A highly respected, immensely influential jazz pianist,
Kenny Barron is a sophisticated improviser, composer, bandleader, and educator. Emerging during the hard bop era,
Barron established himself early on as an in-demand sideman, working alongside his brother, saxophonist
Bill Barron, as well as with such titans as
Dizzy Gillespie,
James Moody,
Freddie Hubbard,
Booker Ervin, and many others. Blessed with fluid technique and a nuanced sense for chord voicings, he is the epitome of the modern jazz pianist, at home in swinging straight-ahead dates and more forward-thinking settings. Since the '70s, he has also dedicated himself to passing along his knowledge, working as an instructor at the university level. Although often thought of as a journeyman with numerous session credits,
Barron is a virtuoso performer with many well-regarded albums under his own name, including 1978's Innocence, 1995's
Wanton Spirit, 2016's Grammy-nominated
Book of Intuition, 2018's
Concentric Circles, and 2020's
Without Deception.
Born in Philadelphia on June 9, 1943,
Barron took on the piano at the age of 12, with a little help from
Ray Bryant's sister, known today as the mother of guitarist
Kevin Eubanks. Three years later, on the recommendation of his own big brother, saxophonist
Bill Barron (1927-1989), he joined Mel Melvin's rhythm & blues band. The aspiring pianist gained more experience while working with drummer
Philly Joe Jones and saxophonist
Jimmy Heath, as well as multi-instrumentalist
Yusef Lateef in Detroit.
Lateef's album The Centaur and the Phoenix (1960) was
Barron's first modern jazz recording project -- not as a performer (
Joe Zawinul was the pianist on this date) but as composer and arranger.
His recording debut as an improvising artist, The Tenor Stylings of Bill Barron, took place shortly after he moved to New York in 1961, and was the first of many albums with his brother. A session in 1962 found
Barron working with trumpeter
Dave Burns, onetime member of sax and flute man
James Moody's exciting bop orchestra.
Moody himself played an important role in
Barron's career, first hiring him to perform at the Village Vanguard, then bringing him into
Dizzy Gillespie's band.
Barron stuck with
Diz and
Moody until 1966, performing at clubs and festivals on both coasts and touring through France and England.
Barron's first great year of independent recording activity was 1967. In addition to co-leading the session
You Had Better Listen with trumpeter
Jimmy Owens, the pianist made records with trumpeter
Freddie Hubbard and saxophonists
Joe Henderson,
Stanley Turrentine,
Tyrone Washington,
Booker Ervin, and
Eric Kloss. His ever-expanding discography continued to widen in the '70s, featuring dates with sax and flute men
Moody and
Lateef, bassists
Ron Carter and
Buster Williams, and artists like Earl and Carl Grubbs,
Marion Brown, and
Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson.
Barron's artistic balance of freedom and discipline would continue to bear fruit in the '70s as he worked regularly with saxophonists
Chico and
Von Freeman,
John Stubblefield,
Nick Brignola, and
Stan Getz (with whom he toured extensively during
Getz's twilight years). The stylistic range continued to widen as
Barron sat in with violinists
Michal Urbaniak and
John Blake, drummer
Elvin Jones, and singing trombonist
Ray Anderson. He also delivered several of his own albums, including 1973's
Sunset to Dawn, 1975's Lucifer, and 1978's Together with fellow pianist
Tommy Flanagan. Also beginning in the '70s,
Barron joined the faculty at Rutgers University, teaching piano and keyboard harmony.
During the '80s,
Barron remained quite active, releasing his own albums such as 1985's Scratch with bassist
Dave Holland and drummer
Daniel Humair. He also played on
Bill Lee's score for
Spike Lee's film
Do the Right Thing, appeared on multi-performer tribute albums honoring composers
Nino Rota and
Thelonious Monk, and became a founding member (with
Charlie Rouse,
Buster Williams, and
Ben Riley) of
Sphere, the definitive
Monk legacy band. The '90s were an equally fruitful period for
Barron, and found him working steadily for
Verve, releasing such albums as People Time,
Other Places,
Wanton Spirit, and
Night and the City.
By the turn of the century,
Barron had established himself as both a piano virtuoso and journeyman artist who issued solo, duo, and large-ensemble recordings. In 2000, he released the Grammy-nominated
Spirit Song, followed quickly by the release of
Freefall, featuring violinist
Regina Carter, in 2001. Also around this time, he left his position at Rutgers and joined the faculty at Juilliard.
Barron then moved to a quintet setting for 2004's Images. Four years later, he collaborated with West African guitarist
Lionel Loueke on
Traveler. Vocalist
Claire Martin was the next beneficiary of
Barron's deft accompanist skills on her album Too Much in Love to Care in 2012.
Barron next delivered several duo albums, pairing with bassist
Holland for 2014's
The Art of Conversation on Impulse! and vibraphonist
Mark Sherman for 2015's
Interplay on
Chesky Records. In 2016, he returned to the trio format with the Grammy-nominated
Book of Intuition featuring bassist
Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer
Johnathan Blake. He then expanded his trio to a quintet for his Blue Note debut, 2018's
Concentric Circles, adding trumpeter
Mike Rodriguez and saxophonist
Dayna Stephens. The following year,
Barron issued a three-disc live album titled The Art of Piano Duo, collecting three duo performances with late pianist
Mulgrew Miller from 2005 (Marciac, France) and 2011 (Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland). In 2020, he reunited with
Dave Holland and
Johnathan Blake for the trio date
Without Deception. ~ arwulf arwulf