The foundation of the artistry of Gary Bartz is not a complex construct. It is simply a must be. He stands for the insistence that the music of Black America is respected and given the liberty it not only deserves but actually is. Ntu (pr. into) Troop is the name of the group he founded in 1969. The name is Bantu and describes the balances of being including life and death and time and space. Naturally, that is in stream with the elements that make art and music so representative of the soul of people and the people’s artists.
He was named a Jazz Master in 2024 by The National Endowment For the Arts. The former Kennedy Center Artistic Director forJazz was the pianist Jason Moran. Moran’s departure from the Center is sadly steeped in much social ugliness and discordancy. His words about Bartz are charged: “Gary Bartz’s saxophone has blazed trails with his dynamic phraseology and iconic tone for decades—he is representative for the truth in music.”
Representing truth in and through music is the ultimate expression of heart and soul.