Kenny Garrett & Sounds From the Ancestors
(United Kingdom)
With his illustrious career that includes hallmark stints with Miles Davis, Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, as well as a heralded career as a solo artist that began more than 30 years ago, GRAMMY® Award-winning alto saxophone virtuoso Kenny Garrett is easily recognized as one of modern jazz’s brightest and most influential living masters.
Line up:
Kenny Garrett – saxophone
Plus band
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Travel party:
6 people
Available / On Tour:
July 2026
March, April, May 2027**
** except Italy and Spain! In conjunction with Nathan Horne and The Management Ark, USA.
Known for his muscular yet lyrical playing style, his music is a powerful blend of post-bop jazz traditions and modern influences, ranging from R&B and gospel to hip-hop and global rhythms. Often described as a „jazz ecstatic,“ Garrett is celebrated for his fiery, high-energy improvisations and his ability to reach transformative, trance-like climaxes through passionate repetition. Whether leading his quartet or drawing on his history with legends like Miles Davis and Art Blakey, his sound remains unmistakable: a sharp, cutting tone filled with soul and „sonic ingenuity“. And ore than any other artist in traditional jazz today, Kenny Garrett and his band are known to entice audiences to want to get up and groove.
With the marvelous album „Sounds from the Ancestors“ Kenny Garrett shows no signs of resting on his laurels. After release on August 27, 2021 via Mack Avenue Records, it immediately topped the iTunes Jazz chart! The album recalls the sounds of West African music and its role in Jazz, Gospel, Motown, Hip-Hop and more form an outstanding piece of music. After release on August 27, 2021 via Mack Avenue Records itimmediately topped the iTunes Jazz chart!
Sounds from the Ancestors, is a multi-faceted album. The music, however, doesn’t lodge inside the tight confines of the jazz idiom, which is not surprising considering the alto saxophonist and composer acknowledges the likes of Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye as significant touchstones. Similar to how Miles Davis’ seminal LP, On the Corner, subverted its main guiding lights – James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone – then crafted its own unique, polyrhythmic, groove-laden, improv-heavy universe, Sounds from the Ancestors occupies its own space with intellectual clarity, sonic ingenuity and emotional heft. “The concept initially was about trying to get some of the musical sounds that I remembered as a kid growing up – sounds that lift your spirit from people like John Coltrane, ‘A Love Supreme’; Aretha Franklin, ‘Amazing Grace’; Marvin Gaye, ‘What’s Going On’; and the spiritual side of the church,” Garrett explains. “When I started to think about them, I realized it was the spirit from my ancestors.” Indeed, Sounds from the Ancestors reflects the rich jazz, R&B, and gospel history of his hometown of Detroit. More important though, it also reverberates with a modern cosmopolitan vibrancy – notably the inclusion of music coming out of France, Cuba, Nigeria and Guadeloupe.
One of the most admired also saxophonists in Jazz after Charlie Parker.
The New York Times
The most important alto saxophonist of his generation.
Washington City Paper
