They’re red and made from plastic. Kenny Garrett holds them up. “Fourchette,” he says, “… Cuillère.” They arrived with his lunch, Chinese take-out, in the middle of an improvised French lesson that is taking place during a photo shoot scheduled just before our interview. Welcome to the busy world of the most promising alto saxophonist on the scene today. Garrett points to the photographer’s lens-shade. “Parapluie?” He sounds unconvinced. It’s the only time during our interview. For if Kenny Garrett is anything, it’s a man who knows what he wants.
What he wanted began at age 18 when Mercer Ellington, the great man’s son, asked him to join the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Three and a half years later, he left that band taking with him the most valuable thing a musician can possess, his own sound. How did he get it? “Once I was listening to the radio with my father when he asked me who the sax player was. I said I didn’t know and he said ‘Well, everyone has their own sound.’ That kind of stayed in the back of my mind, but I didn’t try to consciously develop a sound, I was just trying to be true with myself about what I felt when I played. If you’re honest, I think it comes out.” What comes out in Garrett’s case is instantly recognizable: a fast, keening alto with a seamless body and a lyrical curl to its edges, all quavering with boundless energy.
It was a sound that opened doors. After a short spell with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Garrett went on to work with three legendary trumpeters: Woody Shaw, Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis, sticking with Miles’ band for five years. “People ask me why so long,” he says, shaking his head in disbelief. “I just say, ‘it’s Miles, man!’ I wanted to absorb as much as I could ’cause I figured once that experience was gone, it was gone.”
There is a strong sense of honoring experience in Garrett’s music, whether it’s dedicating his CD “Triology” to Joe Henderson and Sonny Rollins or recording his Coltrane album, “Pursuance,” “more a meditation on Trane’s music than a tribute album.” Why did an alto player chose to do the music of a tenor saxophonist? “The challenge. A number like ‘Countdown’ is in E, which means it puts the alto into C Sharp. Those solos were difficult.”
Garrett is carrying on that challenge with his latest CD, “Songbook” (Warner Bros), the first that features original compositions, including his trademark number, “Sing a Song of Song.” I mention the reaction it gets at live concerts. “There’s something about that number. People who have only heard it once tell me they find themselves humming it for days afterward. And it’s funny because I wrote it in like five minutes.” Parisians get a chance to test its hummability when Garrett and his furious quartet of Kenny Kirkland on piano, Jeff Tain Watts on drums and Nat Reeves on bass appear July 15 at New Morning as part of the club’s All Stars Festival.
New Morning, 7-9, rue des Petites Ecuries, 10e, Mºs Château d’Eau, tel: 01.45.23.51.41, 9pm, 130F.
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Spotlight: Kenny Garrett
by Tim Baker
They’re red and made from plastic. Kenny Garrett holds them up. “Fourchette,” he says, “… Cuillère.” They arrived with his lunch, Chinese take-out, in the middle of an improvised French lesson that is taking place during a photo shoot scheduled just before our interview. Welcome to the busy world of the most promising alto saxophonist on the scene today. Garrett points to the photographer’s lens-shade. “Parapluie?” He sounds unconvinced. It’s the only time during our interview. For if Kenny Garrett is anything, it’s a man who knows what he wants.
What he wanted began at age 18 when Mercer Ellington, the great man’s son, asked him to join the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Three and a half years later, he left that band taking with him the most valuable thing a musician can possess, his own sound. How did he get it? “Once I was listening to the radio with my father when he asked me who the sax player was. I said I didn’t know and he said ‘Well, everyone has their own sound.’ That kind of stayed in the back of my mind, but I didn’t try to consciously develop a sound, I was just trying to be true with myself about what I felt when I played. If you’re honest, I think it comes out.” What comes out in Garrett’s case is instantly recognizable: a fast, keening alto with a seamless body and a lyrical curl to its edges, all quavering with boundless energy.
It was a sound that opened doors. After a short spell with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Garrett went on to work with three legendary trumpeters: Woody Shaw, Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis, sticking with Miles’ band for five years. “People ask me why so long,” he says, shaking his head in disbelief. “I just say, ‘it’s Miles, man!’ I wanted to absorb as much as I could ’cause I figured once that experience was gone, it was gone.”
There is a strong sense of honoring experience in Garrett’s music, whether it’s dedicating his CD “Triology” to Joe Henderson and Sonny Rollins or recording his Coltrane album, “Pursuance,” “more a meditation on Trane’s music than a tribute album.” Why did an alto player chose to do the music of a tenor saxophonist? “The challenge. A number like ‘Countdown’ is in E, which means it puts the alto into C Sharp. Those solos were difficult.”
Garrett is carrying on that challenge with his latest CD, “Songbook” (Warner Bros), the first that features original compositions, including his trademark number, “Sing a Song of Song.” I mention the reaction it gets at live concerts. “There’s something about that number. People who have only heard it once tell me they find themselves humming it for days afterward. And it’s funny because I wrote it in like five minutes.” Parisians get a chance to test its hummability when Garrett and his furious quartet of Kenny Kirkland on piano, Jeff Tain Watts on drums and Nat Reeves on bass appear July 15 at New Morning as part of the club’s All Stars Festival.
New Morning, 7-9, rue des Petites Ecuries, 10e, Mºs Château d’Eau, tel: 01.45.23.51.41, 9pm, 130F.