The following is in no way an indictment of Kenny Garrett. And full disclaimer: I don’t know Mr. Garrett and have no way of verifying any connection between what follows. It’s merely an observation.
But if you’ve ever feared you have nothing original to say—as an improviser, composer, artist, author, etc.—this might embolden you.
Good artists copy; great artists steal.
— Steve Jobs via Pablo Picasso via Igor Stravinsky via T.S. Elliot
Exhibit A: Sing a Song of Song – Kenny Garrett (1997)
There’s a good chance you’re familiar with this. Personally, it’s one of my favorite songs on one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite artists.
But have you heard this?
Exhibit B: Y Todavia la Quiero – Joe Henderson (1980)
Notice anything?
Of course it’s not some blatant copy, but the overlap is undeniable. To me, it sounds like something I do all the time: hear something I love and try to find my own way of doing the same thing.
It’s OK to be influenced by your heroes. And it’s OK to emulate them.
Not everything you do should be a rip-off, but you don’t have to invent things the world has never heard the likes of, either. Famous composers borrow heavily all the time.
A big part of creation is combination.
You have a unique set of influences, and the way you combine and synthesize them is what leads to your creative voice.
When I discovered Joshua Redman’s music I wore out his first couple (and at that time only) CDs. An older musician advised me that if I wanted to understand Joshua’s playing, I needed to listen to the people who’d influenced him. Josh spoke often in interviews about Sonny Rollins’ influence, so I bought Sonny’s Saxophone Colossus and Tenor Madness. Low and behold, there was a lot of Josh in there (well, other way around).
Then I dug up interviews with Sonny and found out Coleman Hawkins was a major influence. You see where this is going, right?
If you approach music this way you’ll find each artist—each song, even—is the tip of a pyramid. It’s up to you how wide that pyramid gets at the bottom.
Everything is a remix.
http://vimeo.com/14912890
Yet another fine post you´ve given us(Laurel and Hardy allusion) ! Seriously, I look forward to these…
Thanks, Mark. 🙂
As ts eliot said: Immature poets imitate. Mature poets steal.
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Like you, I’ve spent a lot of time with “Songbook.” But, I did not know the Joe Henderson side – thanks for sharing!
I’m imagining your avatar pic as being taken the moment you heard the Joe Henderson clip. 😉
The Henderson’s track seems to have been an inspiration not only for jazz musicians. Koop, a swedish electronic duo sampled the bass intro from “Y Todavia la Quiero” in their track “Glömd”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awe1s11Ek1c
I just discovered this, hearing the Henderson’s track for the first time, and thought this factoid fits with the topic of this post 🙂
Well whadayaknow!? Nice find, Ron. Way to keep your ears open.
Thanks for sharing this! I first noticed that similarity back in 1997 when Songbook first came out, at the time I was really checking out The State Of The Tenor which has a live version of Y Ya La Quiero. Did you ever look at the brick wall behind Kenny on the back cover of Triology? If you look close enough, one of the bricks says “Sonny” and the other says “Joe.” And if you listen to Joe’s solo on the first track of Charlie Earland’s “Leaving This Planet,” it almost sounds like Kenny playing tenor! It’s pretty obvious that Joe had a deep, profound influence on Kenny!
Nice find, Ray!
Couple years late to this but……
I have a recording of Sing a Song from 1993 on album KG did with a group called the General Music Project (Gerri Allen, Charnet Moffet). The Songbook version blows this version out of the universe, but they are interesting to compare. The GM Project recording sounds like an early demo of the song. The Joe Hen vibe isn’t as present. I think on Songbook he really channels the essence of Joe Hen. It’s pretty cool to hear two studio versions and hear the growth of the song.