Photo Via Garret Waite - garrettwaite.com
Garrett Waite
Side hustles. A varied skill set. Nowadays these things are required, especially if one doesn’t want to sell their soul, so to speak, to a corporation.
Garrett Waite, a native of Pewaukee who now resides in Milwaukee, has a varied skill set, and some very cool side hustles. He is an honors graduate from the Berklee School of Music where he earned a Division Achievement award. He returned to Milwaukee and has been working hard ever since. Waite is a busy man. He plays guitar in the Garrett Waite Trio, as well as Craig Baumann and the Story, and The Consequence with Craig Evans of renowned rock band Bad Boy. He is also in the alt pop band Day Tvvo.
His love of music started at a young age when became exposed to Elvis Presley and classical music. This inspired him to make his first guitar out of a rubber band and a shoebox. He was an elementary school student at a Waldorf school in Prairie Hill, the curriculum was in song, so he spent his formative years surrounded by music.
Upon finishing high school he studied under Milwaukee jazz guru Jack Grassel before he went to Boston to earn a BFA from Berklee.
Waite has also learned how to be a magician and sees how the two performing arts both transform consciousness in the listener, or viewer. Both arts require a working knowledge of how the senses and the brain interact. They both can be used to clear away biases, Waite stated during a recent conversation. Waite’s musical influences span a wide swath classical artists Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, are alongside jazz musicians such as Keith Jarrett, Wayne Shorter, Larry Correll, and John Coltrane. Rock artists Elvis Presley, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and Radiohead also make his list of influences.
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For Waite, jazz contains the right balance of sharing and competition. It became apparent to him that learning jazz can open up any genre of popular music. The Garrett Waite Jazz Trio includes Garrett on guitar, Hannah Johnson on drums and Tim Ipsen on bass guitar. They are nominated for 2023 Best Jazz Combo, in the Shepherd Express annual Best of Milwaukee Contest.
The trio does an open jazz jam the first Wednesday of each month at Bar Centro in Riverwest. Musicians of all skill levels are encouraged to attend. Garrett will perform at Latkes Con Salsa with Mitch Shiner and other Milwaukee musicians on Dec. 14 and 15 at the Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery. They will spin a new groove of Latin salsa to traditional Hannaukah songs. Holiday music gets tiring this time of year and comes from all directions. Latkes Con Salsa should be a refreshing fresh breath of air from Garrett along with some of our city’s most talented musicians. Happy Holidays!
