The Blue Note/Third Man partnership may well have saved their best for the fifth and final installment – Grant Green’s late arriving but nonetheless legendary Live at Club Mozambique. The album was recorded in 1971, leaving the obvious question of “what took so long?” This is where a little conjecture on this writer’s part comes in. First, Green was one of Blue Note’s most prolific artists. It was difficult for the label to keep up with him. Although this album is clearly a landmark of Green’s funk period, his New York-based ‘jazz guitar” period of the mid-sixties yielded an outrageous 20 albums as a leader from 1961 to 1966 during the same period where he was also the label’s most prolific sideman.
His return to Detroit in 1969 ushered in his funk period but because Blue Note had issued 1970’s Alive and 1972’s Live at the Lighthouse, they may have cautioned against redundancy. Yet, the lineup on Live at Club Mozambique is arguably the best of the three, boasting drummer Idris Muhammad and organist Ronnie Foster (both present on Alive) but with soulful saxophone great Houston Person (then 36, still going strong at 88) joining Clarence Thomas (tenor, soprano) for a twin saxophone front line. Still, with producer Francis Wolff flying in from New York along with Person, the label seems to have clearly earmarked this for a release at the time but shelved it instead until 2006.
Club Mozambique was a regular gig for Green and, aside from Person, the others comprised his regular band. The music is a funk-jazz-soul hybrid, not overly complicated, especially since excepting one original, Thomas’ “Farid,” the set list centered on radio hits of the period. If anything, the music is simple, and repetitive with all staying in the pocket, Green playing his usual clean, masterfully phrased lines without any ostentatious exploration. Green shares the limelight with Foster and Muhammad, who together keep the beat fat, funky, and even at times filthy. The saxophonists are clearly having fun, each making their individual statements emphatically.
The album begins with the local Detroit hit by The Fabulous Counts, “Jan, Jan” which also appeared on Live at the Lighthouse (the redundancy issue again at play). The riffs are basic but played with conviction, a launching pad for Person who digs deep, reveling in his trademark soul-jazz blowing. Thomas has a completely different style, leaning more improvisational toward Trane than soul-jazz, which he reveals vigorously on his tune, “Farid,” which also has one of Green’s more distinctly lyrical solos and a feisty turn from Foster. Green is in rapid-fire mode on “Bottom of the Barrel” and Houston bursts in with his most engaged, wailing best in the set. Thomas, not to upstage him, goes fiery on soprano. This catchy tune is played on just one chord, slowed to a surprising crawl, and fades as they go out. The ensemble stays in this newfound cool mode for the clearly recognizable Dionne Warwick’s “Walk On By’ featuring some of the better unison parts. Obviously, Isaac Hayes’ version on Hot Buttered Soul was a blockbuster and this plays similarly though sprightlier and via Person, even more soulfully.
“More Today Than Yesterday” is a 1969 hit from The Spiral Staircase, but also covered by organist Charles Earland in 1970, thus the likely inspiration for its inclusion here, as Muhammad’s insistent beats and Foster’s funk lock it in for a full 12 minutes of vibrant jamming with all stretching out. The Jackson 5’s “One More Chance” and Clarence Carter’s “Patches” get sweaty workouts. The set concludes with “I Am Somebody,” a hit for Johnny Taylor on Stax in 1970. By some accounts, this music will seem dated. Others will find it riveting and inspiring – certainly among the top of any jazz-funk-soul hybrid of this era.
These eighty minutes of music yield a 2-LP pressing to the delight of the vinyl buffs, who have been clamoring for such for well over a decade.
