Idle Moments

The album is best known for the title piece, a slow composition in C minor which lasts for nearly 15 minutes. Pearson, who wrote the song, explains in his liner notes to the album that the tune was meant to be much shorter. Due to the musicians repeating the main melody twice, however, there was some confusion as to whether or not one chorus would consist of 16 or 32 bars.{{cite web |title=Grant Green: Idle Moments |url=http://www.jazz.com/music/2007/10/30/grant-green-idle-moments |website=Jazz |date=November 4, 1963 |access-date=June 27, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022111607/http://www.jazz.com/music/2007/10/30/grant-green-idle-moments |archive-date=2012-10-22 }} Producer Alfred Lion was satisfied with the take, although he suggested that they do a retake to fit the song into a seven-minute limit. However, the song had a special feeling to it which no subsequent take could recapture, so it was decided to release the first take on the album. Two other songs, "Jean De Fleur" and "Django", were re-recorded in shorter renditions to compensate for the length of the title track; the extended renditions of both songs can be heard on the CD re-issues of the album.

Idle Moments was released in both stereo and mono in February 1965. On October 23, 2020, Blue Note announced that Idle Moments would be reissued as part of their Classic Vinyl Reissue Series with a 180g vinyl pressing.{{cite web |last1=Fremer |first1=Michael |title=Blue Note Announces Classic Vinyl Reissue Series |url=https://www.analogplanet.com/content/blue-note-announces-classic-vinyl-reissue-series |website=Analog Planet |language=en-US |access-date=September 27, 2024}} Released on June 11, 2021, the album was remastered by Kevin Gray directly from the original master tapes.{{cite web |title=Presenting the Blue Note Classic Vinyl Reissue Series |url=https://www.bluenote.com/classic-vinyl-reissue-series/ |website=Blue Note Records |language=en-US |date=October 23, 2020 |access-date=September 27, 2024}}

Steve Huey of AllMusic states that Green treats the repertoire of this album "with the graceful elegance that was the hallmark of his best hard bop sessions, and that quality achieves its fullest expression here... Idle Moments is the essential first Green purchase, and some of the finest guitar jazz of the hard bop era." The album was identified by jazz historian and journalist Scott Yanow in his essay "What is Hard Bop?"{{cite web |url= http://scottyanow.com/hardbopz.html |title= WHAT IS HARD BOP? |first=Scott |last=Yanow |work= scottyanow.com/|access-date=21 November 2020}} as one of the "17 Essential Hard Bop Recordings".

{{Track listing

| headline = Side One

| extra_column = Recorded

| title1 = Idle Moments

| writer1 = Pearson

| extra1 = November 4, 1963

| length1 = 14:56

| title2 = Jean De Fleur

| writer2 = Green

| extra2 = November 15, 1963

| length2 = 6:49

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side Two

| extra_column = Recorded

| total_length = 42:45

| title3 = Django

| writer3 = John Lewis

| extra3 = November 15, 1963

| length3 = 8:44

| title4 = Nomad

| writer4 = Pearson

| extra4 = November 4, 1963

| length4 = 12:16

}}

1990 CD reissue bonus tracks

{{Track listing

| extra_column = Recorded

| total_length = 64:06

| title5 = Jean De Fleur

| note5 = Alternate Take

| writer5 = Green

| extra5 = November 4, 1963

| length5 = 8:09

| title6 = Django

| note6 = Alternate Take

| writer6 = Lewis

| extra6 = November 4, 1963

| length6 = 13:12

}}

• Grant Green – guitar
• Joe Henderson – tenor saxophone
• Duke Pearson – piano
• Bobby Hutcherson – vibraphone
• Bob Cranshaw – double bass
• Al Harewood – drums

{{Reflist}}

{{Grant Green}}{{Duke Pearson}}

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Category:1965 albums

Category:Grant Green albums

Category:Blue Note Records albums

Category:Albums produced by Alfred Lion

Category:Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio