Kenny Barron's Week as Resident Artistic Director

Kenny Barron is a 2010 NEA Jazz Master and eleven-time GRAMMY nominee who helped define and extend the jazz tradition since his work with Dizzy Gillespie in the early ‘60s catapulted him into the spotlight. He’s recorded nearly 50 albums as a bandleader over his five-decade career, and has made an indelible mark in jazz history as a performer, composer, and educator.

His week as Resident Artistic Director kicks off Thursday 4/10 with the most current iteration of the quintet Barron introduced for his 2018 Blue Note album Concentric Circles.

Beginning his 1967 debut release You Had Better Listen in collaboration with trumpeter Jimmy Owens, Barron has consistently returned to the 5-piece configuration over the years, notably on 1973’s Sunset to Dawn, 1982’s Golden Lotus, and the superlative 1986 Enja session What If?, featuring a young Wallace Roney on trumpet and longtime compatriot John Stubblefield on tenor.

To celebrate his 75th birthday and mark his 50th year as a recording artist, Barron assembled a new quintet in 2018 based upon his longstanding trio with bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake featuring SFJAZZ Collective trumpeter Mike Rodriguez and Bay Area-raised tenor saxophone master Dayna Stephens — a perfectly attuned vehicle for Barron’s advanced hard bop. Their Blue Note debut, Concentric Circles, was Barron’s first for the label, consisting primarily of the pianist’s evocative originals, a cover of Caetano Veloso’s flowing samba “Aquele Frevo Axé,” and ending with a solo reading of Thelonious Monk’s sublime ballad “Reflections.”

In his review for allmusic.com, critic Matt Collar wrote, "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."

For the performance on 4/10, bass genius Christian McBride stands in for Kitagawa, and the saxophone chair will be occupied by the masterful Immanuel Wilkins.

A solo recital by Kenny Barron is a rare opportunity to witness the unadorned creative process of one of the greatest living pianists – an artist who creates an entire orchestra from the instrument – and SFJAZZ audiences will experience this alchemy on 4/11.

Barron has a lengthy discography of solo piano records dating back to his 1981 Xanadu Records release Kenny Barron at the Piano – a session that combined original compositions with imaginative takes on the work of Ellington, Johnny Green, and the ever-present Thelonious Monk, whose music was the focus of Barron’s tenure with the Monk alumni project Sphere. In his JazzTimes review, critic Philip Booth wrote that the record is “an up-close snapshot of the virtuosity, broadly encompassing style and wide-ranging repertoire that would come to define his storied career.”

The pianist would return to the studio in 1982 for the Japanese label Baybridge to record his sophomore solo set Spiral, and a remarkable 1990 solo performance captured at Berkeley’s 50-seat Maybeck Recital Hall was issued by Concord Records as part of their 42-volume series of solo piano concerts recorded at the intimate venue in a private home in the Berkeley hills.

Barron wouldn’t return to the solo piano format for over three decades until 2023's The Source –arguably his finest moment as a solo artist. Issued by France’s Artwork Records label, The Source was taken from a 2022 Paris concert, and is, in the words of Jazzwise reviewer Stuart Nicholson, “a fine example of his pianistic art, and how it has evolved since the 1990 Maybeck recording.”

The final two nights of Barron’s residency are centered around his longstanding trio with bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake. Easily among the greatest working piano trios in jazz, the band has developed a singular level of telepathy that is rare to hear in this era.

Though both Kitagawa and Blake have lengthy histories with Barron, going back 30 and 20 years respectively, the trio didn’t appear on record together until 2016’s Impulse! release Book of Intuition – a GRAMMY-nominated date consisting primarily of the pianist’s original compositions along with a pair of Monk favorites and a piece by the late bass genius Charlie Haden.

On Saturday, 4/12, the trio will be joined by a 22-piece string orchestra that brings an expansive new dimension to Barron’s music and showcases his superlative arranging skills in a setting that SFJAZZ audiences have never experienced before.

Barron and his trio close his week on Sunday, 4/13, with a selection of very special guests including harmonica master Grégoire Maret, cellist Noah Johnson, and frequent collaborator and former SFJAZZ High School All-Star Elena Pinderhughes on flute. The sextet will premiere a new chamber work composed specifically for this ensemble.

Kenny Barron’s week as Resident Artistic Director runs 4/10-13. Tickets and more information are available here.