Kenny Garrett ['Pursuance' The Music Of John Coltrane]
Jazz discs are roughly represented by one disc a month in my Blog, this is a low amount, in Ebay i've made it a special plan to search through the under £5 discs in Jazz every day, this should yield some more exciting discs over the coming years, Kenny Garrett could well be my favourite Alto Saxophonist, his album Triology is tremendous, this is also a wonderful disc, a Quartet with Guitarist Pat Metheny, celebrating the music of John Coltrane, a good idea, it's good to build around a theme.
Kenny Garrett is an American Alto Saxophonist, he's now 51, and he recorded this disc back in 1996, the front cover shows Garrett sitting cross-legged on the floor, head bowed as if in prayer [photo by Andrew Eccles], you get a sense of the wide-angle lens employed, hands are bigger than his head, there looks an absence of colour, as the photo may well be black and white changed into brown and cream, but it's a great shot.
Some of these tracks are a little hard to get into, Garrett / Metheny have a tendency to create a vibe and a feeling, rather than actually play a tune, and it doesn't always work, the best tracks are the ones where they actually tackle a melody, and on this listen it's tracks 2-4, 7-8 & 10 that i found the best, and i just love track 4 'Dear Lord', it's one of the very best things that Coltrane ever composed, a simple melody deep down, quite unlike him i guess, Garrett plays the melody, while Metheny plucks away at accompaniment on Electric Guitar, Garrett doesn't throw in fancy ornamentation, just straight playing, it starts of as if Garrett's going to go into a rendition Cole Porter's 'Everytime We Say Goodbye', and the starts are certainly similar, but it subtlety changes into something even better, and with Drummer Brian Blade slapping down a nice lazy but creative beat, it's a joy to hear, Metheny gets in a solo [2:40-4:04], which he plays more complex than Garrett's effort, but yet still gentle and sweet, Garrett comes back in [4:04+] and plays a little more intensely and interesting, but still basically keeps to a sweet easy vibe, so simple really, Garrett-Metheny-Garrett, nearly 6 minutes long, but a gem of a creation, a beautiful tune.
Here's Kenny Garrett playing 'Dear Lord' on YouTube.
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