Kenny Garrett is currently a premier, jazz musician of the present day-second generation. He is an alto-saxophone player who started playing at a young age. Garrett grew up as a young boy in the city of Detroit around jazz music since his father was an amateur saxophone player. It did not take very long for  a young Garrett to fall in love with jazz and the saxophone, despite the fact that his mother was a rhythm and blues fan. Kenny studied with one of Detroit's finest jazz teachers in trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, and before he could graduate from high school Garrett was already performing and touring with the Mercer Ellington Orchestra, with whom he consumed the sound of Cootie Williams for three and a half years. In 1980, Kenny Garrett moved to New York where he was able to apprentice with some of the finest musicians in the world of jazz. They included: the likes of trumpeters Woody Shaw and Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis and Art Blakey with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Charles Mingus's drummer, Dannie Richmond, with whom he played Charles Mingus's music, and he was able to play with the Mel Lewis's orchestra. Kenny also got some non-traditional experience by performing with Sting and Peter Gabriel, along with performing on Broadway in "Sophisicated Ladies." However, Kenny Garrett's biggest apprenticeship and honor was performing and working with Miles Davis for five years.
     After Miles Davis's death, Garrett used his experience that he has gained from playing with all these jazz gurus, to become the fine, leader that he is in the world of jazz today. Kenny Garrett has not been your traditional jazz artist who sticks only in the realm of jazz music. He has tried to bring jazz to new territories, such as working with the rapper Guru on his Jazzmatazz album which integrated jazz and rap. Some say that Garrett along with a few other current jazz superstars have possibly started a new jazz movement called the "New Emotionalists." Kenny has seemed to have found a way to keep the bop-era style and jazz fusion style alive by combining them in his current playing through his emphasis of the emotional drama of the blues and gospel. Perhaps the fact that he meditates for at least an hour every morning helps him emphasize these emotons in his music. Kenny Garrett believes the meditation helps him get inside of the music, and to stay focus on the music in order to keep the integrity of jazz alive.
     Kenny's strong leadership and talent, due to his understanding of the history and what the music is all about through his teachings from the jazz gurus, enabled him to start his own quartet which has been stable for a few years, now. Besides himself, it includes pianist Kenny Kirkland, bassist Nat Reeves, and drummer Jeff Watts. He released his first album with the quartet called Songbook in 1997, and recently just this year has released his second album with the quartet called Simply Said. Kenny Garrett may not get as much attention outside the jazz world that Kenny G gets, however, he is definitely an important contributer and leader in jazz music today. Therefore, perhaps he deserves some more attention outside the jazz world, where he is sometimes referred to as the "Real" Kenny G.