About

The trio of guitarist Grant Green, organist Larry Young, and drummer Elvin Jones had a special alchemy from the first time they got together on Green’s 1964 album Talkin’ About. Two months later the trio reconvened as a quartet with the addition of vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson for the sublime outing Street Of Dreams, a 4-song set imbued with atmospheric elegance. There’s a warm glow to these subtle performances with the musicians’ deeply attuned playing casting a spell on tasteful arrangements of uncommon material drawn from musicals (“Lazy Afternoon”), television themes (“Somewhere In The Night”), French popular songs (“I Wish You Love”), and Great American Songbook standards (“Street Of Dreams”).

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal. — (via Label)

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No one could ever accuse guitarist Grant Green of over-playing. Eschewing chords for single-note melodies - like the horn players that inspired him - his “less is more” aesthetic verged on minimalism, especially when compared with the flamboyant fretwork of contemporaries like Wes Montgomery. Idle Moments, Green’s sextet session for Blue Note, recorded in 1963, is often perceived as the pinnacle of the guitarist’s tenure with Alfred Lion’s label. By contrast, Street Of Dreams, recorded a year later, has often been unfairly overlooked. But as Kevin Gray’s all-analogue-mastered version in Blue Note’s Classic Vinyl Reissue Series reveals, it’s one of the St. Louis guitarist’s most satisfying opuses.

Green is backed by a dream team comprising Hutcherson, whose crystalline vibes lit up the earlier Idle Moments, Young and Jones, who all bring something fresh to the session: Young’s textural approach to the organ and understated comping is the antithesis of the extravagant blues-based tropes of Jimmy Smith et al, while Jones, often stereotyped as a hard-hitting drummer, contributes a variety of nuanced colouristic polyrhythms. An ethereal take on the Gloria Lynne hit ‘I Wish You Love’ sets the album’s tone, followed by a gloriously languorous ‘Lazy Afternoon,’ rendered in a gently lulling 5/4 pulse. The lightly swinging title track picks up the pace, as does the brisk closer, ‘Somewhere In The Night,’ combining deft solo improvisations with cohesive, symbiotic teamwork.

An example of superior, exquisitely played, mood music, Street Of Dreams captures Green at his most lyrical, alongside simpatico collaborators who frame his fretwork with eminently tasteful backdrops. — (via JazzWise)

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Grant Green's second session with organist Larry Young, Street of Dreams brings back drummer Elvin Jones and adds Bobby Hutcherson on vibes for a mellow, dreamy album that lives up to its title. There are only four selections, all standards and all around eight to ten minutes long, and the musicians approach them as extended mood pieces, creating a marvelously light, cool atmosphere that's maintained throughout the record. Hutcherson is the perfect addition for this project, able to blend in with the modal advancement of the rest of the ensemble while adding his clear, shimmering tone to the overall texture of the album.

All the musicians play with a delicate touch that's quite distinct from the modal soul-jazz on Talkin' About; it's not so much romantic as thoughtful and introspective, floating along as if buoyed by clouds. There aren't really any fireworks or funky grooves, as the music is all of a piece, which makes it difficult to choose the highlights from French songwriter Charles Trenet's "I Wish You Love," "Lazy Afternoon," the title track, or "Somewhere in the Night." It's another fine record in a discography filled with them, and yet another underrated Green session. — (via AllMusic)

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Label: Blue Note
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo, 180g
Reissued: 2026 / Originally Released: 1967
Genre: Jazz
Style: Post Bop

File under: Blue Note
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