Jazz Articles about Kenny Barron

About Kenny Barron

Album Review

Often nicknamed “Little Bird," Jimmy Heath began on the alto saxophone acquiring this informal title by dedicating his studies to Charlie Parker and his wee stature. Although not a familiar name to many outside of the devoted jazz community, Heath would go on to pursue a remarkable 76-year career sadly passing away in January, 2020. A fabled musician to many tenor players, Heath presents us with his final testament, a collection of formative ballads. Enhancing the already prolific ...

Album Review

Jimmy Heath: Love Letter

Read "Love Letter" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
July 3, 2020

Love Letter is the final album to be made by saxophonist Jimmy Heath, who passed in January 2020 aged 93. It was completeted just a month earlier. The title is well chosen: the album is a love letter to jazz, a love letter to ballads, and a love letter to Heath's surviving family members, friends and audience. Soulful and luminous, it is everything one could hope for in the last will and testament of a jazz master. ...

Radio & Podcasts

It's Warm Outside

by Nick Davies
June 20, 2020

As we continue to structure our playlists around a theme, to look at the different lenses through which various musicians bring their experiences about it, in this edition we feature songs about warmth, something that is no longer in short supply as the summer approaches, or global warming increases. Playlist Haz Solo “Global Warming" from Sonic Boom Vol 2 (Self-Released) 02:35 J-Mood “I've Got My Love to keep Me Warm" from A Midnight Clear (Blue Canoe Records) ...

Album Review

Kenny Barron / Dave Holland Trio featuring Johnathan Blake: Without Deception

Read "Without Deception" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
March 5, 2020

No matter the many miles and quantum number of life's triumphs and travails that have visited them since their last encounter, Kenny Barron and Dave Holland walk into a studio and instantly pick up whence they last met. But these two old cronies are not just killing time shooting the proverbial you-know-what. They have set out to interpret and shape time on their own terms, and not vice versa, two intrinsic elements of creation that still make their ...

Reassessing

In The Moment

by David A. Orthmann
February 9, 2020

The trail of splendid hard bop influenced recordings extends well beyond the genre's heyday of the 1950s and '60s. A case in point is trumpeter John Swana's appropriately titled In The Moment. The 1996 release on the Criss Cross Jazz imprint merits the exalted status of its celebrated predecessors. Captured in a one-day studio session, despite the familiar stylistic lineage it sounds fresh, spontaneous and unsullied. A sextet of intrepid, strong-willed individuals fully commit themselves to a program of compelling ...

Album Review

Kenny Barron & Mulgrew Miller: The Art Of Piano Duo - Live

Read "The Art Of Piano Duo - Live" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 31, 2019

Genius in 20 fingers and 176 keys. That's what we have right here. The late Mulgrew Miller and the very present Kenny Barron each represent something of a gold standard in jazz piano, so it's no surprise that they meshed well whenever they met. This collection delivers three duo concerts from that pair—one captured in Marciac, France in 2005; the others recorded two days apart in different cities in Switzerland in 2011—and the results speak volumes about these two giants ...

Live Review

Kenny Barron and Friends Celebrate Monk at SFJAZZ

by Harry S. Pariser
October 22, 2019

Kenny Barron and Friends Celebrate Monk Herbst Theater SFJAZZ San Francisco, CA October 10, 2019 Seventy-six-year-old pianist Kenny Barron needs no introduction to avid jazz fans, having been a fixture on the scene for decades. He is known for his own work as well as his participation as co-founder of the Thelonious Monk tribute band Sphere which was active from 1982 to 1998 and had adopted the late pianist's middle name as its moniker. ...