Aberdeen Jazz Festival has secured a major coup as Kenny Garrett, one of the world’s most distinctive saxophonists, brings his outstanding group to the city’s Blue Lamp venue on Wednesday, March 7 for an exclusive Scottish performance that will open this year’s festival in memorable style.

Best known for his five-year stint with the great Miles Davis, with whom he recorded the Grammy award-winning Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux album with Quincy Jones, the Detroit-born Garrett first came to prominence as a teenager with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1978, working under Ellington’s son, Mercer.

He went on to join the revered orchestra leader Mel Lewis and former Charles Mingus drummer Dannie Richmond’s group before releasing his first album under his own name, Introducing Kenny Garrett, in 1984, and becoming a member of Art Blakey’s famous Jazz Messengers in 1986.

Garrett starred in Miles Davis’s band from 1987 until the trumpeter’s death in 1991 and since then he has gone on to record and perform with leading jazz figures including Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson and Pat Metheny, more recently touring and recording with Chick Corea and John McLaughlin in the all-star Five Peace Band as well as enjoying major success in his own right. Songbook, Garrett’s first album entirely comprised of original compositions, was nominated for a Grammy in 1997 and in 2000 he scored a lasting hit with his Cannonball Adderley-inspired song Happy People.

Renowned for soul-stirring, gospel-fired performances that pay tribute to jazz legends while also focusing on his own strong musical personality and audience involving stage presence, Garrett will be accompanied in Aberdeen by his regular touring band, Benito Gonzalez (piano), Nat Reeves (bass) and James Williams (drums), for a Blue Lamp gig that’s sure to be talked about for years to come.

Wednesday 7th March, 8pm, The Blue Lamp. Tickets £30 from 0845 111 0302

Source: Jazz Scotland