Pianist
Kenny Barron celebrates his 75th birthday with his Blue Note debut, 2018's sophisticated quintet album,
Concentric Circles. An 11-time Grammy-nominated artist,
Barron is a journeyman performer with over five decades of highly regarded work under his belt, including stints with titans like
Dizzy Gillespie,
James Moody,
Stan Getz, and many others. He brings all of that experience to bear here with a largely original set of swinging, harmonically nuanced compositions. Backing him are his longtime bandmates bassist
Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer
Johnathan Blake, along with added quintet members trumpeter
Mike Rodriguez and saxophonist
Dayna Stephens. In a sense,
Concentric Circles is a continuation of
Barron's recent trio albums 2015's Interplay and 2016's
Book of Intuition, both of which showcased his lithe improvisational skills, and deft sense of group interplay. Here, he expands that approach, offering up richly arranged melodies and songs that touch upon forward-thinking post-bop ("Concentric Circles"), atmospheric modality ("A Short Journey"), and buoyant Latin rhythms ("Baile"). Having already grabbed attention on albums with artists like
Miguel Zenón,
Bebo Valdés, and
Charlie Haden, trumpeter
Rodriguez remains a quietly ascending star-in-the-making here, blessed with a warm, puckered tone and knack for engaging, architectural lines. His bluesy solo on the hard-boppish "Blue Waters," and his tender flügelhorn turn on Caetono Veloso's ballad "Aquele Frevo Axe" are supremely engaging. Similarly,
Stephens continues to prove he's one of the most inventive and accomplished players of his generation, offering up spiraling, vocal-like improvisations throughout. Together, they spar on "Baile" and take divergent, yet complementary paths on the roiling, funky "L's Bop." While
Barron has never sounded anything short of virtuosic, his skills have only deepened over the years. He commands the album, framing his musicians with richly textured chord voicings one minute, and launching into evocative improvisational asides the next. What's particularly refreshing is how immediate and of-the-moment the album feels.
Concentric Circles is the sound of a jazz master continuing to push forward, buoyed by his bandmates and the lessons of the past. ~ Matt Collar