Breaking down the walls - Kenny Garrett Quartet - Rave Reviews

Kenny will be here for 3 nights, starting next Monday 30th June. Here's what they had to say last time!!!

Breaking down the walls
Kenny Garrett Quartet

By Jack Massarik

Four Stars out of Five

FASHIONS in music come and go, but Kenny Garrett continues to
ignore them all and concentrate on doing what he does best - carving
out impassioned, marathon alto-sax solos that swing very hard.

Coming from a generation inspired by peak-period Miles and Coltrane, the great Detroit sax-man sees nothing wrong with maintaining their creative lines of enquiry, and rightly so.

It's demanding work, physically and mentally, but the rewards can be exhilarating.
Garrett 's opening alto-sax solo, a searing romp through the China-flavoured centrepiece of his current album.

Beyond the Wall, took more than 15 minutes to unfold, during which his latest group built up a
mighty momentum that, despite all the technical advances in jazz worldwide, only the best US
rhythm sections seem able to create.

Much of this had to do with the lavishly hirsute Jemiah Williams, a brilliant young drummer who
demonstrated how to set a burning pace without overpowering his colleagues.
His extended 16-bar exchanges with Garrett, full of deft, swooping tom-tom rolls, were models of fluent technique and quick thinking.

Ivan Taylor, a double-bassist whose surging forward motion recalled the great Curtis Lundy,
maintained the excitement while another newcomer, Benito Gonzalez, attacked the keyboard in the
percussive, high-energy style of a McCoy Tyner or Kenny Kirkland.

This taut mood softened for Qing Wen, a stately piece that combined Chinese harmonies with a lightly Latin beat.
Garrett then turned to soprano sax for a charming gospel duet with Gonzalez, followed by
Japanese and Korean folk songs that lent an oriental edge to his tone, a muezzin call-to-prayer
sound.
A rousing version of Happy People rounded off an evening of top-class original music delivered
with complete commitment and just a dash of showmanship.