Carlos Garnett

Panamanian-born jazz saxophonist Carlos Garnett was a gifted soloist, composer, and bandleader. He is best known for appearing on Miles Davis' 1972's classic On the Corner. He also released five influential, oft-sampled jazz-funk classics for Muse during the '70s: Journey to Enlightenment and Black Love (1974), Let This Melody Ring On (1975), Cosmo Nucleus (1976), and New Love (1978). They showcased Garnett's spiritual approach to, and transformation of, jazz-funk. He spent a decade away from music and returned to Muse for 1996's acoustic Resurgence, followed by Fuego en Mi Alma a year later. His quintet issued the straight-ahead Under Nubian Skies in 1999. His final studio album to appear under his own name was 2001's illustrious, self-produced Moon Shadow. The U.K.'s Soul Brother label has reissued his '70s Muse dates. Garnett was born in Panama in 1938. He became interested in jazz as a preteen after hearing the music of Louis Jordan and James Moody in various films. The more he heard, the more his inspiration grew. He taught himself to play saxophone as a teen. His first musical companions were American soldiers from a nearby base. In 1957, he began playing gigs with various Latin and calypso groups and backing up singers in Panama. He moved to New York in 1962, but due to a lack of confidence in his abilities, he didn't seek work in Manhattan. Instead, he spent his time gaining experience by playing with Latin, R&B, rock, and jazz groups in Brooklyn and Queens. The saxophonist became singer Leo Price's (Lloyd's brother) musical director. Garnett realized he had to up his reading and arranging chops and taught himself music theory. On a Sunday night in 1968, Freddie Hubbard heard Garnett's band play at Brooklyn's Blue Coronet. Impressed, he offered the saxophonist a gig with him -- the next night -- in Philadelphia. The saxophonist, realizing he was finally good enough, began hanging in Manhattan and sitting in. He made his recording debut with Hubbard on 1969's A Soul Experiment and contributed two tunes. While with Hubbard, the saxophonist also played on pianist Andrew Hill's Blue Note offering Lift Every Voice. Trumpeter Woody Shaw introduced him to Art Blakey in 1969. Hired by the drummer, he toured the world with the Jazz Messengers, though his only recording with them was Jazz Messengers '70. Also in 1970, Garnett, Shaw, bassist Cecil McBee, and pianist Harold Mabern backed Detroit super drummer Roy Brooks in a now-legendary gig at Baltimore's jazz room the Famous Ballroom. The show was professionally taped but remained unreleased until 2021 as Understanding. In 1971 Garnett, fellow saxophonist Bob Berg, drummer Norman Connors, and bassist Stafford James all appeared on pianist Kenny Gill's lone album, What Was, What Is, What Will Be, for Warner Bros. He also worked live with Charles Mingus and on the bandstand and in the studio with Pharoah Sanders. Garnett appeared on the great tenor's Live at the East (1971) and the studio offering Black Unity (1972). Miles Davis had been listening to Garnett's playing and caught him live in New York. He hired the saxophonist for his road band. Garnett's appearances with Davis' group are documented on several collections including In Concert: Live at Philharmonic Hall, Big Fun, and Get Up with It. Most importantly, however, was his appearance alongside saxophonist David Liebman and bass clarinetist Bennie Maupin in the horn section that appeared with the trumpeter on his 1972 studio date On the Corner. Though the album was soundly slagged by jazz critics, it has since become regarded as one of Davis' most influential recordings. Between 1972 and 1976, the saxophonist was a member of drummer/composer/arranger Norman Connors' ever-evolving band and played on LPs like Dance of Magic (1972), Dark of Light (1972), Love from the Sun (1974), Slewfoot (1975), and 1976's Saturday Night Special. All are considered visionary for blurring genre lines between jazz, breezy funk, and cosmic soul, and for getting massive radio airplay. Garnett also appeared with fellow Davis alum James Mtume's Mtume Umoja Ensemble on Alkebu-Lan-Land of the Blacks (Live at the East). In 1974, Garnett recorded and released Journey to Enlightenment, his debut long-player for Muse. Leading a septet that included pianist/keyboardist Hubert Eaves, bassist Anthony Jackson, and guitarist Reggie Lucas (another Davis bandmate), Garnett gathered the lessons he'd learned from the bandleaders he'd worked for. Three of the set's five cuts feature vocalist Ayodele Jenkins singing lead, adding gospel to the mix of soul and jazz. That year, Garnett also recorded Black Love, a spiritual soul and jazz classic that included lead vocals on every track by Jenkins or a young Dee Dee Bridgewater. The band also included drummers Connors and Billy Hart, flutist and fellow Panamanian Mauricio Smith, percussionist Mtume, trumpeter Charles Sullivan, pianist Onaje Allan Gumbs, and alternating drummers Alex Blake and Buster Williams. Co-produced with Joe Fields, the set didn't chart but proved influential among musicians -- including Tribe Records founders Wendell Harrison and Phil Ranelin. Garnett's band were road warriors. They played their own gigs on the East Coast and opened for many soul and jazz musicians on the road including Earth Wind & Fire and Herbie Hancock. Let This Melody Ring On was recorded and released in 1975. Garnett expanded his lineup to include a string quartet, and Olu Dara in the trumpet chair. The album resonated with experimental strings on "Good Shepherd" and balanced street funk with Latin rhythms and sophisticated horn charts on "Samba Serenade." For 1976's Cosmos Nucleus, he hired a big band. The charts were deeply influenced by Oliver Nelson and Creed Taylor. Funkier than any big-band record of that time (with the exception of Germany's Peter Herbolzheimer's), the set wove hard bop, R&B, and cinematic funk into every track. Its most enduring number, "Mystery of Ages," juxtaposes uptempo jazz-funk, a soulful vocal from Mary Alexander, and unrelenting energy. Garnett's final album for Muse during the '70s, New Love, was recorded and released in 1977. Its musicians included trumpeter Terumasa Hino, pianist Joe Bonner, drummer Alphonse Mouzon, bassist John Lee, and guitarist Otis McClary. Among the set's six tracks were the fusion standard "Aunt Ben and Uncle Jemma" and the hard-driving Panamanian jazz-funk choogler "Bolerock." It would be Garnett's last album for two decades. Garnett got depressed seeing his peers signing big record deals and making lots of money, while his records -- due to Muse's limited promotional budget -- suffered in the marketplace. His casual drug use accelerated and, by 1979 he'd become an addict. He underwent a spiritual awakening in 1982 and got sober. He stayed away from music for nearly a decade. His one explanation was that he felt the horn had become his God. He put it down and spent his time studying scriptures to get his life back into balance. Bassist Brad Jones had a heartfelt conversation with Garnett in 1990 and asserted that perhaps his God gave the saxophonist a musical gift to provide joy, peace, and spiritual reflection to others. Garnett listened. He modeled a new quartet on John Coltrane's great '60s groups that included Jones, pianist Carlton Holmes, and drummer Shingo Okudaira. They began playing shows in 1991 and toured the globe several times. Garnett returned with 1996's Resurgence for Muse. With the exception of Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" and Mal Waldron's "Soul Eyes," Garnett composed and arranged the remaining six tracks. It was his first album featuring all-acoustic instruments sans vocals. The quartet's rhythm section alternated Jones and Okudaira with bassist Steve Neil and drummer Taru Alexander. Musically, it was easily situated between the albums of Sanders and saxophonist Azar Lawrence. Following a tour, Garnett signed with HighNote, took his quartet right back into the studio, and cut the scorching Fuego en Mi Alma, one of his finest outings. The quartet was appended only by percussionist Neil Clarke on two cuts. Once more, it included six stellar compositions by Garnett, one by Holmes, and a cover of Hubbard's "Little Sunflower." The album was greeted with critical acclaim, with writers often marveling that, after a decade away, Garnett's playing, writing, and arranging were stronger than ever. The band toured the U.S. and played the European and Asian festival circuits. The saxophonist's second date for HighNote was 1999's Under Nubian Skies, with his quartet and guest trumpeter Russell Gunn; once more, the jazz press ate it up, and Garnett's Muse dates were being rediscovered by crate diggers. In 2000, Garnett returned to live in Panama. He spent almost all his time teaching in various schools and universities and performing live with a regional quartet. The final album he released under his own name was 2001's Moon Shadow for Savant. Jones had left the quartet and was replaced by George Mitchell. Garnett enlisted a three-piece horn section as well. He composed only three of the set's nine tunes -- including the amazing "McCoy Next Block" -- but delivered fine readings of Coltrane's "Giant Steps" (plus a killer homage to him with "My Favorite Things"), Luiz Bonfa's Brazilian standard "Manha De Carnaval," Johnny Mercer's "The Shadow of Your Smile," and Oscar Hammerstein's "Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise." In 2003, he appeared in a headline slot at the first annual Panamanian Jazz Festival. He made his final appearance in 2012 at a tribute in his honor put together by pianist and guest programmer Danilo Perez. Garnett's Muse catalog has seen several reissues. Black Love was first and appeared in 1996 and again in 1999 from SME, along with the reissue of Journey to Enlightenment. In 2014, the U.K.'s Soul Brother label licensed his first five Muse albums and reissued them in beautiful editions. In April of 2015, the label compiled and released Mystery of Ages: Anthology, from his best-known and most sampled Muse tracks. That same year, Garnett sat in with the Aisa Jazz Trio in a Panama City club. He played three tunes with them including his last published composition, "Shekinah's Smile," composed for his daughter. Garnett died on March 3, 2023, in Panama City. He was 84.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo