The album received a Grammy nomination in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category that year. On September 17, 2013, Garrett released his second studio album for Mack Avenue Records, Pushing the World Away. In 2013, Garrett won an Echo Award in the Saxophonist of the Year category.

Also in 2012, Grammy nominations for Seeds from the Underground followed in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo categories, and Seeds From The Underground received a NAACP Image Award nomination in the Outstanding Jazz Album category. In 2012, Garrett received a Soul Train Award nomination for his 2012 studio album Seeds from the Underground in the Best Traditional Jazz Artist/Group category. Garrett also was the Commencement Speaker for graduates. In 2011, Garrett was presented with an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Berklee College of Music, Boston, Massachusetts. The CD Five Peace Band – Live won a Grammy Award in 2010.

Garrett performed in a world tour in 2008–2009 with Corea, McLaughlin, Christian McBride and Blade/ Vinnie Colaiuta as the 'Five Peace Band'.

On his website,, he stated that his band at the time consisted of electric bass and organ. Garrett's live album Sketches of MD: Live at the Iridium, featuring Pharoah Sanders, was released on September 23, 2008. Every time they mention Kenny Garrett, there will probably be some association with Miles Davis, but at the same time, when they mention Herbie Hancock, they always mention Miles Davis, or Wayne Shorter. I just look at it as a part of history and it is going to be there. I am still trying to carve out my own name and my own music. I think that is part of my history and I am proud of that. Some people became aware of me through Miles and then they would come to my concerts. That's the only musical situation that I was there longer than a year. I was in Miles' band for about five years. Garrett is best known in many circles for the five years he spent playing with Miles Davis during Davis's electric period, and has stated that he has become accustomed to this association: Garrett's music sometimes exhibits Asian influences, an aspect which is especially prevalent in his 2006 Grammy-nominated recording, Beyond the Wall. During his career, Garrett has performed and recorded with many jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Brad Mehldau, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Brian Blade, Marcus Miller, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson, Ron Carter, Elvin Jones, and Mulgrew Miller. are Pursuance: The Music of John Coltrane, recorded in 1996, and Songbook, his first album made up entirely of his own compositions, recorded in 1997 and nominated for a Grammy Award. Records label, and beginning with Black Hope, in 1992, he has continued to record with them. Since 1990 the majority of Garrett albums are co-produced by pianist/composer Donald Brown. He then recorded two albums with Atlantic Records: Prisoner of Love and African Exchange Student. In 1984, he recorded his first album as a bandleader, Introducing Kenny Garrett, on the CrissCross label. A few years later he performed in the Mel Lewis Orchestra, playing the music of Thad Jones, and also the Dannie Richmond Quartet, focusing on Charles Mingus's music. Garrett's own career as a saxophonist took off when he joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1978, then led by Duke's son, Mercer Ellington. His father was a carpenter who played tenor saxophone as a hobby. Kenny Garrett was born in Detroit, Michigan, on Octohe is a 1978 graduate of Mackenzie High School. Since then, he has pursued a solo career. Kenny Garrett (born October 9, 1960) is a Grammy Award-winning American post-bop jazz saxophonist and flautist who gained recognition in his youth as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and of Miles Davis's band.

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