Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett stands out as an American saxophonist, bandleader, and composer whose singular voice emerged from Detroit’s jazz circles during the 1980s and 1990s. Equally comfortable navigating classic jump-and-rhythm & blues, standards, modal forms, and jazz-funk, he secured his initial professional opportunity in 1978 with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, then relocated to New York to perform with the Thad Jones–Mel Lewis Orchestra. His first album as a leader, Introducing Kenny Garrett on Criss Cross, arrived in 1984. While spending five years in Miles Davis’s ensemble he issued the Atlantic recordings Prisoner of Love in 1989 and African Exchange Student in 1990. An eleven-year association with Warner Bros. yielded such widely praised projects as Black Hope in 1992, Pursuance: The Music of John Coltrane, and Happy People in 2002. After the 2006 Nonesuch release Beyond the Wall earned a Grammy nomination, he moved to Detroit’s Mack Avenue imprint for the live set Sketches of MD in 2008. Seeds From The Underground brought two Grammy nominations in 2012, while Pushing The World Away reached the top ten on the jazz albums chart the following year. In 2016 Do Your Dance paid homage to mentor Marcus Belgrave and surveyed an array of rhythmic approaches; 2021’s Sounds From the Ancestors traced the West African and Latin influences that shaped the jazz, gospel, soul, and hip-hop traditions central to his development. With 2024’s Who Killed AI? he collaborated with producer Svoy to investigate electronic textures.

Born and raised in Detroit, Garrett received his first saxophone at age eight; his father, a carpenter who also played tenor saxophone, guided him through the G scale. At McKenzie High School he studied with trumpeter Marcus Belgrave and appeared as a guest with Mercer Ellington’s band while also performing locally alongside organist Lyman Woodard. Members of the Ellington organization urged him to begin composing, and he soon started writing his own pieces. Additional early gigs paired him with Belgrave, pianist Geri Allen, and other Detroit players. Offered a scholarship to Berklee College of Music, he declined in favor of full membership in the Duke Ellington Orchestra, remaining for three-and-a-half years.

In 1982 Garrett settled in New York City and joined the Thad Jones–Mel Lewis Orchestra. He made his solo recording debut with 1984’s Introducing Kenny Garrett on Criss Cross and during that period also performed and recorded with Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, and Woody Shaw. In February 1987 Miles Davis watched a video of Garrett sitting in with Dizzy Gillespie, telephoned him the same evening, and invited him into his band; Garrett stayed through 1991. While with Davis he signed a solo contract with Atlantic and completed the two albums noted above. He joined Warner Bros. in 1992, where his debut Black Hope charted and drew strong critical notice. Subsequent Warner releases included Triology in 1995, Pursuance: The Music of John Coltrane in 1996, Songbook—his first album consisting entirely of original material—in 1997, Simply Said in 1999, the charting Happy People in 2002, and Standard of Language in 2003. On Nonesuch in 2006 he issued the Grammy-nominated Beyond the Wall, which explored East Asian musical traditions through modal jazz.

Two years later he returned to Mack Avenue with Sketches of MD, recorded live at Iridium in New York. In addition to leading his own groups, Garrett participated in the Five Peace Band alongside keyboardist Chick Corea, guitarist John McLaughlin, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta; their 2009 Concord live album won the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album in January 2010. Seeds From The Underground, his second Mack Avenue release, appeared in 2012 and featured bassist Nat Reeves, Venezuelan pianist Benito Gonzalez, and drummer Ronald Bruner Jr. The album earned Grammy nominations in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo categories, an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Jazz Album, a Soul Train nomination for Best Traditional Jazz Artist/Group, a Jazz Awards nomination for Alto Saxophonist of the Year, and an Echo Award for Saxophonist of the Year. Pushing The World Away followed in 2013, presenting an alternating cast that included strings and mixing original pieces with a cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “I Say a Little Prayer”; it reached number six on the jazz chart and collected two further Grammy nominations, including Best Jazz Instrumental Album. Do Your Dance! arrived in 2016, a stylistically broad collection of originals and covers that examined dance-oriented rhythms spanning hip-hop, funk, Latin, and Brazilian idioms.

Garrett returned to Mack Avenue in 2021 for Sounds From the Ancestors. His core quintet—pianist Vernell Brown, Jr., bassist Corcoran Holt, drummer Ronald Bruner, and percussionist Rudy Bird—was augmented by guests including drummer Lenny White, pianist/organist Johnny Mercier, conguero Pedrito Martinez, and vocalists Dwight Trible and Jean Baylor. The project traced his musical lineage through Motown soul, jazz, gospel, funk, and hip-hop back to their shared foundations in West African and Afro-Cuban music. In 2024 he released Who Killed AI?, his first entirely electronic album, in partnership with electronic producer and instrumentalist Svoy.