A cinematic full sound scenery by Wade Marcus for the Jazz-Funk-Soul high priest on guitar, the incredible Grant Green: ‘Shades of Green’ is the most elegant Jazz-Funk, with a cast of sensational musicians like Wilton Felder and Stix Hooper from the Crusaders.

Above all, I’m always happy to hear the accented, unique vibraphone of Billy Wooten – there’s plenty of room for that on this Blue Note LP from 1971.

Among the extra fine selection of tracks, ‘Cast your fate to the wind’ stands out for me: first a rather mellow orchestral introduction to the theme, then drifting off into sheer magic, pure Funk with Mr. Green’s distinctive guitar sound. Not from this world.

This is one of the reasons why the liner notes logically say: ‘Green comes in a lot of shades: Apple…Bottle…California…and Grant.‘

Stefan Mohr