doing his dance in the uk - saxophonist kenny garrett ... · pdf filehe called me back and...

Doing his dance in the UK - saxophonist KENNY GARRETT speaks to SJF ahead of his headline performance at next weekend's Ealing Jazz Festival.

Written by Charles WaringMonday, 24 July 2017 19:01 - Last Updated Tuesday, 25 July 2017 09:25

As a graduate cum laude of the legendary Jazz Messengers - drummer Art Blakey's famouslong-running group dubbed the 'Hard Bop Academy' - KENNYGARRETT canattest to having had one of the best educations that jazz has to offer. But Blakey, whose groupran from 1954 to his death in 1990, wasn't the only master that the Detroit-born alto saxophonistreceived valuable experience and pearls of wisdom from. Although he spent two years with thedrum meister, he enjoyed an even longer period - five years to be exact - with arguably thegreatest band leader of them all in jazz: the mighty Miles Davis, during his late electric period.He joined the trumpeter's band in 1986, toured the world with him several times, and alsoplayed on several albums, including 1988's late masterpiece, 'Amandla.'

Garrett remembers those days fondly and is deeply appreciative of what he gleaned from thattime. "I learned so much from him," he says with a tincture of solemnity and reverence in hisvoice. In his prime, Davis could be a hard, enigmatic taskmaster - he once punched JohnColtrane for nodding off on the bandstand - but Garrett found the opposite was true. Perhapsthe 'Dark Magus' had mellowed with age. "Anyone whogives you 10 or 15 minutes solos must have a lot of respect for you,"

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opines the 56-year-old Detroit saxophonist recalling his time with Davis...

Recalling how he joined Davis (above left, with KG) in 1986, Garrett explains that he wasplaying with Art Blakey at the time. A fellow saxophonist, Gary Coleman, had heard that thetrumpeter was looking for a new altoist and when Garrett said he was interested, gave himDavis's phone number. "I called him and hisvalet picked up the phone and said 'Miles is not here, he'll call you back,'"remembers Garrett. "Later, I had a phone call and it sounded like Miles but I didn't know it was him for sure becausethe late great pianist, Mulgrew Miller, was always pretending like he was Miles."Garrett wasn't convinced that the hoarse, raspy voice on the other end of the phone was reallywas Miles Davis, though it transpired that it actually was. "He ended up asking me to send him some music. So I sent him some things I was working onand some stuff I'd done with Art Blakey. He called me back and said, 'Kenny, you sound likeyou're wearing some dirty drawers.'"Garret laughs heartily at the recollection. "Then he explained he had been looking for me because he had seen a video I had done withDizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, and Woody Shaw in Berlin, and he was actually in the hotelthat night and saw it on television."

Miles Davis rarely gave direct instructions to his band members, and instead, would often sayenigmatic Zen-like things which they had to go away and ponder the meaning of. Kenny Garrettwas no exception. "One time Miles said to me, 'be cool like me,'" he recalls, "and I knew Icouldn't be Miles, I had to be myself. I think that's the main thing of what he was saying. I thinkwith Miles, he was always trying to get you to do things that were a little different."

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Remembering his time just prior to Miles with Art Blakey, Garrett reveals that though the twomasters he served under were different characters and had contrasting styles of leading a band,they were closer than many people imagined. "Art was different," he says. "He was moregrassroots. He was travelling around by bus a lot but with Miles it was on another level, we usedto travel by plane. But the lessons were essentially the same. Blakey would always say thingsthat were trying inspire you and he was training you to be the next leader. So he would giveeverybody a chance in the band to be the MC of the gig that night. We all had the opportunity tospeak to the audience so he was teaching us in a different way. He was more hands-on as well.I learned a lot from Miles and I learned a lot from Blakey even though it seemed like they weredifferent."

Rewinding back to the beginning, music was in Kenny Garrett's blood. "My stepfather playedsaxophone and my biological father was a singer,"he reveals. "What inspired me really to play was my stepfather. I just used to sit by his saxophone casebecause I loved the smell of it, not because I wanted to play the saxophone. Then I got my ownsaxophone and he taught me the G scale. At some point, probably around high school, I gotserious about music and decided I wanted to do it for a living."

Growing up in the fabled Motor Town, the budding saxophonist was exposed to lots of soul,funk, and R&B flavours but he became deeply smitten by jazz. "In the beginning, I used listen topeople like Hank Crawford and Cannonball Adderley (both famous altoists),"he discloses. "Those are my first influences, and then came Charlie Parker, Johnny Hodges, Sonny Rollins,and Joe Henderson."

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A defining, epiphanic moment when he came across John Coltrane: "There was a record thatwas called 'A Blowing Session' by Johnny Griffin, featuring Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and JohnColtrane. I remember hearing Johnny Griffin, and he was tearing it up, but Trane came in andhe played one note and that was it for me. I thought, I would love to play one note and have thatmuch impact." As a teenager, Garrett became seriously devoted to working at and developing his craft. Then,at 18 in 1978, his burgeoning music career took a huge leap when he joined the Duke EllingtonOrchestra (then led by Duke's son, Mercer Ellington). "I was just out of high school and it justhappened that their second alto player disappeared when they got to Michigan,"explains Garrett. "So one of my mentors, the trumpet player, Marcus Belgrave and Bill Wiggins who was my highschool teacher, recommended me - they had been pretty much training me all along because Iwas playing in Marcus's big band and my teacher knew me because I took private lessons withhim. The next thing I know, I was on the bus travelling to a gig in New York. But it was a greatexperience. I got a chance to play with Cootie Williams and l learned to play in the style ofJohnny Hodges. It taught me how to blend with 18 musicians. There were so many lessons inthere for a kid coming out of high school." Around the same time, Garrett also gained further large ensemble experience playing with theVanguard Orchestra (formerly the Thad-Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra), as well as big bands ledby Lionel Hampton and Frank Foster. "That's how musicians used to come up, through the bigbands," says Garrett, "so I did a lot of that. It gave me alot of valuable experience."

Another notable opportunity came Garrett's way in the late '70s, which would also enrich hisknowledge and career immeasurably. He got to play in a band led by Charles Mingus' long-timedrummer, Danny Richmond (pictured above): "I had moved to New York and DannyRichmond's saxophonist Ricky Ford couldn't make the tour so I ended up going out and playingwith him. That was a great experience. That music was pretty free but I was coming from moreof a bebop tradition and I was really interested in learning the chord changes before I wenttotally free. I believed that I had to learn the music first and after that, I could play as free as Iwanted to. It was a great experience to be able to play that kind of music. When I look at mycareer and I start thinking about being in a band playing the music of Charles Mingus, I realizethose are things that people go to universities to learn." Given all the experience and knowledge that he accrued under some of jazz's greatestbandleaders, it was no surprise that Garrett eventually began to front his own bands. His solocareer began in earnest in 1984 on an indie label, Criss Cross, before his exposure with MilesDavis brought major labels knocking on his door. Atlantic was the first, in 1989, followed byWarner Bros in 1992, where he stayed for eleven years, earning a Grammy nomination for'Songbook' in 1997. He was Grammy-nominated again in 2006 for a one-off album forNonesuch, the brilliant 'Beyond The Wall,' featuring the hauntingly beautiful 'Tsunami Song,' acinematic track which showcased Garrett as a piano accompanist.

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Since 2008, Kenny Garrett has been with the Mack Avenue label where he's produced fouralbums and has garnered three more Grammy nominations in the process. His latest longplayer is last year's excellent 'Do Your Dance!' and those attending the Ealing Jazz Festival inWalpole Park on Sunday 30th July will hear Kenny and his quintet (alongside the likes of theUK's Courtney Pine and Robert Mitchell) play some choice selections from it. "We'll be playingsongs from that as well as our previous recent CDs, including 'Pushing The World Away' andalso 'Seeds From The Underground.' And we'll also be playing some classic tunes that peopleknow," he reveals. Garrett says that the experience of playing to a large festival crowd is vastly different fromplaying smaller indoor places. "Live club gigs are about an intimate kind of feeling while liveopen festivals are more conducive to having a big party," hesays. "I'm going to be bringing Vernell Brown on piano, Rudy Bird on percussion, Corcoran Halt onbass, and Samuel Laverton on drums. My quintet varies sometimes but that's the core of theband. Vernel Brown has been playing with me for a while. He was on 'Standard Language'(2003). He's been with me for years and had a break. He was also with Gladys Knight forawhile. Corcoran Halt, the bassist, has been with me for about six or seven years. Rudy Bird,we played together with Miles Davis. He's also been with Lauryn Hill and Leela James. Thedrummer is a young and upcoming drummer I've been mentoring, his name is Samuel Laverton.It's his first tour with us." Anyone going to the Ealing Jazz Festival who is familiar with Garrett's music will know that thesaxophonist will be serving up a varied set that will mix up the intensity of envelope-pushingpost bop jazz with fiery Latin grooves, rump-shaking funk, and mellow mood pieces. Above all,though, Garrett wants to make his audience dance. That's the theme of his current album,whose concept was inspired after seeing people grooving in the audience at one of his gigs: "We were playing in Philadelphia and I noticed that there were a lot of elderly people dancing to allthe different styles of music we played, be it fast, Latin, jazz, funk, or whatever, and they werecontinuously dancing. I started thinking about that time when people always danced to music nomatter what it was." Garrett confesses that's not averse to shaking a tail feather or two himself. "I like to dance," helaughs. "I definitely recommend people to dance. 'Do Your Dance!' is really just about people havingtheir own pocket, whatever it is that you like or you feel. Just do your dance and don't worryabout the other person... because there are people who are professional and then there are justpeople who love to dance." Though Ealing's on his radar for this coming weekend, it's just one of myriad places that the altosaxophonist and composer has visited during his long and winding career. Travelling is one ofthe perks of being a professional musician and despite spending many days of every year onthe road, Garrett doesn't tire of the arduous nomadic life that his gift for playing the saxophonehas brought him. "It's been a blessing," he says. "I've been able to travel the world and meet alot of different people and learned about a lot of different cultures. And I continue to do that. Forme, it's been a great, great journey, travelling and playing music and meeting people throughmy music." CATCH KENNY GARRETT AND HIS QUINTET AT THE EALING JAZZ FESTIVAL ONSUNDAY 30TH JULY. For more info about the Ealing Jazz Festival go here: https://www.ealingsummerfestivals.com/ KENNY GARRETT'S LATEST ALBUM 'DO YOUR DANCE!' IS OUT NOW VIA MACK AVENUE

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doing his dance in the uk - saxophonist kenny garrett ... · pdf filehe called me back and...

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