John Arnold Griffin III (April 24, 1928[1] – July 25, 2008)[2] was an American
jazz tenor saxophonist. Nicknamed "the Little Giant" for his short stature and forceful playing, Griffin's career began in the mid-1940s and continued until the month of his death. A pioneering figure in
hard bop, Griffin recorded prolifically as a bandleader in addition to stints with pianist
Thelonious Monk, drummer
Art Blakey, in partnership with fellow tenor
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and as a member of the
Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band after he moved to Europe in the 1960s. In 1995, Griffin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from
Berklee College of Music.[3]
Early life and career
Griffin studied music at
DuSable High School in Chicago under
Walter Dyett,[1] starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto saxophone. While still at high school at the age of 15, Griffin was playing with
T-Bone Walker in a band led by Walker's brother.[4]
Alto saxophone was still his instrument of choice when he joined
Lionel Hampton's big band,[1] three days after his high school graduation, but Hampton encouraged him to take up the tenor, playing alongside
Arnett Cobb. He first appeared on a Los Angeles recording with Hampton's band in 1945 at the age of 17.[5]
By mid-1947, Griffin and fellow Hampton band member
Joe Morris,[1] had formed a sextet made up of local musicians, including
George Freeman,[4] where he remained for the next two years.[1] His playing can be heard on early rhythm and blues recordings for
Atlantic Records. By 1951, Griffin was playing
baritone saxophone in an
R&B septet led by former bandmate
Arnett Cobb.[6]
After returning to Chicago from two years in the Army, Griffin began to establish a reputation as one of the premiere saxophonists in that city.
Thelonious Monk enthusiastically encouraged
Orrin Keepnews of the
Riverside label to sign the young tenor, but before he could act
Blue Note had signed Griffin.
He joined
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1957,[1] and his recordings from that time include an album joining together the Messengers and Thelonious Monk. Griffin then succeeded
John Coltrane as a member of Monk's Five Spot quartet; he can be heard on the albums Thelonious in Action and Misterioso.
Griffin's unique style, based on an astounding technique, included a vast canon of bebop language. He was known to quote generously from classical, opera and other musical forms. A prodigious player, he was often subjected to "cutting sessions" (a musical battle between two musicians) involving a legion of tenor players, both in his hometown Chicago with
Hank Mobley[7] and
Gene Ammons, and on the road. Diminutive, he was distinctive as a fashionable dresser,[8] a good businessman, and a well-liked bandleader to other musicians.
Griffin moved to France in 1963[11] and to the Netherlands in 1978, where he settled in Bergambacht. His relocation was the result of several factors, including income tax problems, a failing marriage and feeling "embittered by the critical acceptance of
free jazz" in the United States, as journalist
Ben Ratliff wrote.[12] Apart from appearing regularly under his own name at jazz clubs such as London's
Ronnie Scott's, Griffin became a "first choice" sax player for visiting US musicians touring the continent during the 1960s and 1970s.
He also recorded with the
Nat Adderley Quintet in 1978,[16] having previously recorded with Adderley in 1958.
In 1978, Griffin and Dexter Gordon returned to the U.S., and the two performed at the
Ann Arbor's Eclipse Jazz Festival, before recording Live at Carnegie Hall.[8]
Griffin's last concert was in
Hyères, France on July 21, 2008. On July 25, 2008, he died of a heart attack at the age of 80 in
Mauprévoir, near
Availles-Limouzine, France.[8][17]