Ranked #186 in the Soul Strut 200

Text book slice of funky jazz from guitar pioneer Grant Green released on the acclaimed Blue Note Label.   Recorded live at the Cliche Lounge in Newark, New Jersey in 1970, Alive is as close as you will get to being time machined to a smoky jazz club complete with crowd chatter, band grunts, and Martini glass clinks. It only has 4 tracks, but is loaded with familiar classic material later immortalized by groups like A Tribe Called Quest and US3 (remember them!?).  The opening cover of Kool and the Gang's "Let The Music Take Your Mind" is a mind blowing 17 minute jazz funk workout complete with the animated playing of legendary drummer Idris "Loran's Dance" Muhammad.  Ronnie Foster's B3 work doesn't hurt either. Nostalgics can appreciate "Sookie Sookie" and "Down Here On The Ground" for reasons obvious to 90s sample based music and the ensuing acid jazz DJ movement.  Buy this and file it.

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