eMusic Review 0
It is good to have Kenny Garrett back so firmly in the driver’s seat. Coming on the heels of Seeds From The Underground from 2012, Pushing The World Away marks the first time in a decade that Garrett has released albums under his own name in consecutive years. It’s a wide-ranging collection, with multiple flavors, variously featuring three different drummers, two pianists, a percussionist, a guest trumpeter and a chamber string section, with Garrett departing from his alto sax for soprano on one tune and piano on another. And yet the package coheres through the energetic flair that is Garrett’s signature virtue as both player and composer. Thus, all three timekeepers mostly push and punish the beat, and where, among the pianists, Vernell Brown prefers cantering runs a la McCoy Tyner while Benito Gonzalez is more oriented to Latin jazz, they are specifically accommodated by Garrett’s compositions.
The lone non-Garrett original among the dozen songs is Burt Bacharach’s “I Say A Little Prayer,” performed with a little more church reverence and south-of-the-border lilt than the Dionne Warwick hit. As on Seeds, there are a bevy of tribute tunes, including “A Side Order of Hijiki” for the late Mulgrew Miller (keyed… read more »
