Donald Garrett

Donald Rafael Garrett (February 28, 1932, El Dorado, Arkansas - August 14, 1989, Champaign, Illinois) was an American jazz double-bassist and bass clarinetist.

Garrett was a multi-instrumentalist, and in addition to bass and clarinet could play other reed instruments and flute. had moved to Chicago by 1960, where he played regularly with Ira Sullivan from 1960 to 1962 and also recorded with Roland Kirk, Eddie Harris, and Muhal Richard Abrams's Experimental Band. He toured widely, playing in Seattle, California, and Paris in the 1960s and 1970s; among his associations were John Coltrane, Dewey Redman, Archie Shepp, Frank Wright, Jean-Luc Ponty, Oliver Johnson, and Noah Howard.

He began making his own bamboo flutes in the late 1960s, and married vocalist and cellist Kali Fasteau; together, they founded the Sea Ensemble in 1977. In the 1980s Garrett worked with Joseph Jarman, Famoudou Don Moye, Billy Bang, and Kahil El'Zabar.

Discography