Kenny Barron seems to have built his career
incrementally--through hard work, recording a vast number of albums as a leader
and sideman, by extensive touring, unending dedication to the creative
potential of jazz piano, years of work as a jazz educator, and through decades
of experience with some of jazz' leading legends.
The result is Barron
has deservedly attained recognition, especially within the past decade, as one
of the most highly regarded jazz pianists of his generation. He is as
comfortable backing up Sheila Jordan on "Lost And Found" as he is investigating
Thelonious Monk's music as a member of Sphere. In addition, Barron has
experimented throughout much of his career with the form of the jazz duo. One
of the most challenging of those duos can be heard on his recent CD with Regina
Carter, "Freefall."
Kenny Barron took some time between his European
and West Coast tours to discuss the new album...and more.
JazzReview.com: I understand that you just returned from touring Europe
with Regina Carter.
Kenny Barron: "I just returned from a jazz
festival in Munich yesterday. Regina and I did about five concerts in Europe.
We started in Paris, went to Turino, then to a little town in Germany, then to
the North Sea Jazz Festival, and then to Istanbul. I did a solo concert in a
hotel in Munich, the Bayerischer Hof. Joe Zawinul and Freddy Cole were there
too."
JazzReview.com: And, you'll be playing in Los Angeles?
Kenny Barron: "Yes, we'll be playing for A Midsummer Night's
Jazz at the John Anson Ford Amphitheater in August. From now on, most of our
jobs in the States will take place over weekends. After we go to Los Angeles,
we will play at the Telluride Jazz Festival, the Mount Hood Jazz Festival and
the Monterey Jazz Festival. Then Regina and I will play three nights at a club
in Cambridge, Massachusetts: the Regattabar. After that, we'll do a week at the
Vanguard."
JazzReview.com: You first met Regina in Telluride.
Kenny Barron: "That's right. I was really knocked out when I
heard her for the first time, and I asked if she wanted to play a duo sometime.
I got a gig at Sweet Basil, and she worked with me there. From that gig, she
got a gig there and then I worked with her. After that, we decided it might be
nice for the two of us to do something together. We coordinated our schedules
and convinced the record company that it would work."
JazzReview.com: Your CD with Regina, "Freefall," is another in a long
line of duos for you.
Kenny Barron: "I've done quite a few,
yes. But, 'Freefall' is a little bit different because it involves the violin.
But, I've done duos with other pianists, with saxophonists like Stan Getz, and
with bass players like Charlie Haden. Duos of piano and bass are fairly
traditional, but those with horn players, and especially with violin, are a
little unusual. There were a lot of directions available to us when Regina and
I played, and that was what was challenging about the recording. For instance,
Regina had never played duo with the piano, at least not in a jazz context. So
for her, it was a challenge to figure out how to accompany me when I was
soloing. And sometimes we didn't solo, but instead we reacted to each other.
The project involved some work, but it was all fun."
JazzReview.com: Do you plan to work together again?
Kenny Barron: "As far as recording goes, I'm not sure. But, we
hope to perform together as an ongoing situation without making a career out of
it. Working together is very enjoyable and she's very easy to work with.
Besides being a great musician, Regina is a nice person."
JazzReview.com: Have you been teaching again, now that you retired from
Rutgers?
Kenny Barron: "Starting in September, I'll begin
teaching at Julliard. I also teach at the Manhattan School Of Music. I don't
have many students. I have four or five students at Manhattan and at Julliard.
I'm required to teach only two students. I retired from Rutgers two years ago
after teaching there for twenty-five years."
JazzReview.com:
Has Sphere been performing lately?
Kenny Barron: "We played
at the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles recently, as well as at the Jazz Alley in
Seattle. It's hard to coordinate everyone's schedule now because Gary [Bartz]
and Buster [Williams] have their own bands. I'm involved in various projects,
as is Ben [Riley]. We do intend to perform as often as we can, though. Sphere
has a record in the can, which we produced and recorded ourselves. It's on our
own label."
JazzReview.com: I see that your brother's "Modern
Windows Suite" was re-released last year. Wasn't that your first recording?
Kenny Barron: "No, my first recording was on The 'Tenor
Stylings of Bill Barron,' which Savoy included on the 'Modern Windows Suite'
re-issue. In the beginning, he was my primary influence in becoming interested
in jazz."
JazzReview.com: Did your family play music too?
Kenny Barron: "Not professionally. I had two brothers and two
sisters and everybody studied piano. It was a 'requirement.'"
JazzReview.com: You had said elsewhere that your brother didn't receive
enough recognition because he was modest.
Kenny Barron: "I
think that he wasn't an aggressive person. He was very quiet and mild-mannered.
I think his personality may have played a part in his not receiving his just
dues. My first gig in New York was with my brother. He and Ted Curson were
playing a Monday night at Birdland. I'll never forget that. Then, whenever he
had a gig in town, I worked with him."
JazzReview.com: Who else
did you work with when you moved to New York?
Kenny Barron: "I
worked with James Moody, Lou Donaldson and Roy Haynes' quartet. When I moved to
New York, I was living on the lower East Side--actually next door to my
brother. The Five Spot was within walking distance of my apartment. I used to
go there to hang out. One night, when Moody was working there, he asked me if I
could sit in. That was unusual for me because I don't usually do that. But, he
knew Bill and that made it a little bit easier. From there, I started working
with Moody. My association with Moody led to my working with Dizzy for four
years."
JazzReview.com: And Dizzy was a major influence on you?
Kenny Barron: "Oh, yes, very much so and not just musically.
Dizzy also taught me how to conduct myself on the bandstand and how to deal
with people. Musically, his knowledge was quite extensive and he was very
willing to share it. He knew a lot about piano voicings. Some nights, if we
played in a club that wasn't crowded, on the last set he would play piano for a
couple of tunes. He was a good piano player, although he didn't have a lot of
'technique' technique. He could solo on the piano and he knew what he was
doing. Dizzy also knew a lot about rhythms...so much so that he would tell Rudy
Collins, his drummer, exactly what to play with which limb…'Do this with
your right foot, play this with your left foot!'"
JazzReview.com:
Did you pick up your interest in Latin music from Dizzy?
Kenny
Barron: "Probably. I'm sure working with Dizzy had a lot to do with it
because we played a lot of Latin music. Also, there was a great radio show
hosted by Symphony Sid at that time. It played Latin music almost exclusively."
JazzReview.com: Didn't you listen to jazz radio in
Philadelphia?
Kenny Barron: "Yes, actually. The DJ for one of
the shows I listened to is now a record producer: Joel Dorn. He was a good DJ.
Later, Joel was the producer when I was working with Yusef Lateef."
JazzReview.com: How did you start working with Yusef?
Kenny
Barron: "Interestingly enough, Yusef came to work at the Showboat in Philly
while I was still in high school. His pianist missed a flight from Detroit for
a matinee on Monday at four o'clock. So, Yusef called Jimmy Heath to see if he
knew anybody who could substitute. I had been working with Jimmy and so he gave
Yusef my name. The first time I only played the matinee, but from that meeting
developed a fairly long association. The month that I graduated from high
school, I got a call from Yusef to go to Detroit to play at a club called the
Minor Key. That was my first road trip, so to speak."
JazzReview.com: Did you meet any other musicians while you were in
Detroit?
Kenny Barron: "This was in 1960, and I met the
McKinney family. Everyone in the family was musical, including Ray and Bernard
[Kiane Zawadi]. I met Dorothy Ashby who is one of the few jazz harpists."
JazzReview.com: Who were some of your influences?
Kenny Barron: "Tommy Flanagan was a very early influence. When I was in
junior high school, I heard Tommy on a record called 'Collectors Items' with
Sonny Rollins and Miles. When I first heard Tommy, I knew that I liked his
style--his touch and his very lyrical ideas. Then, many years later, I heard
Hank Jones. In conversations with Tommy, I learned that Hank was one of Tommy's
influences. Also, McCoy Tyner had a strong influence on me and I loved hearing
Wynton Kelly."
JazzReview.com: And you took lessons from Vera
Eubanks [Kevin, Robin Duane and Shane Eubanks' mother and Ray Bryant's sister].
Kenny Barron: "Yes, she was Vera Bryant then. She didn't
live very far away from our house. She played classical and gospel piano,
although gospel was really her forté. I think she still plays piano. I
saw her for the first time in years one night at Bradley's when Kevin was
playing there before he moved to L.A. I hadn't seen her for a long time, but
she still looked exactly the same as I remembered her. Ray told me that we're
actually cousins by marriage. My aunt was married to his uncle."
JazzReview.com: When you joined Stan Getz, he called you out of the blue
to replace Chick Corea?
Kenny Barron: "Yes, I don't know how he
got my name. I really don't. But, I was very happy about it. We played all of
Chick's music the first time I worked with Stan--tunes like 'La Fiesta' and
'Captain Marvel.' The rest of the band consisted of Tony Williams and Stanley
Clarke. The first job with Stan was just a short tour to North Carolina and
Washington D.C. I didn't hear from him for maybe a year or two. Then, he
started to call again to see if I could go to California or play a week or two
somewhere. Eventually I started working more with him. The first band at that
time had George Mraz and Al Foster in it. Then it was George Mraz and Victor
Lewis. Then it was Rufus Reid and Victor Lewis. Sometimes other musicians
filled in. One time he had Anthony Cox playing bass or Jeff Williams on drums.
Toward the end, Ben Riley and Ray Drummond toured with him."
JazzReview.com: And your mother-in-law got sick during the 'Apasionado'
tour.
Kenny Barron: "Yes. I had to leave in the middle of that
tour to come home, and then my mother-in-law passed away. When I was ready to
rejoin Stan, he said, 'Why don't you bring your wife? I'll pay for it.' That
was a very sweet thing for him to do."
JazzReview.com: You said
in the liner notes to 'People Time' that he always apologized when he played
sober.
Kenny Barron: "He felt uncomfortable when he went sober.
I remember that during one recording, he felt like he wanted to take a drink,
even though he didn't. I went to Bradley's afterward and saw Stan hanging out
there. I think he was on the verge of taking a drink, but he didn't. That
project was never released because we recorded only two or three songs. Stan
did give up all of his substance abuse. Part of the Alcoholics Anonymous
program requires that participants make amends to the people who have been
hurt. Stan was actually trying to do that. He apologized to a number of
people."
JazzReview.com: Did he ever apologize to you?
Kenny Barron: "No, he never did anything to hurt me. By the time I
worked with him, he was fine. The last time I saw him was in Paris, right after
we recorded 'People Time' in March. I called him a few weeks after that to see
how he was feeling and he was planning a tour for June. But, he died in June."
JazzReview.com: I read in 'Jazz Times' that you've lived in the
same house for twenty-eight years, in Brooklyn.
Kenny Barron:
"Yes. I haven't done a lot of moving around. We used to have an apartment
in Bed-Stuy for a long time and then we moved here. I don't have any plans to
move yet. My daughter, Nicole, lives here and so does my granddaughter,
Nikara."
JazzReview.com: That brings me back to one point about
Dizzy. You had said that he liked to hire married musicians.
Kenny
Barron: "That's one of the reasons I got the gig. He never heard me play
before I joined him. He hired me on Moody's recommendation. I was married at
the time; I was nineteen then. That gig came right in time. I think Dizzy felt
that married musicians were more stable and reliable. For the most part, that's
probably true. When you have bills to pay, you take care of business."
JazzReview.com: Is it tough to balance marriage with a career as a
musician?
Kenny Barron: "I have to travel. Early in my career,
I couldn't afford to bring my wife with me. So, that was something that she had
to deal with. Well, we both had to deal with it. But, now she gets to travel
with me. She's retired as well. She used to work in the New York school system
as a teacher, but I didn't travel too much during the time that I taught at
Rutgers. Occasionally I did tours, but I was home a lot more often."
JazzReview.com: You've known Ron Carter for a long time.
Kenny Barron: "Yes. We just played together at the North Sea Jazz
Festival. I did a day with Regina, and then I did another day with kind of an
all-star trio that included Billy Cobham and Ron Carter."
JazzReview.com: How did you meet him?
Kenny Barron: "I
don't remember exactly. I think the first time we played together was on a
record of my brother's. You wouldn't have heard of it. It was called
'Brazileros,' an album of Brazilian music on a strange high-fidelity label. I
don't think my brother's name was even on it. The recording involved my
brother, Ron and myself. Charli Persip was the drummer."
JazzReview.com: I understand that you always wanted to play with Sonny
Rollins.
Kenny Barron: "Yes, I would love to play with Sonny.
He called me a couple of times in the seventies, but I was working with Freddie
Hubbard at the time. He called to work with him, but I wasn't available."
JazzReview.com: Is there anyone else you've wanted to record
with?
Kenny Barron: "Well, I always wanted to record with
Miles, but he isn't here any more."
JazzReview.com: You're one
of the most versatile jazz pianists in that you can accompany as well as you
can lead. Mulgrew Miller is another pianist with those combined strengths who
comes to mind. Is there a key to being able to do both so well?
Kenny Barron: "I don't think there's a key to it. That ability depends
on your experience. It's easier to accompany someone if you've done a lot of
it. I've had a lot of experience working with singers and I've played in a lot
of different situations. So, that makes it kind of easy to make those
transitions."
JazzReview.com: Do you still write much music?
Kenny Barron: "Not as much as I would like. I just don't have
the time. I did do quite a bit of writing for my 'Spirit Song' album. It has
taken me a while to realize that I may actually be able to compose some more.
I'm trying to figure out my next project now, as a matter of fact. I'm still
undecided about what I will do, but I intend to do some writing for my next
recording."
JazzReview.com: Do you prefer being a leader on a
project now?
Kenny Barron: "When I'm recording! [Laughs] There
are pros and cons with being a bandleader. There is much more to deal with when
you're a bandleader, logistics being one of the challenges. Also, you have to
deal with personalities. You have to know how to pick the right kind of
people--people who are musically fantastic but who, on a personal level, can
take care of business. I think I'm at the point now where I feel more
comfortable being a bandleader. It's not uncomfortable for me to be a sideman,
but I feel more comfortable being a bandleader. If I'm a sideman, I have to
deal with someone else's musical vision, which is OK. But, when I lead, I'm
recording my musical vision."
JazzReview sincerely thanks Kenny Barron
for his time in conducting this interview. You can find more information about
Kenny Barron, Regina Carter and the "Freefall" album at
http://www.vervemusicgroup.com
JazzReview.com
