Ain't It Funky Now

Recorded on 30 January 1970 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, with Green on guitar joined by Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Claude Bartee on tenor saxophone, Emmanuel Riggins and Earl Neal Creque on organ, Jimmy Lewis on electric bass, Idris Muhammad on drums, Candido Camero on congas, and Richie Landrum on bongos. The session was produced by Francis Wolff and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. The opening track of Green's *Green Is Beautiful* album, this nearly ten-minute funk workout on the James Brown original demonstrated Green's full embrace of jazz-funk at the turn of the decade, a significant pivot from his early-1960s hard-bop Blue Note records. Released on Blue Note in July 1970, it was also issued as the A-side of a 45 single, underlining the label's commercial ambitions for Green during this period. The track became one of the most celebrated examples of Green's late Blue Note period and a touchstone of the jazz-funk crate-digging canon, with its loping guitar tone, dense percussion, and extended groove making it a DJ staple for decades. It anchors the 2005 compilation *Ain't It Funky Now! The Original Jam Master, Volume One*, which brought Green's 1970s Blue Note work to a new generation of listeners.