Healdsburg welcomes back Kenny Garrett

Healdsburg SHED, 25 North St.

Thursday, June 8. Two shows, 7 and 9 p.m. $65; pre-show dinner reservations available.

Grammy Award-winning American post-bop jazz saxophonist Kenny Garrett makes a rare small venue appearance with his quintet during the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, en route to the acclaimed Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles. This is Garrett’s first return to Healdsburg since his triumphant appearance in 2004, when he accompanied Roy Haynes at the Festival finale. In the intervening years, he’s only gotten better, and his legend has grown.

Garrett fronts a stellar quintet featuring rising stars Vernell Brown, Jr. on piano, Corcoran Holt on bass, Marcus Baylor on drums, and Rudy Bird on percussion. They will be playing the music from their latest recording Do Your Dance, a travelogue of rhythms from the melodic lilt of “Calypso Chant” and the soothing, Brazil-inspired “Bossa” to the summer barbecue spirit of “Backyard Groove” and “Philly.”

For the acclaimed saxophonist, the urge to dance is a natural outcome of the infectiously joyous music he makes. Offering up virtuoso playing for those who appreciate world-class improvisation, while stirring up rhythmic action that practically forces you to move and groove, Garrett and his band are out to stimulate a listener’s mind and body.  Garrett’s quintet usually plays large festivals, making this concert a very rare opportunity to hear this high-energy band in the very hip space of Healdsburg SHED’s “Grange.”

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A veteran of the bands of the legendary trumpeters Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw, Garrett established his undisputed reputation as one of his generation’s most scintillating saxophonists by the time he left his twenties. Leading his own ensembles for the past three decades, he has also performed and recorded with such jazz icons as Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea and Bobby Hutcherson. And he has collaborated with contemporary music giants Sting, Meshell Ndegeocello and Q-Tip, of A Tribe Called Quest.

“Records and concerts are about me taking people on the ride I want to take them on,“ Garrett exclaims. “It can be pretty ballads, some intensity, and then we can party! When they leave, I hope they feel like we took them on a journey.” So get ready to both experience some world class music making and to feel mighty good–when Garrett is in charge there’s no trade-off. Don’t miss this special chance to see a critics and audience favorite in the rare up close and personal setting that SHED is known for.

AnchorDinner at Healdsburg SHED

Sit down for a three-course prix-fixe menu from the kitchen of Chef Perry Hoffman before the show. The SHED Cafe’s fresh and local, ingredient-driven menu has been called “the most authentic and beautifully conceived restaurant in Sonoma County right now.” $60 dinner includes wines too!

Seatings every 15 minutes starting two hours before the shows. Check out the menu and make your reservation online now!