Kenny Garrett [Standard Of Language]Kenny Garrett will hit the big 5-0 later this year, happy half century Kenny!, i bought this disc a while back [probably 2006, second hand Camden Town for £3!], and initially i have felt it was one of his average albums, but on this listen i have started to fall in love with a few tracks, it's a slow burner of an album.
I really liked tracks 2-4, i suppose i liked track 2 the best 'Kurita Sensei', it has that incredibly funky feel about it, especially the rhythm at the beginning, it starts off with the piano stamping out the chords, and the drums [Chris Dave] with this funky drive [0:00-0:17], i love the tic tic, toc toc beat to it, the sax comes in with this funky as hell theme [0:18-0:49], it doesn't unfold as it logically should!, but instead it gets truncated at the end, and starts to tease in unexpected ways, the sax and piano [Vernell Brown] both get solos, and then the sax theme comes back in superbly with the opening tune [4:04-4:20], but the whole thing comes to an abrupt halt in a surprise ending.
Here's Kenny Garrett playing 'Native Tongue' live on YouTube, sadly it misses the lovely opening theme at the beginning and the end!, hmmm.
Interview = Richard Anderson.
