Jazz Articles

Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.

426

Album Review

Kenny Garrett: Sketches of MD: Live at The Iridium

Read "Sketches of MD: Live at The Iridium" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
October 6, 2008

Kenny Garrett continues his relationship with tenor legend Pharoah Sanders from Beyond the Wall (Nonesuch, 2006), but ditches some of the gravitas for Sketches of MD: Live at the Iridium. An album of unabashed blowing and multiplicity of stylistic references, it's the closest Garrett has come to his seminal Standard of Language (Warner Bros., 2003). Were it not for one misstep, it would be the closest thing to perfect that Garrett has released. “The Ring" kicks the album ...

416

Album Review

Kenny Garrett: Sketches of MD: Live at The Iridium

Read "Sketches of MD: Live at The Iridium" reviewed by Greg Thomas

by Greg Thomas
October 5, 2008

Kenny Garrett continues his mélange of modal exploration with Sketches of MD: Live at The Iridium. The recording is a sequel to Beyond the Wall, Garrett’s early collaboration with Pharoah Sanders, and is a snapshot of his progression.The opening number, “The Ring,” starts with a dramatic theme stated by the alto-tenor front line. Garrett and Sanders traverse late-Trane territory in their improvisations yet they rarely scale the heights of propulsion or evoke their earlier spiritual majesty.

458

Album Review

Kenny Garrett: Sketches of MD: Live At The Iridium

Read "Sketches of MD: Live At The Iridium" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
September 17, 2008

Alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett gives listeners a kaleidoscopic view of his music in this fun live recording. A post-bop saxophonist who performed with Miles Davis during the trumpeter's later fusion/funk years, Garrett has since gone on to make his own name as one of the fiercest players around. In spite of what labels/critics may have desired, he's paving his own multi-colored-brick road. This has included African Exchange Student (Atlantic, 1990), the contemporary jazz friendly Happy People (Warner Brothers, 2002), and ...