As far as jazz music goes, the status of living master couldn’t be more apparent in any musician than it is in Kenny Garrett. The 53-year-old saxophonist has reached the echelon of his mentors: Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Elvin Jones. For the most recent generation of saxophonists, he is almost as influential as Charlie Parker. The role of a jazz master is a tenuous one, however. There is no retirement in music. If an artist is able to live to experience their success, they can’t simply give up on their work. Exploration continues. Virtuosity gets pushed further.

Garrett is an artist who continues to develop his unique voice, moving beyond the state of mastery as he continues to tour with his working band (which regularly featuring at least two members with roots in the DMV).

 
CapitalBop got a chance to speak with Kenny Garrett ahead of his performances this weekend at Blues Alley. We are also giving away two tickets to his Sunday-night show

CapitalBop: Firstly, it seems that you love D.C. musicians! What is it about musicians from this area that you gravitate toward?

Kenny Garrett: I don’t really think about where they’re from so much, as what they can offer to the band. It just happens to work out that way, that there have been a lot of musicians from the D.C./Baltimore area who have been playing in the band. I don’t think about where they’re from…. For the musicians who actually play with me, [bassist] Cororan Holt, who will be with me this weekend, I actually met him at Blues Alley when he was still in school. I remember seeing him and asking if he knew my music. Through mutual friends, his name kept showing up, and he ended up playing in the band. [Drummer] McClenty Hunter is another one who is from the Baltimore area and went to Howard University. Kinda the same thing: came through some mutual friends. Actually the first time he heard the band was also at Blues Alley.

CB: In your career, you have achieved the level of mastery which very few reach. Do you consider yourself in that light?

KG: There was a legendary saxophonist by the name of Johnny Griffin who told me one day that when I got into the 50-cent club, then I would be a living legend. I never understood what he was saying, but I think what happens is, it becomes a responsibility. I’ve been around for three decades now, and when you get to that, people start to recognize that you have something to offer to the music. I think from that perspective I continue to try to grow as a musician and grow as a person, and musically I try to keep challenging myself. For me, that’s the way I heard it in Detroit. The music I play now is because I heard this music somewhere. That’s the way they were playing it, and that’s the way I try to play it because that’s the only way I know.

So I just try to keep it going that way and I’ve been fortunate. I’ve played with a lot of great musicians, and by the same token, I have younger musicians that I try to mentor and make sure they can be able to follow up on some of these concepts and build their concepts and philosophies about the music.

CB: It seems that this responsibility you speak of doesn’t really come into play that much until you reach the level of mastery and influence where you now have to begin to consider the responsibility of being a “master” and “mentor,” and are recognized worldwide as a keeper and forebear of the music. There have been comparisons of yourself with masters like John Coltrane. What is this responsibility?

KG: Firstly, there is only one John Coltrane, but the spirit of his music is what I try to keep living. That’s the way I heard it. When you first are just learning, you never know what status you will get to. But you realize that the musicians who are forefathers were actually older musicians when they actually came to this certain level – we’ll call it “mastery.” I think for me, I just realized that it’s important, as some of the elder musicians who are heroes of mine are getting to the age where they are retiring or aren’t healthy. You start to realize that you have a responsibility to carry this music on. I think you don’t really recognize that when you are first coming up, because you are just trying to learn how to play the music.

I think that since I’ve been out long enough, I realize that I have a responsibility to make sure the guys who are playing with me understand my concept about music, and hopefully that passes on. It’s a little different now that a lot of musicians are coming from universities; that approach to music is a little different from how I understand it. So my responsibility is just to make sure that I can pass on whatever I can pass on to the people around me and to people who want to listen.

CB: How did you develop your concept and most especially your perspecitve?

KG: I think the development started with my first heroes of the music, Grover Washington Jr. and Hank Crawford, and Cannonball Adderley. Coming from Detroit, I started to hear certain music that I would gravitate toward. As I started to get more experienced with different people like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Shaw, and Freddie Hubbard – a whole list of people – I started to think about how I was hearing music. I would listen to whatever is available. Listening to current music and hip-hop, then going to different countries and studying their music. I think there was a connection I was looking for. So one thing that helped me to develop was the elder musicians helped me find myself, and I always made sure to have elders on my records. When I first came out it was Woody Shaw, then it was Ron Carter and Elvin Jones and Joe Henderson. I always had elders around to make sure I was developing the right way. At least, if it wasn’t right, they would pull my coat to what wasn’t working. So that helped me to get to the place where I am now, listening to the elders and while keeping a pulse on the music of today.

CB: So what is the right way? Can you explain the delicate balance between jazz being a traditional art form in looking toward the elders for guidance, versus finding your own voice and forging your own original path in the music?

KG: I don’t think there is a right way or a wrong way, but I think you have to have a foundation. The way I did it was the way it worked out, but I feel I have a foundation because I always was looking towards that as a point of reference. Is it different now? Maybe it is. I always like to look at Thelonious Monk. He had a way of playing the piano which wasn’t supposedly the right way, but it worked for him. Some people might say that what Coltrane did is a little different. He changed the way musicians played, but that worked for him. I don’t know if there is a right way or a wrong way, but I think this is just the way it has worked for me and its gotten me to this place. I do think that a person has to have a foundation. If you have a foundation, at least you have a house you are building off and if you decide to experiment, at least you hear the root of it.

CB: Then what is the right foundation?

KG: If you wanna play jazz, you have to study the music. The bebop, the ragtime, you have to study all those styles. You don’t have to stay there forever, but you have to study them and at least get a foundation, and you’ll know when you have a foundation. Because everything is coming from that energy. If you listen to my music, you will hear the root of Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Freddie Hubbard, because that’s what I came through. There’s a connection to that. Even if I’m moving ahead and trying different things, you’ll always hear the root of it.

CB: How do you see your music surviving and thriving in 2013? You’ve touched on the effects of many musicians, and as a result many listeners, being university-trained in jazz, having an academic perspective on the music. How do you see your music surviving and thriving in this atmosphere?

KG: I see it thriving well because they can hear the root of it. There’s the older generation of musicians who hear the root and hear that I’m trying different things. And I’m listening to everything, listening to what people are doing today. Some of it I’ve tried before. I’ve listened to Robert Glasper, I think he’s doing what he’s supposed to do. Once you have that foundation, you have to move and try to find things. I did a record where I did something called “Back Where You Started,” where I was trying to mix hip-hop with jazz, but to me I didn’t really do it at his level, but that was the intent. A lot of times I think what musicians try to do is to bridge this gap of having a tradition and being current. Because everybody wants people to know who they are and to hear their music, and I think Robert’s been successful with that.

Folks understand the music because it has a mixture of jazz and hip-hop and neo-soul. He has a root in there. There’s a foundation in there. Now how far do you expand? A lot of his relationships have been with people like Bilal and Lalah Hathaway, and his relationships allow him to come in with those people. I think that’s the root I’m talking about. Some people might want you to play more bebop, or ragtime, or whatever they hear.

I think at some point you have to decide what works for you. I think everybody has a different way of making the music work. And we all are variable in this music. So we need Robert Glasper. We need Kenny Garrett. We need Wynton Marsalis. We need all kinds of people participating for a person to hear something that resonates with them. And we don’t all do it the same, but we all need a foundation to work from.

CB: Could you briefly talk about the members of the band you’re bringing to Blues Alley?

KG: I’m bringing McClenty Hunter, who is from the Baltimore area. He’s been playing with me for a minute, and he’s on the CD I just recorded. Bringing Corcoran Holt, who is from the D.C. area, and he’s been playing with me for a while too. Bringing Jamel Brown, who’s playing piano; he’s been playing with me for a while too. All the guys who play with me want to come back home and get some of this music. Also, Rudy Bird is playing percussion. We always have fun in D.C. We come to play because people want to hear the music.

CB: Do you see a difference in DC’s audience compared to other places you play?

KG: I think D.C., Oakland, Detroit, Cleveland, they just want to hear you play. They want to feel your energy. When we come, we know they want to hear it. Especially when you have guys from the area, they have something to prove anyway. So it’s always exciting to have these cats in there, and to come back home and have people come out and support.

Comments

comments