Kenny Garrett

For more than 40 years, GRAMMY Award-winning saxophonist, arranger, composer, and bandleader Kenny Garrett has garnered critical recognition for his versatility in Jazz, Blues, and R&B contexts. He began his career with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Mel Lewis Orchestra. In 1987, Garrett began working with Miles Davis as a member of Davis’s working group—a collaboration that lasted for five years.

With more than 20 recordings as a leader and 230 as a sideman, Garrett has performed and recorded with a multitude of musical icons, including Art Blakey, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Roy Haynes, Freddie Hubbard, Q-Tip, Pharoah Sanders, and McCoy Tyner. Garrett maintains a prolific touring and recording schedule with his own band, as well as the world’s most acclaimed jazz legends.

Garrett grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and his father played tenor saxophone. His early exposure to the instrument encouraged Garrett to pick up the horn and pursue a career in music. Throughout his solo career, Garrett’s music has varied stylistically from Jazz and Post-Bop to Soul, R&B, and Smooth Jazz to world music influences. Inspired by the spiritual Jazz of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, Garrett’s compositions often pay homage to his ancestors and mentors in Jazz but are rooted in contemporary sounds. For his latest album, Sounds From The Ancestors, Garrett explored his musical roots in Detroit, reflecting the city’s Soul, Jazz, Gospel, Funk, and Hip Hop musical forms, as well as West African and Afro Cuban traditions.

Garrett received the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters 2023 Fellowship – our nation’s highest distinction in Jazz. Other awards include 11 DownBeat magazine Readers Polls wins for alto saxophone; the 2022 NAACP Image Award and 2022 Jazz Music Award for Best Album. Additionally, Garrett holds an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Preview Garrett’s Sounds From The Ancestors as heard during NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert

Ticket Information

$65 – General Admission

$100 – VIP Seating (including a post-concert reception with Kenny Garrett and the band.  Food and beverages will be available and audience members can support the Kiwanis Club of Glen Ridge & Friends of the Glen Ridge Library with a silent auction).

Accessibility & Accommodation

If you or a member of your party needs assistance, please notify SOPAC at the time your tickets are purchased. Contact the SOPAC Box Office at (973) 313-2787 or boxoffice@SOPACnow.org.