Grant Green - Sonny Clark 1962

Over a five-week period in early 1962, guitarist Grant Green (June 6, 1935 – January 31, 1979) recorded three amazing quartet sessions with Sonny Clark (July 21, 1931 – January 13, 1963) on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Louis Hayes or Art Blakey on drums. As magnificent as the results were, the three albums, considered too progressive for Green's soul-jazz following, languished in the vaults for 18 years. In 1980, "Airegin," the session with Blakey, came out in the United States, while the two with Hayes ("Gooden's Corner" and "Oleo") came out only in Japan. Later issued briefly on Mosaic with three bonus tracks, they have since become collectors' items of legendary proportions.

Some of the best music these so prematurely lost jazz giants have ever recorded and some of the best, unadulterated hard bop these ears have heard for that matter.