorded
with Adderley in 1958.
On July 25, 2008, Johnny Griffin
died of a heart attack at the age of 80 in Mauprévoir, near Availles-Limouzine,
France, His last concert was in Hyères, France on July 21, 2008.
