Kenny Garrett draws on a rich history of music with Sounds From the Ancestors
The title track showcases Garrett’s love for Afro-Cuban jazz, and It’s Time to Come Home draws from Garrett’s experiences playing with iconic Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdés. Hargrove pays tribute to the late, great trumpeter and composer Roy Hargrove while also slyly referencing John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. When the Days Were Different channels Sounds of Blackness’s 1991 gospel classic Optimistic, and For Art’s Sake pays homage to drummers Art Blakey and Tony Allen.
For the recording of Sounds from the Ancestors, Garrett enlisted a core ensemble of musicians he has recorded and toured with in the recent past: pianist Vernell Brown, Jr., bassist Corcoran Holt, drummer Ronald Bruner and percussionist Rudy Bird.
The album also features guest appearances from drummer Lenny White, pianist and organist Johnny Mercier, trumpeter Maurice Brown, conguero Pedrito Martinez, batá percussionist Dreiser Durruthy and singers Dwight Trible, Jean Baylor, Linny Smith, Chris Ashley Anthony and Sheherazade Holman. On a couple of cuts, Garrett even plays the piano and sings.
Garrett’s career has included stints with Miles Davis, Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. The Grammy Award winner has been an acclaimed solo artist for more than 30 years, and he’s recognized as one of modern jazz’s most influential living masters.
Sounds From the Ancestors will be released Aug. 27 via Mack Avenue.