Barron

Kenny Barron has been a respected jazz pianist since the early '60s, but it wasn't until the mid-'70s that he began coming into his own as a composer; deftly working complex time signatures and mercurial melodies into seamlessly swinging numbers, agile sambas, and lovely ballads. Fifteen years on, Invitation finds Barron in full maturity as a writer and in the sympathetic company of tenor saxophonist Ralph Moore, bassist David Williams, and drummer Lewis Nash. Barron's democratic pen runs the gamut here as he distills Monk's angular jubilance on "And Then Again," produces one of his most beautiful ballads in "Dewdrop," and works a fine bossa nova groove on "Joanne Julia"…

Pianist and composer Kenny Barron, a towering figure in the jazz world with 13 Grammy nominations and induction into the American Jazz Hall of Fame, has been at the helm of sophisticated post-bop for many decades, never shying away from reinventing jazz standards, reshaping his own originals, or composing anew. He does all that in his latest album, Beyond This Place, for which he enlisted a multigenerational group featuring rising star saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, veteran vibraphonist Steve Nelson, and his regular rhythm team of bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake.

This delightfully wide-ranging jazz quintet album from Kenny Barron opens with a delicate reading of Washington and Carmichael’s “The Nearness of You” and closes with a brisk sax and piano duet cover of Thelonious Monk’s “We See”. There is a nod to the Jazz Messengers with drummer Jonathan Blake’s composition “Blues on Stratford Road”, and drums and piano rampage through an unusually taut duet version of “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise”.
But the body of the album, and indeed its subtle emotional range, comes from the five Barron originals that span the breadth of the pianist’s 50-plus-year career. “Sunset”, released on Muse in 1973, was the first track on Barron’s debut solo album Sunset to Dawn. Back then it was interpreted through swirls of resonant Fender Rhodes, but here an acoustic band get to the essence of the tune’s prowling melody and sinuous left-hand groove…

Enfant, Sean Barron semble normal. Certes, il crie souvent, déteste être pris dans les bras ; aux yeux de ses parents, c'est un mauvais cap à passer. Mais plus il grandit, plus son comportement devient difficile, incontrôlable. La vérité éclate, brutale …

Bassist Red Mitchell and pianist Kenny Barron teamed up for these "Red Barron" duos in 1986. Mitchell and Barron swing through five standards (including "The Girl Next Door," "Oleo" and "Namely You") plus the pianist's "Sunshower" and a couple of Mitchell originals. Their interpretations swing, are sometimes intuitive and are full of subtle surprises. Barron has since been recognized as a giant of modern mainstream piano while the late Mitchell's virtuosity was never in question. This combination works!