Green Is Beautiful: A Tribute To Grant Green featuring Eddie Roberts
October 1, 2016
New Orleans, LA @ Mardi Gras World - Bear Creek Bayou Music Festival - Ballroom stage (inside)

HiMD > WAV
Recorded by Bryan Belay

01. // Latona [Big John Patton]
02. ???
03. The Cantaloupe Woman [Ben Dixon]
04. Upshot [Grant Green] (with Skerik)
05. I Am Somebody [Arthur Snyder] (with Skerik)
06. Ease Back [The Meters] (with George Porter Jr.)

Eddie Roberts - guitar
Chris Stillwell - bass
Robert Walter - organ & keyboards
Alan Evans - drums

Guests:
Skerik - saxophone
George Porter Jr. - bass

Review by Scott Hopkins at MusicFestNews.com:
https://musicfestnews.com/2016/10/bear-creek-bayou-spectacular-music-careless-organization/

The most anticipated set of the weekend for me was Green is Beautiful: A Tribute to Grant Green featuring Eddie Roberts. Green, a spectacular Blue Note artists who didn’t get the recognition that Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell did, clearly was a beacon for Roberts and for me. Roberts had put together a stellar quartet with Robert Walter on keyboards, Chris Stillwell on bass, and Alan Evans on drums.

It was so special. We think they began with “Cease the Bombing,” then rolled right into a tune Green played with Big John Patton called “The Turnaround.” Throughout, Walter was simply stunning on B3, and the rhythm section was perfect. They were having such a good time.

Roberts said, “One of the first albums of Green’s I ever heard was His Majesty King Funk!” and from that 1965 album he played “The Cantaloupe Woman,” a tune harkening back to Herbie Hancock’s “Cantaloupe Island.” Skerik came out and blew a couple of fabulous tunes (“Upshot” and “I Am Somebody”) in the Hank Mobley/Stanley Turrentine tradition. Then George Porter, Jr., helped out on “A Day in the Life.”

At set’s end, Roberts announced that they were heading to The Maple Leaf at 1 AM to play all night. I was crushed we couldn’t make it. Roberts told me that he was “planning on doing some jazzier sets in the future, hopefully late night Blue Note NYC among at others.” Don’t worry, New Mastersounds fans, he can multitask!

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