Johnny Griffin Dies in France

By I Jul. 25, 2008

Tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, whose large Chicago tenor sound and diminutive stature gave him the nickname “Little Giant,” died Friday, according to his agent, Helene Manfredi. The cause of death was unknown. He was 80.

Griffin was scheduled to perform with organist Rhoda Scott, saxophonist Olivier Temime and drummer Julie Saury. He died at home in Mauprevoir, the French village where he lived for the past 18 years.

When Griffin studied at Chicago’s Du Sable High School, the famous band director Capt. Walter Dyett told the diminutive musician he had to play alto saxophone because he was too small to play tenor. When Griffin got his first big call—to play with band leader Lionel Hampton, in 1945—he brought his alto. Little did he know he was taking the tenor saxophone chair, and, not only that, his dueling partner in the band was the enormous “Texas tenor” Arnett Cobb.

Perhaps it was this early, competitive cauldron that sparked Griffin to become a competitive, racehorse improviser; whatever it was, Griffin soon earned the nickname, “fastest tenor in the West.”

Griffin was born April 24, 1928, in Chicago, and began studying clarinet in 1941. After his stint with Hamp, he worked on the East Coast with an r&b band led by Joe Morris, and with a variety of other players, including both of the drumming Joneses—Philly Joe and Jo—Percy Heath and Gene Ramey. He also hung out extensively with Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell during this period, absorbing their musical ideas. In 1957, after a a stretch in the Army, Griffin joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, then replaced John Coltrane in Monk’s group in 1958. For two years, he led a “tough tenors” quintet with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis. In 1963 Griffin moved to Europe, settling first in Paris, then the Netherlands and finally in Southern France. In Paris, Griffin performed at the Blue Note with other expatriates, including Bud Powell and Kenny Clarke; and from 1967-‘69 he was a soloist in the Clarke-Boland Big Band.

One of the last surviving artists who appears on the famous “Great Day In Harlem” photo, Griffin attacked standards, particularly war-horses such as “All the Things You Are” with ferocious strings of ideas. He had a warm, round, personal and well-seasoned sound. In his later years, he became as accomplished on ballads as uptempo numbers.