John Arnold Griffin III (April 24, 1928 – July 25, 2008) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Nicknamed "the Little Giant" for his short stature and forceful playing.
He was born in Chicago and studied piano and Hawaiian guitar as a child. At Du Sable high school he played oboe, cor anglais and alto saxophone, under the instruction of Walter Dyatt, who had also taught other powerful and distinctive young saxophonists including Gene Ammons and Von Freeman. By 17, Griffin was already a professional on tenor sax, hired by one of the most high-profile 1940s bandleaders, Lionel Hampton, whose big band spliced swing and R&B. Hampton's trumpet section included Joe Morris, who formed his own R&B band in 1947, which Griffin joined for three years.
From 1950 to 1951, the young saxophonist worked with Count Basie's sublime and much-idolised swing drummer Jo Jones, and then with bluesy Texan tenor saxophonist Arnett Cobb. Performing in an army band between 1951 and 1953, he was posted to Hawaii. He then returned to play in Chicago until becoming involved in the illustrious circle of young pioneers of the hard-bop style that orbited around the fiery drummer Art Blakey in New York.
Griffin played with Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1957, and with Thelonious Monk for four months the following year, appearing on some fierce live recordings from New York's Five Spot and refreshingly sounding as if he had no idea what the fuss about Monk's supposed impenetrability was all about. Griffin also began an uneven but often scintillating recording career as a leader in the most illustrious way in the same year.
He recorded A Blowing Session for Blue Note in the company of fellow saxophonists Hank Mobley and John Coltrane, with Miles Davis partners Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers on piano and bass, and Blakey on drums. Though there are ballads on A Blowing Session - such as The Way You Look Tonight, and All the Things You Are - Griffin cavalierly ignores their sensibilities and careers through everything as if there are simply too many romantic possibilities and too little time. He also demonstrates a grasp of improvising inventively over song chords that easily rivals his heavweight Blue Note partners.
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On the 1958 Johnny Griffin Sextet recording, the saxophonist also fronted a superb bop band including trumpeter Donald Byrd and pianist Kenny Drew, and on 1960's Big Soul Band he explored the possibilities of an expanded group with gospelly fervour, in the company of trumpeter Clark Terry and pianist Bobby Timmons. Griffin, usually regarded as too impatient a player for thoughtful songs, also proved the contrary on his mellow, strings-enhanced 1961 Billie Holiday tribute White Gardenia, in which he reveals a startling eloquence and tenderness on God Bless the Child.
Between 1960 and 1962, Griffin worked in a popular and hard-nosed two-tenor bebop group with fellow saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, a Count Basie performer with a compatible affection for no-frills, rootsy, blues-driven music. Griffin's and Davis's performances together at Ronnie Scott's in the 1970s were some of the most popular attractions there in the period, and the "tough tenor" style of extended, gruff-toned solos and bantering counterpoint had few more defining examples.
Like fellow tenorist Dexter Gordon, Griffin liked playing in Europe, and moved to Paris in 1963, later shifting between France and Holland, and working with a variety of good European rhythm sections, sometimes with Lockjaw Davis and Arnett Cobb for company, and in groups led by expatriate American drummer Art Taylor. He also became a leading member of the multinational band led by another expatriate drum star, Kenny Clarke, with Belgian bandleader Francy Boland. He shared sax duties with a fine reed section including Ronnie Scott and Sahib Shihab. Griffin revisited the US for tours, playing briefly with novelty bop-scat singer Babs Gonzales and returning both to Chicago - for birthday gigs - and to New York's Blue Note.
In 1983, Griffin became a founder member of the European band Three Generations of Tenor Saxophone. In 1992 he toured with the high-profile Philip Morris Superband. In 1995, Griffin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music. Griffin may have been more tentative late in his career, but he was still capable of copious spontaneous invention in the right company, as was demonstrated in 1999 on the fine duo recording In and Out, with French pianist Martial Solal - and he cranked up some of his old heedless energy for a joust with the much younger, former Miles Davis saxophonist Steve Grossman the next year.
Griffin's open-handed, unambiguous and vastly entertaining devotion to spontaneous music-making lasted until his death. His 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.
(Edited
from John Fordhan obit @ The Guardian & Wikipedia)