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Interviews
Kenny Barron: Pianist Who Opens Eyes and Ears
R.J. DeLuke
R.J. DeLuke is an indefatigable jazz fan and arbiter elegantiarum who aspires to ultimate hipness; also an upstate NY freelance writer for various media."My first encounter with him was in high school. He came through Philadelphia. You used to play a Monday afternoon matinee in Philly, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. That was your first hit. His pianist missed a flight from Detroit, so he called Jimmy Heath about a pianist and Jimmy gave him my name. So I went and played the matinee. I was still in high school, so fortunately, I was home from school and got the call.
"Shortly after that I graduated and he asked me to come and play a gig in Detroit at a place called the Minor Key. Right after that, he asked me to write some music for him, which I did. I was very young. The record that came out was called The Centaur and the Phoenix and I had some original compositions and arrangements on there. Joe Zawinul was the pianist on the record. He was still with Dinah Washington at the time. It was a great experience. Then some years later, I started working with (Lateef) on a more full-time basis. It was during the late '60s and early '70s. He encouraged me to go back to school, so I went back to college. At one time, everybody in the bad was in college. So he was very influential in that way. He played a lot of my music, a lot of my original compositions, and recorded quite a few."
The list of jobs included work with Buddy Rich, Getz, Sonny Stitt, Sweet Edison, Sonny Fortune, Milt Jackson, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine and more. In the 1980s, Barron took the piano chair in a band formed with saxophonist Charlie Rouse, drummer Ben Riley and bassist Buster Williams in a group called Sphere. Their first recording included several Monk pieces, and with Rouse and riley being two key Monk sidemen, the appearance was that of a Monk tribute group. But they soon moved into their own bag. And after a hiatus (and the passing of Rouse), the band reunited and still exists.
"It was a cooperative effort. It started out as a trio. Myself and Ben Riley and Buster Williams. We had been the rhythm section for Ron Carter. When that band dissolved, the trio stayed together. We functioned as a rhythm section for a lot of people that came to town. Sweets [Harry Edison] and Lockjaw [Eddie Davis], Sonny Stitt. So we decided we should just get a horn player. It was Ben's idea to call Charlie Rouse. We got a couple gigs to see how it would work and it came out great. That was kind of the beginning.
"A few years later, people had been asking if the band was ever going to get back together. We would each get that question from our various travels. So we talked about it and said: Let's try it. We wanted to get someone from our generation. We decided on Gary Bartz. He was one of our peers, but he also played a different instrument, which would add another color. He played alto, and soprano. His playing had more of an edge than Charlie's playing. So that changed the sound of the group a little bit. But it was still Sphere."
Another outlet for Barron's creativity is Brazilian music, which he encountered while playing with Dizzy Gillespie in the 1950s. "We played some Brazilian pieces. But I really got interested when I heard a group called Brazil 55, Sergio Mendes. I heard it on the radio in San Francisco and I immediately went out and bought the record. I've been in love with Brazilian music ever since."
He has been touring this summer with Canta Brasil, playing pieces that are Latin mixed with jazz. Barron says he is more influenced by Brazilian composers than any particular instrumentalist.
Regardless of the setting Barron is capable of fitting in, with his mammoth technique and great tone. He said, for example, that the People Time duet with Getz was a gas, fitting with his lyrical style. But with other musicians, he would call upon other elements, so hat everything fits.
"You're influenced by your musical environment. (Getz) was a very lyrical player, so I was influenced by that. If I was playing with somebody like Albert Ayler, just to draw a name out of the hat, my playing would be a lot different. Because I am influenced by the musical environment. Trying to play with who I'm with, so to speak."
And the list of people Barron plays with continues to grow. He's not at a loss for work, but he admits the jazz scene isn't what it used to be.
"It has changed, but people are still able to make a living. If you're a young person, it's definitely changed, if you're trying to break into it. It's not like it used to be in terms of gigs and venues and things like that. But everything does change. But in New York, I think it's very healthy. Every night you can go to seven or eight jazz clubs, major jazz clubs. You can't do that anywhere else in the states. Or anywhere else in the world, actually.
