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Johnny Griffin Quartet

b. John Arnold Griffin III, 24 Apr 1928, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Griffin examined tenor saxophone at Du Sable SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL where his teacher was Walter Dyatt, who also trained Gene Ammons and Von Freeman. In his mid-teens, Griffin became a member of the Lionel Hampton R&B-based big music group and implemented this using a spell within a similarly-orientated music group led by Joe Morris. Through the past due 40s and early 50s he caused several mainstream and bebop music artists, including Philly Joe Jones, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and Arnett Cobb. After armed service service, Griffin became a member of Artwork Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1957, worked well once again with Monk, and co-led a music group with Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis – they dubbed themselves ‘hard tenors’, a sobriquet which includes since been put on a whole sub-genre of tenor playing. In the first 60s Griffin resided in European countries, where he frequently accompanied going to American jazzmen and in 1967-68 was an associate from the multi-national Clarke-Boland Big Music group. In the 70s Griffin toured thoroughly, usually like a single but occasionally in funnel with Davis and Cobb; in the 80s he sometimes appeared using the Paris Reunion Music group. A gifted and fiercely combative participant, Griffin shows a seemingly unlimited stream of concepts, frequently at rapid-fire rates of speed. His design owes very much to his bebop affiliates and predecessors and he was one of the better hard bop music artists from the 70s and 80s. His 90s documented focus on the Antilles label with Kenny Washington (drums) can be of particular take note, both refreshing and rewarding.

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