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Jazz Articles about Kenny Barron

About Kenny Barron

861

Profile

Kenny Barron: A Musical Autobiography

by Victor Verney
January 30, 2007

Kenny Barron has achieved recognition, long overdue, as one of the giants of modern mainstream jazz piano. Born in Philadelphia in 1943, he moved to New York in 1961, where he worked briefly with James Moody, Lee Morgan, Roy Haynes and Lou Donaldson. He then had extended gigs with Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Yusef Lateef and Ron Carter. After a stint as co-leader of the group Sphere in the 1980s, he went on to lead his own trios. One of ...

415

Album Review

Kenny Barron Trio: The Perfect Set: Live at Bradley's II

Read "The Perfect Set: Live at Bradley's II" reviewed by Ollie Bivens

by Ollie Bivens
January 19, 2006

From the '60s through the '80s, pianist Kenny Barron was one of the most sought-after sidemen in jazz, playing with Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Yusef Lateef, and Ron Carter, along with being a co-founder of the group Sphere, dedicated to performing the music of Thelonious Monk. Since the early '70s, Barron has put out several albums as leader. However, a series of live dates recorded with Stan Getz for four years up until the tenor's death in '91 brought Barron ...

191

Album Review

Kenny Barron Trio: The Perfect Set: Live at Bradley's II

Read "The Perfect Set: Live at Bradley's II" reviewed by Tom Greenland

by Tom Greenland
December 9, 2005

In the Middle East, “tarab," a state of musical and spiritual ecstasy, is produced and maintained when a creative feedback loop is established between performers and listeners. The transformation is dependent not only on the skilled artisans, but on the environment created by the musically initiated audience. In jazz, people and place are equally important: Bradley's, in the Village, was one such place, where after-hours aficionados came to hear the best piano trio jazz that New York had to offer. ...

249

Album Review

Kenny Barron Trio: The Perfect Set: Live at Bradley

Read "The Perfect Set: Live at Bradley" reviewed by Michael McCaw

by Michael McCaw
September 21, 2005

This music is immaculate. From the onset of “You Don't Know What Love Is and the suspended feel pianist Kenny Barron generates in his unaccompanied opening statement, entrancing listeners with his eventual development of the chorus, you know you are hearing a modern master of the piano. Bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Ben Riley are not too shabby either. Performing and recording off and on since 1984, this trio creates music that is pure, honest, and forthright. Not to mention ...

355

Album Review

Kenny Barron: Images

by Russ Musto
February 27, 2005

Images introduces pianist Kenny Barron's “other" quintet--vibraphonist Stefon Harris, flautist Anne Drummond, bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa, and drummer Kim Thompson. The flute and vibes grouping gives this unit an appealingly distinctive sound that is airy but never light, sweet but not saccharine. Although somewhat limited tonally compared to the trumpet/saxophone frontline of Barron's classic five-man band, the group avoids the not improbable danger of monotony by performing a program that is rhythmically and dynamically diverse. Barron's first three compositions, “So It ...

172

Album Review

Kenny Barron: Live at Bradley's

Read "Live at Bradley's" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell
September 1, 2004

One of a handful of truly great living jazz pianists, Kenny Barron has never sounded better to me on record. After listening to him in this setting, I'm beginning to understand why so many musicians lamented the passing of Bradley's, the Manhattan night spot that featured a grand piano handpicked and donated by Paul Desmond. If there's one performance on this recording that testifies to Barron's gifts, it's his exquisite and daring reading of Rodgers and Hart's “Blue Moon." He ...

268

Album Review

Kenny Barron Quintet: Images

by John Kelman
June 20, 2004

Pianist Kenny Barron is usually thought of more as an accompanist than a leader, and that’s odd; with around forty albums to his name over the past thirty years, he’s had no shortage of opportunity for direct exposure. But with over three hundred recordings as a guest, including work with Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Freddie Hubbard and Ron Carter, he may be second only to Mulgrew Miller as the hardest working pianist around; and it’s easy, with that kind of ...