After a prolific five-year run from 1961-1965 when he made more than 20 great hard bop and soul jazz albums for Blue Note, guitarist Grant Green took a four-year hiatus from recording. When he returned to Blue Note in 1969, Green's style had moved into funkier territory as was perfectly captured on his first-ever live album Alive! which captured a hard-driving set of jazz-funk at the Cliché Lounge in Newark, NJ 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 on their hip-hop classic Low End Theory. This Blue Note 80 Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.