Home » Jazz Articles » Kenny Garrett
Jazz Articles about Kenny Garrett
Kenny Garrett Speaks Through The Soul of His Jazz
by Dean Nardi
Mental bungee-jumping may not be their sport of choice, but a cerebral ledge exists that sooner or later every jazz musician must leap off. One day, ready or not, tuning up or shaking down their instrument, they will glance in a mirror, hug a pregnant mother-to-be, second-line a funeral, walk in the deepest, dark woods, chance a liaison, wake in the night with a heart beating like Brian Blade hitting a snare, receive a message from another dimension, get lost ...
Continue ReadingMoers Festival Interviews: Kenny Garrett
by Martin Longley
The release of Kenny Garrett's Sounds From The Ancestors album (Mack Avenue, 2021) has reinvigorated his live performances, as the saxophonist tours heartily with an expanded band that's heavy on the Afro-Latin percussion. In recent times, multi-instrumentalist Garrett has been gigging with this dedicated Sounds From The Ancestors line-up, heavily devoted to the album, but not averse to making key tune selections from past decades. Garrett likes to pair up the instruments, with Melvis Santa and Rudy Bird playing percussion ...
Continue ReadingChick Corea: The Montreux Years
by Doug Collette
If there is anything more ambitious than curating an extensive, comprehensive collection covering the history of an artist, it is collating selected works which vividly outline a particular timeline or theme. Chick Corea's The Montreux Years is a fine example of the latter; this seventh edition in the archive series devoted to the iconic festival not only reflects the late composer and pianist's technical skills, but also his eclectic stylistic tastes. And that is not to mention his fondness for ...
Continue ReadingKenny Garrett: Sounds From The Ancestors
by Ian Patterson
On Sounds from the Ancestors, Kenny Garrett's fifth album for Mack Avenue and his first since Do You Dance! (Mack Avenue 2016), the former saxophonist for both Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and Miles Davis, turns to the past for inspiration. From the Motown and gospel music he was weaned on as a youth growing up in Detroit, to the the hard bop of Blakey and post-bop of John Coltrane , Garrett wears his influences proudly on his sleeve on this ...
Continue ReadingKenny Garrett: The Value of Ancestors
by R.J. DeLuke
Saxophonist Kenny Garrett has always respected the music of his predecessors. He knows its importance. He knows the value of the tradition, knowledge and innovation passed on to new generations of musicians. He's recorded, for example, dedications to John Coltrane (Pursuance, Warner Bros., 1996), as well as Joe Henderson and Sonny Rollins (Trilogy, Warner Bros., 1992)). Heck, Garrett, undoubtedly one of the finest alto saxophonists (any style saxophone, for that matter) of his generation, has played with many ...
Continue ReadingMiles Davis: Merci Miles! Live at Vienne
by Ian Patterson
So great was Miles Davis' legend, so magnetic his aura, that the crowds and the adulation only increased towards the end of his life—a period when he was playing arguably the least progressive music of his career. This double-CD recording of a concert at the Jazz à Vienne Festival from 1991 is a case in point. Ten thousand people packed into the Roman amphitheatre that July evening, while another two-and-a-half thousand who had turned up without tickets were shepherded onto ...
Continue ReadingGeorge Mraz & Kenny Garrett
by Joe Dimino
We begin the 720th Episode with storied saxophonist Kenny Garrett with a track off his 2021 release Sounds from the Ancestors. This episode also features new music from Russell Ferrante, Papo Vazquez, Maria Grand and Yoonmi Choi. We give a fitting send off to a great friend of Neon Jazz and a wonderful friend from childhood in Mr. Bill Denny with a Frank Sinatra tribute. Finally, we say so long and thank you to George Mraz. Dig this new hour ...
Continue Reading
