Grant Green

CD version. The Latin Bit is the album on which Grant Green set his guitar against a Latin rhythm section, recorded for Blue Note in April 1962 and released in 1963. Built on mambo, bolero and Brazilian standards, it was a change of direction. Green had spent his first two years at the label on hard bop and soul jazz, some ten sessions in all.

The session was held on 26 April 1962 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. Johnny Acea is on piano and Wendell Marshall on bass. Three percussionists drive the music: Willie Bobo on drums, Carlos "Patato" Valdes on conga and Garvin Masseaux on chekere.

None of the six tunes is by Green. Mambo Inn, by Mario Bauzá, opens at a dancing tempo, the guitar riding lightly over conga and shaker. Besame Mucho becomes a slow, lyrical feature, while Mama Inez, Ary Barroso's Brazil and Zequinha de Abreu's Tico Tico keep the dance going. The closing My Little Suede Shoes, by Charlie Parker, shows how naturally a bebop tune with a calypso feel sits in this setting. Green plays it all with the blues phrasing of his straight-ahead records.

Nat Hentoff's original sleeve notes described the result as "a seamless blending of Latin idioms and blues-laced, modern mainstream swinging". Writing for AllMusic, Michael G. Nastos found the album "a credible effort, even if slightly flawed in part", while noting that it had long divided Green's admirers. He praised the authentic Latin feel of Bobo and Valdes, and heard in it a bridge to the boogaloo records Green made later in the 1960s.

This is the Japanese Ultimate High Quality CD from Universal Music Japan (UCCQ-9716, 2024), remastered by Kevin Gray and presented in a jewel case with obi. It keeps the original six-track running order, without the bonus tracks added to earlier CD editions.