Unbelievable ever heard ? Yes ! and in my days I have heard most of them:
A Stan Getz Quartet, Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, Ben Webster, Cannonball Adderly, Paul Desmond, Charly Parker and so many more, too many to list them all here.
Talk about "Energy" ! Nobody comes close to Kenny Garrett: Not Stan Kenton in his heydays, not Count Basie's Big Band, not even the Jazz Messengers.
The Kenny Garrett Quintet started playing at 9 O'Clock sharp and played at the highest level of intensity until almost 11PM interrupting only long enough to catch their breath between numbers, not even waiting for the applause to abate.
Half way through, Garrett stopped long enough to introduce the members of his Combo:
Vernell Brown, - Acoustic Piano
Corcoron Holt - Acoustic Bass
Marcus Baylor - Drums
Rudy Bird - Percussion
sand himself: Kenny Garrett - Alto and Soprano Saxophones.
and back again into a 45 minute uninterrupted session of brilliantly played Ballad-style melodies.
Even those he offered with an intensity only demonstrable by a 'young' Genius.
I have never heard a Bass player with the musical sensitivity and mechanical dexterity as great as Mr. Holt.
And, I have heard, if not all, then many of them. I will not show off again by mentioning their names.
Marcus Baylor on Drums must be heard and seen in order to believe this Genius of Rhythm...
and, yes, I have heard and seen many of them too.
With Oscar Peterson as his idol, Mr. Brown can play up a storm which leaves you gaping....
Rudy Bird, commanding a multitude of rhythm instruments displays imagination and style which simply draws you to him. Even from the stage to the last row of the audience (where I sat ) he radiates an attractive personality and a mastery of his many percussion instruments.
Last, but surely not Least comes Mr. Garrett. If ever the expression: "must be heard to be believed" had value, it has value in spades when applied to Kenny Garrett.
Unbelievable Group ever seen?
Yes this too: At a time when musicians seem to vie with each other as to who is more sloppily dressed, Who has the filthiest T-shirt, whose blue jeans are more ripped, here comes The Kenny Garrett group: Mr. Garrett himself in an elegantly tailored medium-dark brown suit, elegant, open neck grey shirt and colour co-ordinated cap, The drummer having taken off his jacket plays in a blue shirt and bow-tie. Vernell Brown wears a pin striped blue suit, and so on...
In this way, the group, in my opinion shows respect for the audience as well as for themselves.
So here you have it: I you did not hear this group yesterday or any other time: Shame on You.
3 comments:
Sounds amazing - I looked him up and he certainly has the street credibility too - he was a member of both the Duke Ellington Orch and the Miles Davis band. He's a Grammy winner and has recorded with the likes of Chick Corea and Woody Shaw - the real question is did their bus break down on their way to Vienna and they needed to make some money to get it fixed? How does Bleiburg score so big?
What a question ! How does Bleiburg score so big ?
Bleibuzrg, with fewer than 6000 inhabitants is the "Cultural Capital of Carinthia".
It boasts an organisation called: C.I.B. ( Cultural Initiatoive Bleiburg ) which in turn is lead by some very energetic and enthusiastic people, who over the years have established connections about which a Toronto music enterpreneur would be proud.
We have a Museum-Art Gallery, featuring primarily the Art of Werner Berg, but each year also the Art of several selected Painters and Sculpturers, internationally known.
This "Werner berg Gallery" has for next year done an exchnge with one of the best known Art Galleries of Berlin.
Where do they get the money from ? They put on a "Fasching Schau" (Carnival Show) which is done by mostly local actors-comedians, attracting to 12 performances people from all over Caringthia and some from even further away.
All the money raised goes to pay for acts like Kednny Garret and musicians like him.
So here you have it.
Bleiburg and New York.... the Cultural Capitals of the World !:-)
In re-reading my above entry, I notice that I made more typos than you can shake a stick at. So I have the choice of deleting the entry and type it anew, or to just forget about it.
I chose the latter.
So there ...
Bert
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