login
Al Green
Al Green
Favorite
Get Ringtone
When R&B lovers hear the name Al Green, they immediately think of the Memphis soul singer who gave us 䀘70s hits like "I'm Still in Love with You," "Take Me to the River," "Love and Happiness," "Full of Fire" and "Let's Stay Together"--that is, before he became a gospel-singing Protestant minister and gave up his career in secular music. But the Al Green who is profiled in this bio is a different Al Green; he's a veteran jazz drummer who has been around the Chicago music scene since the 䀘50s. Green, who was born in Houston, TX on March 20, 1936 but raised on the Windy City's Near North Side, started out as a blues drummer; one of the bluesmen he accompanied on stage was Willie Dixon. But Green ended up shifting his focus to instrumental jazz, and the drummers who influenced his hard bop playing included Art Blakey, Max Roach, Art Taylor and Philly Joe Jones. Although Green never became well known nationally, he remained active on the Chicago jazz scene in the 䀘60s, 䀘70s and 䀘80s. In the late 䀘90s--when the hard bopper had a regular gig at the Marriott Hotel in Downtown Chicago--he ran into someone he had known since the 䀘50s: alto saxophonist Othello Anderson. Along the way, Anderson had grown disillusioned with the music business and become an art teacher--in the late 䀘90s, the alto man was paying his bills by teaching art at the University of Illinois at Chicago but still played his alto on the side. So Green invited Anderson to sit in with him on his Marriott gigs, and Anderson ended up playing with Green on a regular basis. In the early 2000s, they co-led a working group that was billed as the $Al Green/Othello Anderson Quintet; the group's three other members were Dr. Odies Williams III (trumpet), Leandro Lopez Varady (piano) and John Whitfield (bass). Neither Green nor Anderson had ever recorded an album under his own name, but in March 2002, they finally co-led a hard bop-oriented studio session. That session resulted in their CD Mr. Lucky, which came out on Bob Koester's Chicago-based Delmark label in August 2002. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music GuideMore

Most Popular Music Videos (2)

Everything's Gonna Be Alright
(Duration: 4:02)
Jul 22nd, 7:23pm
I Can't Stop (Video)
(Duration: 3:48)
Apr 17th, 9:37am
view all

Fan Comments

Sep 7th, 9:19am
***Al Green*** is a legend in the R&B world and to it's fans! :)
May 17th, 8:18am
FOR THE GOOD TIMES..
I'M BLOWN AWAY @ HOW
HUMBLE AL IS. I LOVE HIS
WORK! SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL!
Mar 13th, 2:00am
I love you Al! Iwas looking for "stay with me" feat john legend...That song is so beautiful!!!
Jan 25th, 2:45pm
God I love your music!