Search - Johnny Griffin :: Change of Pace

Every so often, an album drifts quietly back into circulation with little or no fanfare--no bonus tracks, no studio chatter, no extra nothing. That's the story with Johnny Griffin's Change of Pace, plainly packaged and still only 39 minutes long. But it's a stellar work that should've come back long before 1999. Maybe Griffin's concept relegated the album to the back burner: he brought on board a pair of bassists (Bill Lee and Larry Gales), drummer Ben Riley, and French-horn playerJulius Watkins. Of course Watkins had, only a couple years before Griffin's 1961 date, joined hands with fellow Thelonious Monk veteran Charlie Rouse as part of the Jazz Modes, so maybe Griffin, one of Monk's all-time favorites, picked up the tenor and French-horn vibe there. In any event, Griffin's addition of the bassists gave him a resonant pillow to play over. He plays sweetly on "Soft and Furry," kicks it up a notch (or more) for Cole Porter's "In the Still of the Night," and they're off. Known for his speed and his appetite for biting, gut-grabbing tone, Griffin shows off a wide, colorful personality throughout Change: here a bluesy kingpin, there a big-hearted lover. He flies every hard-bop flag high, assuring that Change be considered a stealthy reprint, something that creeps up and surprises, over and over. --Andrew Bartlett