Idle Moments
Encyclopedia
Idle Moments is a 1964 jazz album by guitarist Grant Green
. The album, released on Blue Note
, features performances by Joe Henderson
on tenor saxophone, Bobby Hutcherson
on vibes, Blue Note in-house producer Duke Pearson
on piano, Bob Cranshaw
on bass, and Al Harewood
on drums.
The album is best known for the title piece, a slow blues
composition which lasts for nearly 15 minutes. Pearson, who wrote the song, explains in his liner notes to the album that the tune was meant to be much shorter. Due to the musicians repeating the main melody twice, however, there was some confusion as to whether or not one chorus would consist of 16 or 32 measures. http://www.jazz.com/music/2007/10/30/grant-green-idle-moments Producer Alfred Lion
was satisfied with the take, although he suggested that they do a retake to fit the song into a seven minute limit. However, the song had a special feeling to it which no subsequent take could recapture, so it was decided to release the first take on the album. Two other songs, "Jean De Fleur" and "Django," were re-recorded in shorter renditions to compensate for the length of the title track; the extended renditions of both songs can be heard on the 1998 RVG
remaster of the album.
Grant Green
Grant Green was a jazz guitarist and composer....
. The album, released on Blue Note
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
, features performances by Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...
on tenor saxophone, Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
on vibes, Blue Note in-house producer Duke Pearson
Duke Pearson
Duke Pearson was an American jazz pianist and composer. Allmusic notes him as being a "big part in shaping the Blue Note label's hard bop direction in the 1960s as a producer."-History:...
on piano, Bob Cranshaw
Bob Cranshaw
Melbourne R. "Bob" Cranshaw is an American jazz bassist. His career spans the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins...
on bass, and Al Harewood
Al Harewood
Al Harewood is a musician and teacher, born in Brooklyn. As a drummer Harewood worked with many jazz musicians including the J.J. Johnson/Kai Winding group, the Art Farmer/Gigi Grice band, David Amram, and the Curtis Fuller-Benny Golson Sextet...
on drums.
The album is best known for the title piece, a slow blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
composition which lasts for nearly 15 minutes. Pearson, who wrote the song, explains in his liner notes to the album that the tune was meant to be much shorter. Due to the musicians repeating the main melody twice, however, there was some confusion as to whether or not one chorus would consist of 16 or 32 measures. http://www.jazz.com/music/2007/10/30/grant-green-idle-moments Producer Alfred Lion
Alfred Lion
Alfred Lion was a Jewish German-born American record executive who co-founded Blue Note Records in 1939 Blue Note recorded many of the biggest names in jazz throughout the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.-Biography:...
was satisfied with the take, although he suggested that they do a retake to fit the song into a seven minute limit. However, the song had a special feeling to it which no subsequent take could recapture, so it was decided to release the first take on the album. Two other songs, "Jean De Fleur" and "Django," were re-recorded in shorter renditions to compensate for the length of the title track; the extended renditions of both songs can be heard on the 1998 RVG
Rudy Van Gelder
Rudy Van Gelder is an American recording engineer specializing in jazz.Often regarded as one of the most important recording engineers in music history, Van Gelder has recorded several thousand jazz sessions, including many widely recognized as classics, in a career spanning more than half a century...
remaster of the album.
RVG remaster series CD reissue
- "Idle Moments" – 14:56
- "Jean De Fleur" – 6:49
- "Django" – 8:44
- "Nomad" – 12:16
- "Jean De Fleur" - 8:08 (alternate take)
- "Django" - 13:13 (alternate take)
Credits
(In alphabetical order)- Al HarewoodAl HarewoodAl Harewood is a musician and teacher, born in Brooklyn. As a drummer Harewood worked with many jazz musicians including the J.J. Johnson/Kai Winding group, the Art Farmer/Gigi Grice band, David Amram, and the Curtis Fuller-Benny Golson Sextet...
- DrumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
; - Bobby HutchersonBobby HutchersonBobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
- VibraphoneVibraphoneThe vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
; - Bob CranshawBob CranshawMelbourne R. "Bob" Cranshaw is an American jazz bassist. His career spans the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins...
- Double BassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
; - Duke PearsonDuke PearsonDuke Pearson was an American jazz pianist and composer. Allmusic notes him as being a "big part in shaping the Blue Note label's hard bop direction in the 1960s as a producer."-History:...
- PianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, wrote "Idle Moments" and "Nomad"; - Grant GreenGrant GreenGrant Green was a jazz guitarist and composer....
- guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, wrote "Jean De Fleur"; - Joe HendersonJoe HendersonJoe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...
- Tenor saxophoneTenor saxophoneThe tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
; - John LewisJohn Lewis (pianist)John Aaron Lewis was an American jazz pianist and composer best known as the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.- Early life:...
- wrote "Django"; - Recorded by Rudy Van GelderRudy Van GelderRudy Van Gelder is an American recording engineer specializing in jazz.Often regarded as one of the most important recording engineers in music history, Van Gelder has recorded several thousand jazz sessions, including many widely recognized as classics, in a career spanning more than half a century...
and produced by Alfred LionAlfred LionAlfred Lion was a Jewish German-born American record executive who co-founded Blue Note Records in 1939 Blue Note recorded many of the biggest names in jazz throughout the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.-Biography:...
; - Cover art and cover photo by Reid MilesReid Milesand Reid Miles was an American graphic designer and photographer.Reid Miles was born in Chicago on 4 July 1927 but, following the Stock Market Crash and the separation of his parents, moved with his mother to Long Beach, California in 1929.After high school Miles joined the Navy and, following...
.