Ned Garn, 45, grew up in Northeast Ohio and now lives in Tucson with his family. He is an attorney who handles matters involving wrongful termination of employment, legal malpractice and other civil litigation. He enjoys hiking, reading, recording with GarageBand and puttering around the house.
What was the first concert you ever saw?
Chick Corea at the Front Row Theater in Cleveland. Chick was promoting his Three Quartets album with Michael Brecker, Eddie Gomez and Steve Gadd. The Front Row had a stage that rotated 360 degrees. I subsequently appeared on the same stage, endlessly repeating Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" on my trumpet for a high school graduation ceremony—one of the few times I've been queasy.
What are you listening to these days?
Warne Marsh, Curved Air, Maria Rita, Richard Thompson, Ron Sexsmith, Blind Boy Fuller, Wishbone Ash, Woody Shaw, Bebo Valdés, Television, Gene Clark, and Calexico.
What was the first album you owned?
Donny Osmond, To You With Love, Donny. (Honesty is the best policy, right?)
What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone seem to love, but you just don't get?
Rap, electronica and Madonna (and her imitators).
What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?
Miles Davis' mid-'60s Quintet (Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams).
Musically speaking, what is your favorite guilty pleasure?
Thin Lizzy.
What song would you like to have played at your funeral?
Mahler, Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement—Mahler's reluctant goodbye to the world.
What band or artist changed your life, and how?
Beethoven. Although Donny was the first album I actually owned, beginning in second grade, I repeatedly borrowed, renewed and racked up late fines on a copy of Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 9 (with Francescatti) from my local public library. It somehow conveyed that music could represent something else.
Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?
King Crimson, Starless and Bible Black.
