Kenny Garrett

Best Jazz Experience Ive ever had!!!!!!! Highly recommend!!!!!

Kenny Garett and his group are tremendously skilled and creative musicians. The music was original and entertaining. 5 stars for the musicians. The sound system was terrible. Solos were often under amplified relative to the accompaniments. Sometime the appropriate microphones were not even turned on and parts of the music were completely missing. No stars for the sound crew.

Songs were too long and seemed to simply wonder. Group played for more than an hour before Garrett spoke to the audience. For a program of 1 hour and 45 minutes, there should have been an intermission. I think Garrett didn't take an intermission because he felt, rightly so, that much of the audience would leave. The final number went on and on, with multiple implied endings, at which time Garrett was begging the audience for applause. When it seemed like it was finally over, Garrett would continue playing. This went on for at least 7-8 times with Garrett continually motioning for applause. I felt as though I was being held hostage.

Love smooth jazz & and normally like Kenny Garrett's music. He's a brilliant musician, as are the members of his quintet. I'm not sure if it was a new direction for his latest music or not, but there wasn't much of a melodic component to most of his songs at this concert. The songs were overly long - you found yourself wishing they would just end already. Some of the music sounded more like noise- a jam session of separate instruments playing together, but nothing unifying them. Kenny Garrett did not have much of a stage presence either- the few times he addressed the audience was with hand gestures or while barely audible with the music played over him. Towards the end, there were a couple of good songs, but overall was rather disappointed with this concert. Great musicians in their own right, some solos were awesome- just didn't seem like their music meshed.

Saw him in Boston at the Regattabar, and he absolutely blew me away. I wish I knew the name of his personnel asides Nat Reeves, but his pianist (I want to say Patito Gonzalez) and drummer... just the whole quartet was immaculate. They played about 6 tunes, and there was never a dull moment. Kenny didn't even play his more well known tunes (Sing a song, anything from Beyond the Wall, etc) but they still tore the music apart. The band even stayed around afterwards, and they are so humble and nice to talk to. My only complaint was that there was no encore. But you know what, the quality of musicianship was so good I was happy I got to experience what I did anyways. Unbelievable!