None of us knew he was Matt Garrison, son of the famous John Coltrane bassist Jimmy Garrison, and already a private student of world-class jazz masters Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland. It wasn’t long before he was playing with the Berklee faculty, and taking them for a ride. Stints with Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, and John McLaughlin showed the fruits of Matt’s early, intensive study of jazz and its improvisational basis. By the mid ’90s, his fluency in the language of improv, combined with a fearless and groundbreaking technical facility on the instrument, had already set him apart as one of modern bass’s new masters.

Now he’s just finished a new album with guitarist Alex Machacek and drummer Jeff Sipe called Improvision [Abstract Logix]. It’s a collection of free-form pieces, blank canvases on which the three instrumentalists splashed whatever they felt like. Garrison credits Machacek for helping to create a safe space to play just about anything. “Alex is a fantastic conceptual editor,” says Matt. “If you listen to any of his records, you’ll realize the depth of imagination he has in chopping and splicing musical bits into masterful finished projects. When you’re aware that both terrible and fantastic takes can be utilized in a musical and expressive manner, you don’t worry about what you’re playing. You just do what works in that moment.”

Let’s look at two examples of Matt’s playing “in that moment.” The first is a quiet, mellow tune called “Shona.” Ex. 1, excerpted at 0:46, features Matt’s ability to employ melodic confidence, legato technique, and double-stops to create a sensation of floating slowly downward in E Dorian. Matt uses a Fodera 5-string with the high string tuned up to C, but these examples are tabbed for 4-string so more players can join in the fun. The fingering is essentially the same wherever you play the example on the fingerboard: Stretch the fretting hand gracefully over five frets for a minor 2nd, then release and lightly glide into the next series of notes in the best position for the next tight interval. Don’t forget about the grace notes: Sliding into them is another key to getting into Matt’s moment.

Ex. 2 is excerpted from Matt’s solo (2:42–2:53) on “Matt’s Riff,” a breakneck-paced free-for-all in E. You can see that the results aren’t exactly child’s play. Where do his choices come from at this high level? “My main influences concerning that approach are definitely Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Wallace Roney, and Allan Holdsworth. I love the freedom to choose whatever direction works best for the moment. I achieve it by examining different scale and chord interactions, but not necessarily adhering to a formulaic approach—rather, focusing on a passionate approach. Over the years I’ve come to learn that compositional structure, scales, chords, and rhythm are building blocks used to organize and convey a set of musical ideas. The true essence of making music, however, is letting go of those structures and connecting to the way you feel in the moment of expression. The artists I mentioned are coming from that school of thought.”

Here’s a quick rundown of just some of the tonal and modal centers Matt implies in this solo excerpt, in sequence: E Dorian, Eb Dorian, C major, Eb Locrian, F Mixolydian #4, A major. Your homework is to identify these implications (yes, different interpretations are possible) in the example, keeping in mind Garrison’s use of chromatic passing tones throughout. Now try superimposing it all over E, and you can see how fast Matt’s mind was truly working.

Meanwhile, the fingers are a whole other story. If you follow the tablature, you’ll notice lots of work for the ring and pinkie fingers in that pesky “pinkie-led” scale position (the very first scale run starts this way). It’s a great workout for staying in position during complex passages. And Matt has his own tips for keeping up with him on both examples. “I recommend practicing double-stops using 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, and 7ths over major scales and the related modes to get closer to the ideas performed on “Shona,” and listen closely to Coltrane and McCoy Tyner specifically for ideas on the second piece.”

Aside from the “the inescapable art of long hours of practice,” Garrison lists one more critical element to gaining confidence in wide-open soloing: “Find every opportunity to perform those newly learned ideas and skills with other musicians of like mind, in front of an audience. It’s probably the only real way to become confident and comfortable with the new information you’ve acquired.”

And to think, all those years ago we shared a bass lab. I should have cut class and taken lessons from him.

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