Kenny Garrett - Beyond The Wall (2006)

A trip to China may well have provided inspiration for Beyond the Wall, Kenny Garrett's first album for ever-expanding Nonesuch. But as has frequently been the case with the gifted alto saxophonist, the South Asian explorations of John Coltrane exert the strongest influence. With the still-formidable Coltrane disciple Pharoah Sanders featured on tenor saxophone and pianist Mulgrew Miller renewing his debt to Trane's superpowered foil, McCoy Tyner (to whom the CD is dedicated), the repeating modal patterns popularized by Coltrane are put to stirring use. Serving the master's spirituality in compellingly different ways--Garrett with his slashing attack, Sanders with his powerfully rooted sound--the saxophonists play off each other to sometimes thrilling effect. The album is nothing if not derivative: Its employment of wordless vocals recalls Donald Byrd's choir-enriched classics and, with the great Bobby Hutcherson featured on vibes, Return to Forever. But the music never flags, even on cuts running to 10 and 12 minutes, boosted by the limber, propulsive drumming of Brian Blade--who in his own way is a throwback to Coltrane's other legendary collaborator, Elvin Jones. -- Lloyd Sachs