Johnny Griffin NOT ill

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Johnny Griffin is 78 today.

He's ill in Paris, where he's seeing doctors to try to keep what little health he has together.

Fortunately, although he retired from playing some time back, he doesn't appear to be short of money.

Johnny is one of the GIANTS of the tenor sax and I'm sure we all wish him a speedy recovery.

AND A HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

MG

Edited April 27, 2006 by The Magnificent Goldberg

[Shawn]

Johnny is in my top 5 favorite jazz artists of all time, this is sad news indeed.

Here's hoping he pulls through.

Happy Birthday Little Giant, you're loved.

[JSngry]

Happy Birthday Little Giant, you're loved.

Same from here. SUCH a spirit!

[CJ Shearn]

wishing him a speedy recovery.

[JSngry]

Or a comfortable and dignified denoumet, whatever the fates hold in store.

[Guest]

wishing him a speedy recovery.

the last time i saw griff was was at least 10 years ago, probably 15. towards the middle of the set he played a song (i don't remember the name) and the audience fell absolutely silent as he announced it, because of the way he did ...

"This is a piece a music about a place none of us have ever been. (long pause) You ain't never been there before. (much more quietly) You ain't never been there."

Edited April 24, 2006 by baltostar

[king ubu]

Sad news (but not unexpected news, sad to say). I'm a big fan of Griffin's and I wish he'd never stop playing with that huge sound of his... but it seems he's had a few drinks too many, and he's an elderly man by now. He made a weak impression when I saw him several years ago (in trio with Solal and the late NHOP - must have been three or four years ago).

At the Village Vanguard, 1994 (photo coutesy of Kal Reece)

[HolyStitt]

Happy Birthday to Johnny Griffin!

[Lazaro Vega]

Blue Lake will present a radio program in honor of his birthday tonight after 10 p.m. (but be warned we're also fundraising). www.bluelake.org

[ep1str0phy]

Happy birthday and get better soon, JG.

[brownie]

Happy Birthday Johnny Griffin

Hoping there will be more birthday celebrations for the Little Giant!

[Christiern]

This article is almost a month old, but...--CA

Musicians Still Hear Paris' Call

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

By Sebastian Rotella Los Angeles Times

PARIS --

T

he Little Giant comes back to town on a winter day the color of cobblestones.

It's a three-hour trip to Paris by car and fast train from the village where he lives southwest of the capital. After a childhood on the South Side of Chicago, a career forged in the smoke and din of jazz dens the world over, he has become a country gentleman.

Once, a crowd might have been waiting at Montparnasse station. When he first toured Europe four decades ago, he marveled at the photographers who turned out at airports as if he were an ambassador.

Not today. He stands on the emptying platform: a short, grandfatherly 77-year-old bundled against the chill of the cavernous hall, a wool cap pulled over his ears and down to his glasses. He carries a small

suitcase. He's here for another doctor's appointment to repair the damage of a stroke, heart ailments, years of night work and hard drink.

"I've been in the hospital so many times," he says. "I was falling apart. ... I saw this heart doctor in Poitiers. He told me: 'My advice to you is go back home, put your horn in the closet and you're finished blowing.' "

Johnny Griffin, a.k.a. the Little Giant, is a titan of the tenor saxophone. He has played with the best of them: Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Lester Young. Jazz books invariably mention his reputation as the fastest saxophone player of them all.

He grumbles a bit about that label, a mischievous grin lighting up his weather-beaten face.

"That stuck with me, so I shut up. Got the publicity. Why do they always say that? 'Fastest gun in the West.' If it's a ballad, I play it slow. I didn't always play fast."

The taxi rolls into the Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighborhood on the Left Bank. Griffin stares at streets thick with memories, melodies, ghosts: the site of the now-defunct Blue Note, where a triumphant gig in 1962 set the stage for his move overseas. Le Chat Qui Peche, a club where he had some great shows and courted his Dutch wife. The Hotel La Louisiane, where the scent of red beans and rice filled the halls and his neighbor during his first months in Paris was the brilliant, tormented pianist Bud Powell.

Powell's friendship with Francis Paudras, a fan who took him in and helped him fight his physical and mental demons, inspired the 1986 film " 'Round Midnight," about expatriate jazz musicians. Griffin got to know Powell and Paudras and moved with them from La Louisiane to a notorious nightlife district.

"In Pigalle, I lived right across from Bud Powell and Francis Paudras," Griffin says. "Third-floor apartments. I could step over my balcony and be on their balcony. ... I was cooking on a little pad on my dresser. When I met my wife, she made me move."

Leaving his suitcase with the maitre d', Griffin maneuvers laboriously into a seat in a restaurant on the narrow Rue Saint Benoit des Saints-Peres near the former Club-Saint-Germain, another jazz haunt. Then he gets up again.

"Gotta get my pills," he says with a sigh. "Old folks."

Although they don't know exactly who he is, the waiters and waitresses treat him with gentle deference. They sense that he represents a remnant of the history of the neighborhood, a musical Mohican.

"Have you got a good Bordeaux?" He peers slyly over the menu. "C'est bon? You sure? Let me look at your face. ... Yeah, OK. I can trust you."

Properly fortified, he tries to explain the allure of Paris for so many American jazz musicians during much of the 20th century.

"I made more money here," he says. "Bought me a big house out there where I'm living. Bought houses in other places, sold 'em."

But it was more than the money. The French have always venerated jazz as an art form on par with classical music. For black artists who had endured the humiliation of Jim Crow laws touring the South, the sting of racism was softer across the Atlantic. As the character played by Dexter Gordon puts it in " 'Round Midnight," "No cold eyes in Paris."

Griffin recalls: "I liked the attitude of the people. They listened to the music. And the people liked me. It was not that they didn't appreciate the music in America. Because they did. That's where the music comes from. But it was such a hell of an experience. ...

"The people were friendly. Even if I didn't speak the language, I could tell if somebody was not being friendly. I could hear it. Being a musician, I had that kind of ear for people being friendly or what."

The expatriate tradition here dates to Sidney Bechet, the swashbuckling clarinetist and saxophonist whose first foray ended in 1929 when he and a banjo player got into a gunfight that wounded three bystanders.

Bechet was deported, but he returned after World War II, established his band at the Theatre du Vieux Colombier and died a national hero in 1959, honored with a street, a statue and the nickname "Le Dieu" --

The God.

Other pilgrimages were shorter and less violent. Coleman Hawkins became a tenor godfather after a four-year visit in the 1930s when "he was really discovered and ... in turn, found himself," according to the liner notes of his 1955 album, "The Hawk in Paris." After Miles Davis played the postwar clubs, romanced an actress and hung out with existentialist philosophers, he said Paris had changed him forever.

Billy Strayhorn, the gifted composer and collaborator with Duke Ellington, recorded one of his few piano albums here in 1963. Strayhorn kept a separate address book for his beloved Paris, whose magic he evoked in "Lush Life," the sweetest of sad songs:

A week in Paris will ease the bite of it

All I care is to smile in spite of it

The image could not sustain the reality. The music began to suffer in the 1970s, just as it did elsewhere. American artists ran into tax issues, union hassles, resentment from French counterparts.

Europe is no longer the jazz mecca it was, but it still helps pay the bills. Many Americans make a living by dividing their performance schedules between the U.S. and European circuits.

And, although in smaller numbers and with lower expectations, expatriates keep moving to Paris. Chasing the music and the mystique.

Griffin talks about his children and grandchildren scattered around the U.S. Some took up music, others didn't, maybe because he pushed too hard. He doesn't dwell on regrets. Despite the dire diagnosis that his blowing days were over, he still performs now and then thanks to the care of a doctor from Marseilles, an amateur jazz musician.

But in general, Griffin is content in the country house where he's lived for 21 years, cultivating his vegetable garden a la Voltaire, although a gardener does the actual work these days.

"I don't miss anything," he says. "Right now, it's hard to get me to leave home. ... I haven't been everywhere, but I have been a lot of places. The Orient. Scandinavia. I've been to Russia. I've been to Turkey. Haven't been to Egypt. Wait a minute, I have been to Egypt. I remember going across the desert and seeing the Pyramids."

After the long, late lunch, he gets into a taxi. He will spend the night at the home of an American friend. Looking tired as the cab cruises into the dusk, Griffin recounts an anecdote about trying to persuade the solemn, introverted Thelonious Monk to tell a drummer to keep it down during his sax solos.

"I can still see all those cats," he says wistfully. "They are gone, but I can still see them like they were walking around here."

And here ara couple of pictures I took of Griff in Perugia, 22 years ago:

With Lockjaw...

[Christiern]

In the garden of the Rosetta Hotel where we all stayed ...

[ejp626]

I do hope he pulls it together. I never thought I would manage to see him play live, but he came through Chicago last year in a guest role. Definitely a not to be missed experience.

[sidewinder]

Here's wishing him well. I saw him in London about 3-4 years ago in a band with George Coleman. The speed of playing had slowed a bit but the sound and phrasing were truly distinctive. A memorable experience, for sure.

[Peter Friedman]

All the best to Johnny Griffin for speedy recovery.

The last time I saw him live was about 10 or 11 years ago at the Vail Jazz Party. He was playing great at that time. I recall one set where Roy Hargrove played with JG. Roy watched Griff carefully throughout the entire set with a look in his eyes that indicated great respect and admiration.

Johnny Griffin brought a spirit of enthusiasm and excitement every time I have seen him. One of the Giants of jazz during the past 50 years or so.

[Dan Gould]

Thanks for posting the article, Chris. A very nice profile.

[Spontooneous]

Yes, thanks, Chris.

Griff is one of the few players who always make me smile.

[Bright Moments]

"a blowing session"

INDEED!!!!!

[DukeCity]

Happy Birthday, Grif!!!

Here's hoping for good things!!!

[Late]

As I type this, The Kerry Dancers and Jazz Studio Party are en route to my doorstep. Johnny Griffin continues to add joy to my days.

[marcello]

Remember this one?

Return of the Griffin

Great stuff!

[Michael Weiss]

Following is my post at AAJ in response to this bullshit rumor:

Originally Posted by the magnificent goldberg

"Johnny Griffin is 78 today.

He's ill in Paris, where he's seeing doctors to try to keep what little health he has together."

This is totally untrue. I spoke to Griff this afternoon and his health is fine. He is not ill. He is not in Paris. He is home. He returned today from a concert in Antwerp.

Originally Posted by the magnificent goldberg

"Fortunately, although he retired from playing some time back"

Another untruth. Griff is not retired. He performs around once a month.

[EKE BBB]

...

This is totally untrue. I spoke to Griff this afternoon and his health is fine. He is not ill. He is not in Paris. He is home. He returned today from a concert in Antwerp.

...

And here´s the proof. He played on April 23 (20:00)

http://www.kwadratuur.be/agenda.php?detail=8042

http://www.kwadratuur.be/nieuws.php?id=229

Edited April 25, 2006 by EKE BBB

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

...

This is totally untrue. I spoke to Griff this afternoon and his health is fine. He is not ill. He is not in Paris. He is home. He returned today from a concert in Antwerp.

...

And here´s the proof. He played on April 23 (20:00)

http://www.kwadratuur.be/agenda.php?detail=8042

http://www.kwadratuur.be/nieuws.php?id=229

Ah good - I see you've got here first.

MG