Kenny Garrett
London
Jazz-improv purists often wince if anybody refers to a performance as something so premeditated as an "act". Alto saxist Kenny Garrett certainly has an act, but it's one that doesn't compromise his jazz edge and Coltrane-powered soulfulness in the least. With last year's Beyond The Wall album, Garrett confirmed his enduring class, and his 2006 performance at Ronnie Scott's pursued his regular policy of hosing the audience with scalding Coltranesque free jazz at the outset and getting steadily funkier as the show goes on. Garrett has built album successes on anthemic songlike melodies, and his chanting, vocal-toned, dancefloor groover Happy People was a tune that Eddie Harris or Grover Washington might have been proud of. But he's just as likely to turn then to a meditative medley of Japanese and Korean folk-songs that will hold a room in complete silence.
· Ronnie Scott's, W1, Thu 12 to Apr 14
