Kenny Garrett, at Ronnie Scott's

The Kenny Garrett Quintet

Friday 15th April 2016 - Saturday 16th April 2016

LINEUP TBC BUT LIKELY:
Kenny Garrett (Alto and Soprano Saxophones),
Corcoran Holt (Acoustic Bass),
McClenty Hunter (Drums),
Vernell Brown (Acoustic Piano),
Rudy Bird (Percussion)

"Someone should post a storm warning before a Kenny Garrett concert." - WASHINGTON POST

Kenny Garrett is widely recognised as one of the most talented saxophonists of his generation, having recorded and worked with jazz legends including Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Freddie Hubbard and McCoy Tyner. His early days included periods in groups playing the music of Duke Ellington, Thad Jones and Charles Mingus before his career really took off with the release of his first album, Introducing Kenny Garrett, in 1984. His music is very much open to outside influences and, as his acclaimed 2006 album Beyond the Wall made apparent, he shows no signs of slowing down as a cutting edge artist and performer.
- Check out Kenny Garrett Grooving out



BIO
For his third Mack Avenue Records release, Pushing the World Away, alto/soprano saxophonist, composer/bandleader Kenny Garrett literally had to “push away” a steady flow of distractions to get to the inner core of the album, shifting priorities in his schedule and diving deep into the essence of the music.

“I’m always writing, so coming up with the music wasn’t a problem,” says Garrett, who is arguably the most imitated alto saxophone player in jazz. “But I had been traveling a lot with my band, and I don’t rehearse new material on tour. Yet to record an album requires a lot of preparation and to conceptualize the music I had to push away to receive the blessings and gifts from these songs.”

 On Pushing the World Away, Garrett continues to mature as a composer. As the late Mulgrew Miller, his close friend for many years, noted in a DownBeat feature on the saxophonist last year: “Kenny has always had a great sound from the beginning. He had his own unique sound, but [thanks to his compositions] that sound has transformed into a more captivating and lyrical voice.”

Garrett, in turn, nods to the pianist who he had known for more than 30 years on the jaunty, upbeat and at times explosive opening track of the album, “A Side Order of Hijiki,” which is decidedly not about the hijiki culinary seaweed. “No seaweed,” says Garrett who takes an expansive alto flight on this track. “It’s actually the word that Mulgrew used to describe my playing style. He would say, ‘I hear you playing that hijiki’.”


While not directly paying homage to Miller, Garrett does pay tribute to a number of other friends and heroes—Chick Corea, Chucho Valdés, Sonny Rollins, Donald Brown—on Pushing the World Away, which connects the album to Garrett’s 2012 critically acclaimed gem, Seeds From The Underground. “I wasn’t thinking of continuing the tribute idea like I had on Seeds and before that [in 1997] on Songbook,” Garrett says. “I was just writing. For example, during one of my trips to Guadeloupe, I was composing an upbeat, happy piece about the Caribbean islands, and that made me think of Sonny. I call it ‘J’ouvert,’ which is the Creole name for Carnival. It’s my ‘St. Thomas.’ I hope Sonny likes it.”

read more: http://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/performances/view/3039-the-kenny-garrett-quintet?utm_source=Emailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=29DEC2015