1. Early career

2. Work with David Bowie

3. Music career

4. Current work

5. Personal life

6. Discography

7. References

8. External links

Michael David Garson (born July 29, 1945) is an American pianist, who has worked with David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, St. Vincent, Free Flight and The Smashing Pumpkins.

Early career

After graduating from Brooklyn College with a music degree in 1970, Garson was a member of rock/country/jazz band Brethren with Rick Marotta, Tom Cosgrove and Stu Woods. They recorded two hard-to-find albums on the Tiffany label, which featured guest piano and liner notes by Dr. John (and album photography by Murray Head, who scored a hit with "Say it Ain't So Joe," "Jesus Christ Superstar," and later with the single "One Night In Bangkok").

Garson also earned notice when he played on the I'm the One album by early 1970s experimental artist Annette Peacock. Bowie asked Peacock to join him on a tour; she declined, but Garson began an enduring working relationship with Bowie.

Work with David Bowie

Garson was David Bowie’s longest and most frequent band member.^[1] They performed together for both Bowie's first and last concerts in the United States as well as 1,000 concerts around the globe in between.^[2]

Garson provided the piano and keyboard backing on the later Ziggy Stardust tour of 1972-73 and his contribution to "Aladdin Sane" (1973) gave the song an avant-garde jazz feel with lengthy and sometimes atonal piano solos.

Garson played also for Bowie's bandmate Mick Ronson on his first and last solo tour, and his first album (Slaughter on Tenth Avenue). Garson came to replace Ronson as Bowie's musical lieutenant on several occasions, notably on "We Are the Dead" from the Diamond Dogs album, where Garson's metronome-like keyboard provides a dramatic setting for Bowie's vocals, and on the title track to Young Americans where his jaunty piano leads the band. Garson played with Bowie on and off over the years, resurfacing on The Buddha of Suburbia and 1. Outside.

Music career

Parallel to this work with Bowie, Garson engaged in his own solo career as a jazz pianist. He is regarded in the industry as one of the very few 'rock' pianists capable of performing extended piano solos. He remains one of the most highly sought-after session musicians with a unique sound of his own.

Garson worked with the reformed Spiders From Mars in 1975, alongside Mick Woodmansey, Trevor Bolder, Dave Black (guitar) and Pete McDonald (vocals). They recorded one eponymous album in 1976 before going their separate ways.

In 1982, Garson became a member of the jazz ensemble Free Flight, founded by flautist Jim Walker.^[4]

In 1993, Garson began a short-lived series of Screen Themes albums, jazz renditions of major themes and suites from film scores of 1993, and the following year, 1994. The latter album featured the recording debut of Jessica L. Tivens, at age 13, who had previously appeared on Star Search. Both albums were released by Discovery Records.

Garson joined the Smashing Pumpkins for their Adore tour, playing piano, keyboards and synthesizer. His piano playing was an integral part of the Pumpkins' performance. After the tour, he joined Corgan on his solo effort—the soundtrack for the movie Stigmata, and played on the piano section of "Glass and the Ghost Children" off of Machina/The Machines of God. Additionally, Garson performed piano on the song "With Every Light" off of Machina/The Machines of God. Garson also played on Nine Inch Nails album The Fragile, as well as with No Doubt, Perry Farrell,^[5] St. Vincent,^[6] and many others. Garson collaborated with Trent Reznor again on for the Grammy nominated score to the Gone Girl film on which they collaborated and Garson performed.^[7]

Mike Garson appeared on Myspace with his own music site, and to date has released some 50 free tracks. He is currently working on three new albums, as well as collaborating with several bands as touring player/session musician. His latest collaboration shows up on the last "met-on-Myspace" French artist Kuta's album A Home. Garson also contributed to and received co writing credit on the track "Something Unseen" by Athens, GA power pop band Chris McKay & the Critical Darlings. He has also been collaborating with the Norwegian band Sleepyard. In addition to this, he worked on the writing and recording of two songs on mathcore band The Dillinger Escape Plan's 2010 release, Option Paralysis.

In 2011, Garson contributed a remarkable piano solo to "Night Garden," a pop-psychedelic-Latin jazz song by singer-songwriter Johnny J. Blair. The track was issued on Blair's album I Like the Street [https://johnnyjblairsingeratlarge.bandcamp.com/track/night-garden-w-beyondo-mike-garson], an album that drew comparisons to David Bowie, Roxy Music, and Velvet Underground.

Garson premiered a new commissioned work in 2014, written in collaboration with medical patients in partnership with brain surgeon Dr. Christopher Duma of the Foundation for Neuroscience, Stroke and Recovery. Mike’s work, a set of movements of original music compositions, titled “Symphonic Healing Suite” which will continue with the National Symphony in 2016 along with Garson’s latest solo album release.

A comprehensive biography of his life and career to date was published in 2015, under the title Bowie's Piano Man: The Life of Mike Garson, by Clifford Slapper.

Current work

Garson performed in the critically acclaimed global concert series Celebrating David Bowie from early 2017 through early 2018 ^[10] and headlined a tour of the UK in November 2017 with his Aladdin Sane tour.^[11] Mike and fellow David Bowie band alumni began touring in 2018 with their new show A Bowie Celebration: The David Bowie Alumni Tour and continues the tour in 2019.^[12]

In December 2018, Garson returned to perform with both The Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails in separate Los Angeles area concerts.^[13][14]

Personal life

Garson married his wife, Susan on March 24, 1968. They have two daughters, Jennifer and Heather along with seven grandchildren. They lived in Bell Canyon, California where Garson had his recording studio, ^[15] until the Woolsey Fires hit, leveling both Garson's home and studio to the ground.^[16]

Discography

• Avant Garson (Contemporary, 1979)
• Jazzical (1982)
• Serendipity (Reference Recordings, 1986)
• Remember Love (1989)
• The Mystery Man (1990)
• Oxnard Sessions, Vol.1 (Reference, 1990)
• A Gershwin Fantasia (Reference, 1992)
• Oxnard Sessions, Vol.2 (Reference, 1992)
• Now! Music (Volume IV) (1998)
• Homage to My Heroes (2003)
• Conversations with My Family (Resonance, 2008)
• Lost in Conversation (2008)
• Mike Garson's Jazz Hat (Reference, 2008)
• The Bowie Variations (Reference, 2011, HDCD)
• Wild Out West (2012)
• Symphonic Suite for Healing (2015)

• Aladdin Sane (1973)
• Pin Ups (1973)
• Diamond Dogs (1974)
• David Live (1974)
• Young Americans (1975)
• Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture (1983)
• Black Tie White Noise (1993)
• The Buddha of Suburbia (1993)
• Santa Monica '72 (1994)
• Outside (1995)
• Earthling (1997)
• Bowie at the Beeb (2000)
• Reality (2003)
• Hours (2004 bonus track)
• VH1 Storytellers (David Bowie album) (2009)
• A Reality Tour (album) (2010)

References

External links

• {{Official website|http://www.mikegarson.com}}
• {{YouTube | user =MikeGarsonOfficial |title=Mike Garson}}
• Mike Garson at ReverbNation
• {{Discogs artist}}
• {{IMDb name|0308599}}

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