Matador (Grant Green)

Matador is the title track from a session Grant Green recorded in 1964, though it wasn’t released until 1979 on the Japanese Blue Note label. It was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s well-known Englewood Cliffs studio, and although the album went unnoticed for years, it features some of Green’s best playing.

The album has a great lineup, with McCoy Tyner on piano and Elvin Jones on drums (both from John Coltrane‘s quartet), plus Bob Cranshaw on bass.

Unlike many of Green’s better-known soul-jazz recordings, Matador has a more open, modal sound that shows a different side of his playing.

In this lesson, you will learn how to play the melody of Matador. The melody itself is relatively straightforward, making it accessible to intermediate players, and is a great exercise in scale-based phrasing, picking, and syncopation.

 

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Matador Melody – Video

 

Matador Melody – Notation/Guitar Tabs

The melody of Matador mostly uses the C natural minor scale (C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb), also known as the C Aeolian mode.

 

 

The opening four bars feature a pedal tone on G that alternates with Eb (the 3rd) and D (the 9th), creating a simple and catchy motif.

The only note not in the C natural minor scale shows up in bars 10 and 18, where Grant Green uses a Db.

This note can be heard as a blue note from the G minor blues scale, giving the melody some extra color before it returns to the main minor sound.

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play-Along

 

 

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