Fred Hersch, Gerorge Cables, Cecil McBee, Steve LaSpina, Tal Farlow, Larry Coryell, Herbie Hancock,, Steve Grossman, Jim McNeely. John Tchicai, Steve Swell, Roy Campbell, Khan Jamal, Borah Bergman, Curtis Clark, Benny Golson, Fred Hersch, Herbie Hancock, George Cables, Don Friedman, Cecil McBee, Billy Hart and many more.
Guitarist Garrison Fewell has pursued a unique pathway of creative musical evolution while touring the globe for forty years and receiving critical acclaim across a wide range of musical styles and disciplines. A multi-linguist, his experience performing in the U.S., Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America, Africa and Canada demonstrates his appreciation for the contributions of cultural diversity to modern jazz composition and performance.
In 1972 Fewell embarked on an extensive tour of Europe, the Middle East, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, performing with Afghan musicians in Herat and working as a disc jockey in Kabul. He returned to the U.S. in 1973, studied jazz guitar with Lenny Breau and Pat Martino and received a Bachelor's Degree in Performance from Berklee College of Music where he has been a Professor of Guitar and Ear Training since 1977.
Critics have called him “one of today’s most personal guitar players” (Boston Phoenix), “an assured stylist with a strong sense of tradition” (The New Yorker), “a player of virtuosity and swinging intensity” (UPI), and “refined, passionate, and inspiring” (Guitar Player). His diverse discography, beginning with 1993 Boston Music Award-winning “A Blue Deeper Than the Blue” (Accurate), counts multiple titles ranked on best of the year lists in publications such as Coda, Guitar Player, Musica Jazz, AllAboutJazz, The Wire, Montreal Gazette and his hometown Philadelphia Inquirer.
Fewell has released 13 recordings for Soul Note, Koch, Splasc(H), Boxholder, Accurate, Nu Bop and CNM Records with artists such as Fred Hersch, Gerorge Cables, Cecil McBee, Steve LaSpina and Jim McNeely. For the past decade, he has collaborated with renowned avant-garde musicians John Tchicai, Steve Swell, Roy Campbell, Khan Jamal, Borah Bergman and Curtis Clark.
”The guitarist formerly known as one of Boston's most eloquent inside players has become one of its leading experimenters,” writes Boston Phoenix's Jon Garelick, who included Fewell's large ensemble, the Variable Density Sound Orchestra, on his best of 2009 list. Founded in 2008, the VDSO balances both aspects of Fewell's musical personality by showcasing the melodic accessibility and sturdy framework of his compositions as well as the unbridled freedom of free improvisation.
Fewell has performed and recorded with his quartet at NYC's Blue Note and Birdland Jazz Clubs, and performed at international festivals such as Montreux, North Sea, Umbria, Clusone, Veneto Jazz, Copenhagen, Krakow, Budapest, and Cape Verde, Africa. His experience includes performances with Tal Farlow, Larry Coryell, Benny Golson, Fred Hersch, Herbie Hancock, George Cables, Don Friedman, Cecil McBee, Billy Hart, Steve Grossman, Jim McNeely, Hal Galper, Buster Williams, Cameron Brown, Steve LaSpina, Kenny Wheeler, Tim Hagans, Dusko Goykovich, Cecil Bridgewater, Billy Harper, Edward Simon, Xavier Davis, John Tchicai, Steve Swell, Roy Campbell, Jr., Khan Jamal, Borah Bergman, Curtis Clark, Norma Winstone, Jay Clayton, and Slide Hampton.
A renowned jazz educator, Fewell has taught at over fifty European Conservatories including Rotterdam, Maastricht, Amsterdam, Graz, Cologne, Leipzig, Warsaw, Krakow, the American School of Modern Music in Paris, and at McGill and Laval University in Canada, and conducted workshops for the International Association of Jazz Educators in New York City, Toronto, and the Montreux Jazz Festival. He taught at the Polish Jazz Society Summer Workshops, New York University, the New School at Veneto Jazz Festival, and teaches ear training and guitar for Global Music Foundation seminars across Europe.
Fewell is the author of four books on improvisation, Jazz Improvisation (Ninth World Music 1982), Jazz Improvisation for Guitar – A Melodic Approach (Hal Leonard 2005), Jazz Improvisation for Guitar – A Harmonic Approach (Hal Leonard 2010), “The Art of Harmony and Improvisation” (Carisch 2007) and is a contributor to Guitar Player, AllAboutJazz, and Axe magazines. He is the recipient of music grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Artslink, Arts International, USIA American Cultural Specialist and has been awarded the Davis Faculty Fellowship Grant from Berklee College.
Sadly Garrison has passed away on July 5th 2015 at the age of 61, it was an honour to have him in our family! R.I.P. Maestro!
photo: Rossetti©Phocus
