After a prolific 5-year run from 1961-1965 when he made more than 20 great hard bop & soul jazz albums for Blue Note, guitarist Grant Green didn't record again for the label until 1969. By then, Green's style had moved into funkier territory as was perfectly captured on his first-ever live album "Alive!" which documented a hard-driving set of jazz-funk at the Cliché Lounge in Newark, New Jersey in 1970. The band is propelled by drummer Idris Muhammad who keeps a fire burning under Green, saxophonist Claude Bartee, vibraphonist Willie Bivens, organists Ronnie Foster & Neal Creque, and Joseph Armstrong on congas. The closing track "Down Here On The Ground" was famously sampled by A Tribe Called Quest for the track "Vibes and Stuff" on their hip-hop classic Low End Theory.
