JAZZ NEWS PRESS RELEASE
"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 - onPushing
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."
"Hey,
Chick" is an elegant, graceful dance with Garrett's expressive
alto solo. "It captures that Spain, Eastern Spanish, Moroccan
vibe," says Garrett, "and it's something I imagined Chick
playing, something interesting, something he could really blow on."
The
spirited, dance-oriented "Chucho's Mambo," with spicy
percussion by Rudy
Bird and
party trumpeting by Ravi Best, is Garrett's Cuban salsa
interpretation of what a collaboration with Valdés could have been
like. "We were trying to get together, but I couldn't get a visa
to get to Cuba," Garrett says. "We had been writing for
each other." He proudly adds, "Chucho and I have the same
birthday."
 |
Photo
Credit: Keith Major
|
"Brother
Brown," a slow, emotive beauty that Garrett delivers on piano
with a three-person string section, is a salute to Donald Brown,
Garrett's musical confidant and album co-producer. "I wanted
this piece to be soulful and represent Donald's personality,"
Garrett says. "I also wanted to raise the bar for myself
compositionally. Donald told me, you wrote it, and you know how it
should sound. So you should play the piano. The other two pianists I
used in these sessions - Vernell
Brown and Benito
Gonzalez -
were there and giving me the thumbs up."
Vernell
and Benito are two of Garrett's go-to band members, who are both
graduates of the informal Kenny Garrett School of Music. "When I
think about Art Blakey being a mentor for so many years, and how
Miles mentored me as well, I like to give back in my own way,"
he says. Kenny points out that his band was the first marquee stop
for such drummers as Brian Blade, Chris Dave, Ronald Bruner, and
Jamire Williams. OnPushing
the World Away the
drummers include McClenty
Hunter, Marcus
Baylor andMark
Whitfield Jr..
"They come through, and then there are people always waiting to
get them for their own bands," he says. "I'm just happy
that I'm able to help them find their voices."
Presently,
Garrett's core working/touring band is comprised of pianist Brown,
bassistCorcoran
Holt and
Hunter on drums. Gonzalez subs on piano when he's free. And Garrett
has expanded his basic quartet to quintet with percussionist Bird.
"Rudy adds a lot to the band," Garrett says. "He too
used to play with Miles and he adds so much to the music."
The
band members figure prominently on the new album, ranging from
Brown's charged run through the cool and refined tune "Lincoln
Center" and his harmonic exhilaration on "Alpha Man"
(a tune Garrett wrote for him, thinking about how he plays) to
Gonzalez setting down the graceful melody on the ballad "Homma
San" (which the band convinced Garrett had to be on the album)
and being showcased on the romantic "That's It," which also
includes Hunter delivering wordless vocals as part of the rhythm
section.
Just
like he did with Seeds,
Garrett renders a variety of music on Pushing
the World Away,
stretching out on two pieces in particular: the expansive, journey -
like title tune that clocks in at over nine minutes with song - like
chanting and a gong and the swinging end song, "Rotation,"
which features both Brown and Gonzalez on pianos and his three
drummers: Hunter, Baylor and Whitfield. Of the latter tune, Garrett
says that he likes hearing the pianistic contrasts (he almost joined
in at the prodding of his band, but decided to romp on his alto) and
invited all the drummers to let them play off each other - all moving
in playful rotation.
On
the sublime "Pushing the World Away," Garrett explores the
theme of the album, undergirding the tune on charging and whinnying
soprano. He says he wanted to write a simple piece like "Take
Five" or "My Favorite Things." "But I couldn't
force it, so I let the song be," he says. "I wanted this
tune to be powerful. I had the image of Atlas pushing the world and
at the end there was light. I thought, 'I'm going to need a little
help with this,' so I asked Vernell to chant. He chants as a Buddhist
and I chant as a Christian - both voices accomplishing the same goal
of pushing the world away to get to the light."
In
all, Pushing
the World Away features
twelve tunes, all of which were composed by Garrett except for one
cover, a superb, lyrical, odd-metered take on the Burt Bacharach/Hal
David song "I Say a Little Prayer" (put on the musical map
in 1967 as a huge AM-radio pop hit for Dionne Warwick). "We
played it at sound check while touring in Europe," Garrett says.
"And the people who were working in the venues always applauded.
So we knew we had to include this on the album. It feels right."
In
last year's DownBeat article,
Garrett said, "You want to see growth in each album you record."
That's certainly the case with Pushing
the World Away,
his 17th album as a leader, which captures the 52-year-old artist at
the peak of his creative abilities, both as a saxophonist and as a
composer who is committed to clearing the path so that he can delve
deeply into his indelible art.
Upcoming
Kenny Garrett U.S. Appearances:
August 24 / Charlie
Parker Jazz Festival / New York, NY
September
27 / Henrick Chapel, Grinnell
College / Grinnell, IA
November
9 / EXIT 0 International Jazz Festival / Cape May,
NJ
November
17 / Jewish Vocational Services Benefit Gala /
Livingston, NJ
December
5 - 8 / Iridium / New York, NY
January
11, 2014 / Nova Southeastern University -
Rose
and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center / Ft.
Lauderdale, FL
April
5, 2014 / University
of Massachusetts: Amherst /
Amherst, MA
May
2, 2014 / Lawrence
Jazz Series at Lawrence University /
Appleton, WI
Upcoming
Kenny Garrett International Appearances:
July
13 /
Théâtre de la Mer /
Sète, France
July
25 / Stadttheater
Gmunden /
Gmunden, Austria
August
3 / TÓNICA /
Guadalajara, Mexico
September
13 / Moods /
Zurich, Switzerland
September
14 / Jazz
à la Villette - Grande Halle - Espace Charlie Parker /
Paris, France
September
15 / Auditorio
de Girona /
Girona, Spain
September
29 / MEMORIAL
TO MILES Targi Kielce Jazz Festiwal /
Kielce, Poland
October
10 - 11 / Ronnie
Scott's /
London, U.K.
October
12 / Théâtre
du Vésinet /
Le Vésinet, France
October
15 / Chapiteau
de la Pépinière /
Nancy, France
October
16 / Jazzclub
Fasching /
Stockholm, Sweden
October
17 / Tourcoing
Jazz Festival /
Tourcoing, France
October
18 / Jazz
en Tête /
Clermont-Ferrand
October
22 & 23 / Budapest
Jazz Club /
Budapest, Hungary
October
25 / International
Mugam Center /
Baku, Azerbaijan
October
27 / LantarenVenster /
Rotterdam, Netherlands
October
29 / Theater
Rüsselsheim /
Rüsselsheim, Germany
April
16, 2014 / Epcor
Centre for the Performing Arts /
Alberta, Canada
Comments