This is Kenny Garrett’s fifth album in 13 years for the Mack Avenue label, which has presented us with some of the most vital contemporary music for a long time now.
The saxophonist leads his ever-present band of Brown, Holt, Bruner and Bird through these eight tracks – five of which are augmented with a mixture of percussionists, voices, a trumpeter and an extra keyboard player. These additions are mainly used as extra colour.
Garrett is fairly subdued on the first couple of tunes (all composed by himself) which promise more than they deliver, so we have to wait until the gospel-flavoured When The Days Were Different for normality to be restored as the leader gets a chance to do a little preaching.
Three of the pieces have an Afro-Cuban feel about them and What Was That? falls into that category, adorned by some expansive alto playing and percussive piano, a rhythmic contrast to the succeeding Soldiers Of The Fields, supported by an undertow of 21st-century “parade ground” drums, acting as a cushion for a relentless Garrett who incorporates high-register squeals and lower register rasps in his solo. The second version of It’s Time To Come Home says little more than the initial version, the only change being the absence of vocals.
We have come to expect the highest of standards from Kenny Garrett, who for the most of this album delivers again.
Discography
It’s Time To Come Home; (2) Hargrove; When The Days Were Different; For Art’s Sake; What Was That?; Soldiers Of The Fields/Soldats Des Champs; Sounds From The Ancestors; It’s Time To Come Home (Original) (67.40)
Collectively: Garrett (as, v, elp, p); Vernell Brown Jr. (p); Corcoran Holt (b); Ronald Bruner (d); Rudy Bird (pc); Jean Baylor, Dreiser Durruthy, Linny Smith, Chris Ashley Anthony, Sheherazade Holman, Dwight Trible (v); Pedrito Martinez (v, cga); Maurice Brown (t); Johnny Mercier (p, org, elp). New Jersey, no dates given.
Mack Avenue MAC1180
