‘Kenny Garrett is easily recognised as one of modern jazz’s brightest and most influential living masters’ (Vernon H Hammond, 2025). In Tom Harrells ‘Moon Alley’ Kenny Garrett takes a solo over 5 choruses, exploring various melodic, harmonic and rhythmic techniques. What makes Kenny Garrett stand out as ‘moderns jazz’s brightest…living master’ (Vernon H Hammond, 2025) is his strong influence, and experience of playing with other world renowned players such as: ‘Miles Davis, Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw and the Duke Ellington Orchestra’ (Vernon H Hammond, 2025). Playing with Miles Davis taught Garrett the importance of evoking emotion within the audience, Garrett explains in a podcast ‘He played one note. And when I heard this one note, that was always my quest. I wanted to find one note that would touch people. I wanted to play a note that even God would say, “That’s a beautiful note,” and so that’s what I was searching for.’ (Kenny Garrett, 2023). This influence is apparent from the first 5 bars where Garrett opens his solo with a long held note: the 5th, crescendoing through this, before enclosing it twice. This then becomes the 9th of Gm7. This is displayed below:
Further more, this use of chromatic approach tones and motivic sequencing rather than pure ‘lick chaining’ unlike early bebop players who string together idiomatic phrases, Kenny Garrett will develop a short idea, sequence it through the changes, rhymically displace it, showing organic post bop language.
While working with Miles, Garrett would share his music, to which Miles Davis would reply:
‘Kenny, you sound like you’re wearing Sonny Stitts dirty drawers’ (Kenny Garrett, 2023). We can hear how Kenny Garrett has been influenced by Sonny Stitt within this solo when outlining ii-V-I movements. Garrett clearly outlines 3rds and 7ths as well as locking into straight, even 8th note lines. This combined with his use of chromatic approach tones and enclosures suggest a clean, vertical harmony (as well as bebop language) with no ambiguity around the changes over a forward driving line. This is shown below:
Comparing Garretts solo to Tom Harrells on the same record highlights contrast within the same post-bop language. Kenny Garretts approach is much more harmonically dense, whereas Tom Harrell is significantly more lyrical and more focused on contour. For example, Harrell uses subtle and graded dynamics with an inward and controlled intensity, mostly coming from harmonic nuance and melodic contour. Harrell ‘sings’ rather than ‘preaches’ like Garrett. Garrett builds intensity through repetition, articulation changes, register climb, as well as his iconic gospel/John Coltrane influenced rhetoric. One of Kenny Garretts mentors, Pharoah Sanders, stated ‘You remind me of John Coltrane’. (David Fricke, 2024). One technique Garrett uses that is particularly reminiscent of Coltrane is his wide intervallic shapes, breaking out of scalar motion with use of fourths, and pentatonic cells, giving a more modern contour. This features toward the end of the solo:
This use of pentatonic superimposition and fourth based intervallic shapes observed in ‘Moon Alley’ is not isolated, but recurs prominently is Garretts ‘Sing a Song of Song’ (Songbook, 1997) where melodic construction frequently departs from scalar motion in favour of wider, more angular contours, reflecting clear following of John Coltranes post-1960s language. Garretts solo on ‘What is this thing called love’ (Standards Live, 1989) reflects a more ‘standard context yet still highlights anglular intervallic bursts into Bebop language combined with clear alternation between inside bebop and fourth based modern shapes. This also important as it relfects how strong Garretts modal/Coltrane lineage influence is compared to other players of the time who stayed closer to a straight ahead bebop revivalism. For example Wynton Marsalis on ‘Cherokee’ (Standard Time Vol.3): from the opening chorus Marsalis plays continuous 8th note lines with a strong outlining of tonic – ii – V movement, including chromatic approach tones into chord tones (usually 3rds/7ths). Marsalis’ lines resolve cleanly onto guide tones on strong beats, using scalar motion with bebop passing tones – especially on dominant chords. This harmony is completely explicit, with lines spelling the changes rather than just implying them. Rhythm is typically even and driving, not displaced. Garretts improvisation on ‘Moon Alley’ demonstrates a more flexible and developmental approach to the same bebop vocabulary. While Garrett also employs continuous 8th-note lines and retains a strong awareness of underlying harmony, his lines less frequently resolve squarely onto chord tones on metrically strong beats, instead resolutions are often delayed or displaced across the barline, wekaening the sense of harmonic arrival.
Further adding to this Gospel tone was Garretts Stepfather, who’s influences were ‘Stanley Turpentine, Maceo Parker, Joe Henderson’ (David Fricke, 2024). Personally, I believe you can hear the influence of Maceo Parkers precise articulations within Kenny Garretts solo on ‘Moon Alley’ specifically in the following bars:
As well as in this semi quaver passage:
To me, Garretts ability to play such rapid phrases yet accent specific parts within them is heavily reminiscent of Maceo Parkers abilities.
Another interesting approach to soloing that Kenny Garrett takes is within his interaction with the rhythm section. To me, Garrett is not just riding the time, but pushing against it. This tends to happen in the middle choruses. From the end of chorus 2, lines begin to start on the off beat (usually the & of 1 or 2), additionally they rarely resolve on beat 1, carrying momentum over the bar line. This results in a pushing feel due to the rhythm section maintaining a steady swing, while Garretts phrasing floats over it, creating tension as well as a strong shift away from his earlier, more grounded phrasing. To follow this, at the start of chorus 3, the use of long continuous lines with no cadential break, subtle groupings of 3s across 4 and accents falling in unexpected places. This results in the listener losing a strong sense of where ‘1’ is, and the line feels independent of the bar structure. Below is the start of chorus 3:
While Kenny Garrett played with Blakey he stated ‘With Blakey he says ‘I learned how to do a solo. You had like two choruses to tell your story. And the first one, you kind of punch it around a little bit. By the second one, you got to make a statement’ (R.J. DeLuke, 2021), this may be what influences Garrett to play with pushing rhythm in the later choruses. This was especially apparent to me when transcribing this solo due to phrases and speed becoming increasingly ramped up. My experience transcribing this solo has made me greatly appreciate the intricacies of Kenny Garretts solos, and his ability to improvise such technically ‘fiddly’ lines, and such chromatic passages where we can really hear how out of the box he is thinking, completely disregarding harmony at times. At times rather than spelling out the harmony it feels as if Garrett ‘stretches’ it so far, as to play around the tonal centre instead. He typically uses lines that imply different keys or triads on top of the harmony. This creates tension. The key is that he resolves it eventually, so it feels intentional rathe than random. Throughout this tonal uncertainty, Garrett is always thymically dominant over harmonic clarity, using assertive phrasing, strong motifs, repetitions and placement. This draws your ear to the rhythm and contour rather than chord tone accuracy, making harmonic ‘disregard’ seem like a stylish choice. Also, although he avoids landing on clear chord tones until later than expected, that delay builds tension and gives the impression he’s sidestepping the harmony. Garrett often prioritises intensity, timbre, and melodic shape over harmonic precision. In a tune like Moon Alley, which already has a looser harmonic environment, this approach feels natural. Overall, after transcribing this solo, these elements make me start to realise how deliberate his lines are even in the moments where he sounds as if he is blowing past the harmony. The shapes look awkward and have extremely wide intervallic leaps yet sit perfectly on the horn in a powerful idiomatic way. He’ll lay phrases slightly ahead or behind the beat forcing you to really lock into the time feel. As a player, you start to appreciate how hard it is to sound loose while being that precise.
Bibliography:
Kenny Garrett. (2025). Kenny Garrett | Jazz Saxophonist. [online] Available at: https://www.kennygarrett.com/. [Accessed 23 Apr. 2026]
National Endowment for the Arts. (2023). Kenny Garrett. [online] Available at: https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/kenny-garrett#transcript [Accessed 26 Apr. 2026].
Fricke, D. (2022). Kenny Garrett Reflects on Generations Past, Present, and Future with Sounds from the Ancestors. [online] JazzTimes. Available at: https://www.jazztimes.com/features/interviews/kenny-garrett-sounds-from-the-ancestors/?v=7885444af42e [Accessed 28 Apr. 2026].
DeLuke, R.J. (2021). Kenny Garrett: The Value of Ancestors. [online] All About Jazz. Available at: https://www.allaboutjazz.com/kenny-garrett-the-value-of-ancestors-kenny-garrett [Accessed 28 Apr. 2026].
