Mike Garson

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American pianist (born 1945)

title: "Mike Garson" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1945-births", "living-people", "american-former-scientologists", "american-rock-keyboardists", "lafayette-high-school-(new-york-city)-alumni", "the-smashing-pumpkins-members", "musicians-from-brooklyn", "contemporary-records-artists", "people-from-bell-canyon,-california", "20th-century-american-keyboardists", "20th-century-american-pianists", "21st-century-american-keyboardists", "21st-century-american-pianists", "brooklyn-college-alumni", "the-spiders-from-mars-members", "free-flight-(band)-members", "resonance-records-artists", "american-expatriates-in-england", "american-expatriate-musicians", "expatriate-musicians-in-the-united-kingdom"] description: "American pianist (born 1945)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Garson" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American pianist (born 1945) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist|"]

FieldValue
nameMike Garson
backgroundnon_vocal_instrumentalist
imageMikeparis.jpg
captionGarson in Paris, 2006
birth_nameMichael David Garson
birth_date
birth_placeNew York City, New York, U.S.
years_active1964–present
instrumentPiano, keyboards
discographyMike Garson discography
genre
associated_acts
website
::

| name = Mike Garson | background = non_vocal_instrumentalist | image = Mikeparis.jpg | caption = Garson in Paris, 2006 | image_size = | birth_name = Michael David Garson | birth_date = | birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | years_active = 1964–present | instrument = Piano, keyboards | discography = Mike Garson discography | genre = | label = | associated_acts = | website =

Michael David Garson (born July 29, 1945) is an American pianist, who has worked with David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, St. Vincent, Duran Duran, Free Flight, The Smashing Pumpkins, Melissa Auf der Maur, CSS and The Pretty Reckless.

Early career

Garson went to Lafayette High School in Brooklyn. After graduating from Brooklyn College with a music degree in 1970, he was a member of rock/country/jazz band Brethren with Rick Marotta, Tom Cosgrove and Stu Woods. They recorded two albums, Brethren (1970) and Moment of Truth (1971), on the Tiffany label, which had 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 played on the I'm the One (1972) album by early 1970s experimental artist Annette Peacock. David 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-serving and most frequently appearing band member. They performed together for both Bowie's first and last concerts in the United States as well as a thousand concerts around the globe in between.

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

Garson played also for Bowie's guitarist bandmate Mick Ronson on his first and last solo tour, and his first Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1974) and second solo album Play Don't Worry (1975). Garson played with Bowie on and off over the years, resurfacing on The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) and 1. Outside (1995).

Music career

| float = left | width = 275px | video1 = Oral History, Mike Garson reflects on his greatest musical influences. Interview date October 3, 2011, NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Oral History Library

Parallel to this work with Bowie, Garson engaged in his own solo career as a jazz pianist.

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 1984, Garson became a member of the jazz ensemble Free Flight, founded by flautist Jim Walker.

In 1993, Garson began a short-lived series of Screen Themes albums, jazz renditions of major themes and suites from film scores of 1993 (Man & a Woman, Sax at the Movies), and the following year, 1994 (Reel Romance). The latter album included the recording debut of Jessica L. Tivens, at age 13, who had previously appeared on the American television show Star Search. Both albums were released by Discovery Records.

Garson joined in The Smashing Pumpkins for their 1998 Adore tour, playing piano, keyboards and synthesizer. After the tour, he joined The Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Billy Corgan on his solo effort—the soundtrack for the 1999 supernatural horror film Stigmata. Additionally Garson played piano on The Smashing Pumpkins next 2000 album Machina/The Machines of God on the songs "Glass and the Ghost Children" and "With Every Light".

Garson has also played on Nine Inch Nails 1999 album The Fragile, in 2000 with No Doubt and Perry Farrell, in 2007 with St. Vincent, and many others. Garson collaborated with Nine Inch Nails singer Trent Reznor again on for the Grammy nominated score to the 2014 Gone Girl film on which they collaborated and Garson performed.

Garson played piano on the songs "This is the Life for Me" and "Washed Out to Sea" from Something for Kate's 2006 album Desert Lights. He became acquainted with the band when they opened all shows on the Australian leg of David Bowie's A Reality Tour in 2004.

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 2007 album A Home. Garson also contributed to and received co writing credit on the track "Something Unseen" by Athens, Georgia, based 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 this year he also collaborated with Melissa Auf der Maur on her second album Out of Our Minds, playing piano in two songs "The Hunt" and "Father's Grave".

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

Later work

Garson performed in the concert series Celebrating David Bowie from early 2017 through early 2018 and headlined a tour of the UK in November 2017 with his Aladdin Sane tour. Mike and fellow David Bowie band alumni began touring in 2018 with a new show A Bowie Celebration: The David Bowie Alumni Tour and continued the tour each year since.

Garson has endorsed M-Audio keyboards, and has performed a demo recording uses the company's digital piano.

In December 2018, Garson returned to perform with both The Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails in separate Los Angeles area concerts. Mike continued his collaboration with Reznor in 2019, composing the opening piano number for his HBO series Watchmen score.

In 2020, Garson's Bowie alumni tour returned to play the Diamond Dogs and Ziggy Stardust albums in their entirety only to be stopped by the COVID-19 pandemic after having performed just a portion of their previously scheduled tour dates.

In October 2020, Garson announced he would be producing an online livestream concert on January 8, 2021 – what would have been Bowie's birthday and the weekend of the fifth anniversary of Bowie's passing called "A Bowie Celebration: Just For One Day!" with an array of Bowie alumni band members spanning the history of Bowie's albums and tours from beginning to end.

In May 2021, Duran Duran announced their upcoming studio album will include contributions from Garson. Garson is also featured on the If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power album by Halsey on its bonus track "People Disappear Here".

Garson also appeared on two songs on Def Leppard's 2022 album, Diamond Star Halos. In this year he also collaborated with The Pretty Reckless on their cover album Other Worlds, in their cover of Bowie's "Quicksand".

Personal life

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

Garson joined the Church of Scientology in 1970, having been introduced to it by Chick Corea. While he played with Bowie he advocated Scientology to the other members of the Spiders from Mars, with Woodmansey converting as a result. Garson left the Church in 1982.

Discography

Main article: Mike Garson discography

;With David Bowie

References

References

  1. (December 8, 2014). "Biography of jazz pianist who gained fame with Bowie".
  2. (September 28, 2017). "Mike Garson on Bowie".
  3. Garson, Mike. (2008). "History and True Abandon". Artist Interviews.
  4. Yanow, Scott. "Mike Garson Biography". [[All Media Network]].
  5. "removed message".
  6. Joshua Klein. (July 27, 2007). "Sidewoman to the stars (well, Sufjan Stevens and the Polyphonic Spree, at least) Annie Clark steps into the spotlight for her St. Vincent debut, with results so inventive and impressive you wonder what took her so long".
  7. "Soundcheck Staff (Ft. Atticus Ross, John Schaefer & Trent Reznor) – Trent Reznor And Atticus Ross Find The Musicality In Noise With 'Gone Girl'".
  8. (January 21, 2004). "David Bowie Tour".
  9. "BOWIE DOWNUNDER: Something for Kate".
  10. Terich, Terrande. (23 June 2010). "Melissa Auf der Maur : Out of Our Minds".
  11. (14 February 2014). "MIKE GARSON'S NEW SYMPHONY LITERALLY HEALS MIND, BODY AND SOUL". OC Weekly.
  12. (February 16, 2015). "PIANIST USES MUSIC TO HELP THOSE SUFFERING FROM BRAIN CONDITIONS". ABC 7 News.
  13. (January 24, 2017). "Inside the Ultimate David Bowie Tribute Tour". Rolling Stone.
  14. "Aladdin Sane The Tour".
  15. "About A Bowie Celebration".
  16. (26 April 2019). "M-Audio ProKeys 88sx Performance Piano".
  17. (December 9, 2018). "Smashing Pumpkins Reunite With 90's Bandmate At KROQ Absolut Almost Acoustic Christmas".
  18. (December 15, 2018). "Watch Trent Reznor Reunite With 90's Nine Inch Nails Collaborator".
  19. "Trent Reznor taps Mike Garson for Watchmen".
  20. "David Bowie alumni doing 'Diamond Dogs'/'Ziggy Stardust' tour in 2020".
  21. (October 27, 2020). "Trent Reznor, Billy Corgan and more to play David Bowie tribute livestream".
  22. (October 27, 2020). "Trent Reznor to Take Part in David Bowie Tribute Webcast Helmed by Longtime Accompanist Mike Garson".
  23. (October 27, 2020). "A Bowie Celebration streaming event".
  24. "Adam Lambert, Andra Day, Duran Duran Added to David Bowie Tribute 'Just for One Day'".
  25. (May 19, 2021). "Duran Duran Release New Single, 'INVISIBLE,' Off Upcoming Album, FUTURE PAST".
  26. "Mike Garson Discography".
  27. Bolwell, Richard. (14 September 2022). "The Pretty Reckless announce details of new album 'Other Worlds' out 4 November".
  28. [https://books.google.com/books?id=K2uNDAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Mike+Garson%22+%22bell+canyon%22+ca&pg=PT408 Hero: David Bowie – Lesley-Ann Jones – Google Books] Retrieved 2016-12-09.
  29. "A family watched their homes burn on TV, one after another".
  30. Boehm, Mike. (March 1, 2014). "Pianist Mike Garson debuts 'Symphonic Suite for Healing'".
  31. Williams, John. (November 11, 2016). "Chatting With Bowie".

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