Kenny Barron, Ray Drummond, & Ben Riley: So Many Lovely Things: Live In Brecon

 

   Yusef Lateef, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Booker Ervin, Stan Getz: just a small sampling of the illustrious jazz figures who have given pianist Kenny Barron plenty of work since his recorded debut on brother Bill Barron’s 1961 Savoy album The Tenor Stylings Of Bill Barron. Besides being a much in demand sideman, Barron has also recorded over 50 albums as leader. A new addition to his discography is the recently unearthed So Many Lovely Things: Live In Brecon, a 1995 performance featuring the impeccably balanced trio of Kenny Barron, Ray Drummond, & Ben Riley. Recorded before an appreciative audience in the 400-seat Christ College Auditorium in Brecon, Wales, this set offers over 90 minutes of pure enjoyment. Barron, whose exquisite touch and elegant sense of swing are in evidence from the first note, starts off the show with Oh, Look at Me Now, a melody by Joe Bushkin that goes back to the early 1940's. Barron must have spending some time listening to the Tommy Dorsey band. That song, and the contemporaneous Bob Russell composition Time Was are the oldest songs in the program. Like most well-traveled pianists, Barron probably knows hundreds of tunes, and he writes some of his own as well. He plays two originals for the Welsh crowd. His gently relaxed Silent Rain is a solo piano feature, while the enchanting Nikara’s Song is explored at length by the trio. The balance of the program includes Freddie Hubbard’s Up Jumped Swing, two pieces by Thelonious Monk (a solo excursion on Shuffle Boil, and a mildly uptempo trio version of Ask Me Now), and three well-loved standards. As bassist Drummond comments to Ted Panken in the liner notes, “Kenny’s universe includes many dimensions.” Barron himself notes that he “likes music, and I like all of it.” And he loves to play all of it, too, as this lovely set proves. Happily recommended. 

Elemental 5990464 (Lp and CD); Kenny Barron (p) Ray Drummond (b) Ben Riley (d); Brecon, Wales, August 12, 1995; Disc 1 (54:08): Oh, Look At Me Now/ Up Jumped Spring/ Shuffle Boil/ Time Was/ Silent Rain/ Ask Me Now. Disc 2 (53:40): Nikara’s Song/ The Surrey With the Fringe on Top/ The Very Thought of You/ Canadian Sunset. www.elemental-music.com

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

After crossing paths on bandstands around the world in the Seventies, pianist Kenny Barron and bassist Dave Holland first recorded together on Barron’s Scratch album (Enja, 1985). They’ve worked on a few projects together over the years, toured Europe as a duo in 2012, and in 2014 collaborated on The Art Of Conversation (Impulse). Now they’ve extended their working relationship by forming the Kenny Barron / Dave Holland Trio featuring Johnathan Blake, which makes a potent debut with Without Deception, released on Holland’s own Dare 2 label. Blake has been playing drums in Barron’s regular trio with bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa for the last few years, so his presence in this unit is no surprise. The well-chosen repertoire includes originals by Barron and Holland plus four songs by pianists: Mulgrew Miller’s Second Thoughts, Sumi Tonooka’s Secret Places, Duke Ellington’s Warm Valley, and Thelonious Monk’s Worry Later. There’s nothing fancy about the arrangements, just a solid sense of swing at all times as these accomplished musicians offer the equivalent of a master class in the art of the jazz piano trio. Favorite tracks include the supersonic flair of Barron’s Speed Trap with a splashy drum solo, Holland’s jumping Pass It On, a dedication to Ed Blackwell, and the always irresistible Warm Valley. But there’s not a single dull moment on this winning set. Happily recommended.
Dare 2 DARE-011; Kenny Barron (p) Dave Holland (b) Johnathan Blake (d); Mount Vernon, NY, August 17-18, 2019; Porto Alegre/ Second Thoughts/ Without Deception/ Until Then/ Speed Trap/ Secret Places/ Pass It On/ Warm Valley/ I Remember When/ Worry Later; 66:32. daveholland.com