Monday, June 4, 2012

Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett is a 1978 graduate of Mackenzie High School, That same year he joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra then led by Duke's son, Mercer Ellington. Three years later he played in the Mel Lewis Orchestra, playing the music of Thad Jones, and also the Dannie Richmond Quartet, focusing on Charles Mingus's music. In 1984, he recorded his first album as a bandleader, Introducing Kenny Garrett, on the Criss Cross label. Kenny Garrett signed to the Warner Bros. Records label, and beginning with Black Hope, in 1992.. Among his notable recordings on Warner Bros. are Pursuance: The Music of John Coltrane and Songbook, his first album made up entirely of his own compositions, recorded in 1997 and nominated for a Grammy Award. Kenny Garrett has performed and recorded with many jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Brian Blade, Marcus Miller, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson, Ron Carter, Elvin Jones, and Mulgrew Miller, and now he returns to Washington DC for three nights of fun and musical enchantment.