The time is now for the 54-year-old Barron, a pianist who has been in countless sideman and leader situations since he came on the New York scene in the '60s, including a celebrated partnership with Stan Getz in the late 1980's. All the while, he has also honed his own musical voice as a composer and bandleader, founding the respected band Sphere and working with various bands as a leader. After the release of Getz' People Time, the Grammy®-winning duet with Barron, recorded shortly before the saxophonist's death in 1992, Barron has been avidly pursuing his own ideas and letting his fingers fly elegantly.

Earlier Barron albums on Verve focused on specific musical areas. Last year's Swamp Sally was an adventuresome electro-acoustic duet project with percussionist Mino Cinelu, mixing jazz and Caribbean rhythms, while 1995's two-time Grammy®-nominated Wanton Spirit was a special piano trio outing with legends Charlie Haden on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. A hard-bopping quintet takes charge on 1994's Other Places, while 1993's Grammy®-nominated Sambao is Barron's ode to the Brazilian muse. Things Unseen, on the other hand, accepts the leader's innate eclecticism as standard operating procedure. In a masterful blend of open space and edgy rhythms, Barron weaves a tale of mystique and romance.

Born in Philadelphia on June 9, 1943, Barron was ushered into the jazz world by his brother Bill, a saxophonist with whom he played in Mel Melvin's Orchestra. Barron gained a sturdy musical foundation by studying classical piano with Vera Bryant (sister of Ray Bryant and mother of Kevin and Robin Eubanks). He played with Philly Joe Jones, Yusef Lateef and Roy Haynes before graduating from high school and moving to New York in 1962, where he landed a gig with Dizzy Gillespie. After leaving the Gillespie band in 1966, Barron moved on to work with such artists as Milt Jackson, Freddie Hubbard, and Stanley Turrentine.

In 1979, Barron founded Sphere, with Monk alumni Charlie Rouse on saxophone, Ben Riley on drums, and Buster Williams on bass. What began as a heartfelt tribute to Thelonious "Sphere" Monk continued to evolve, offering Barron a chance to explore his own writing. Rouse has passed on, but the band is poised to continue, now with Gary Bartz on saxophone.

On Things Unseen, Barron is joined by cohorts from his regular quintet, saxophonist John Stubblefield, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, bassist David Williams and drummer Victor Lewis, but also interacts with percussionist Mino Cinelu, Japanese violinist Naoko Terai, and guitarist John Scofield, whose signature sound graces three tracks. Barron explains that "I had always liked John Scofield's playing. He has a great sense of adventure that I knew I wanted to explore with this music."

Barron met Terai while hanging out in a Japanese club. "I was really impressed with her improvising, which is very, very open, and her ability to master the chord changes," Barron recalls. "I thought it was an interesting combination." The combination is especially fruitful on the impressionistic piece "Rose Noire." "That's completely improvised," Barron comments. "I told Naoko to play, and the only parameters were that the notes had to be played in an Ab major scale, and no accidentals. Nothing was written."

The album's musical landscape shifts from the slow, simmering opener "Marie Laveau" to the energetic impulses of "The Sequel" and the title track. "Joy Island" veers from a spunky duet with Cinelu to a samba-tinged workout. Closing out the album, "The Moment" is a sumptuous, deceptively easy-going groover, which Barron ends with a fiery, no-holds-barred piano solo. Over the space of one album, Barron covers a lot of territory, reflecting his considerable range.

Things Unseen, is another bold statement of the multi-faceted musical voice of Kenny Barron - a voice colored by expressive subtlety and an unquenchable fire.