John Arnold Griffin III (1928 - 2008) was an American
bop and
hard bop tenor saxophonist. Like many other successful musicians from Chicago, he studied music at DuSable High School under Walter Dyett. Griffin, was reputed to be the 'World's Fastest Saxophonist' in the
jazz idiom, though as he aged, and as the jazz audience declined, this accolade all but disappeared. In the 1940s and 1950s he worked in
Lionel Hampton's and
Joe Morris's bands, in
The Jazz Messengers, and in the
Thelonious Monk Quartet.