Scott Vander Werf: Kenny Barron is one of the greatest living jazz masters and a musician emeritus of piano and composition born in 1943 in Philadelphia. Kenny Barron has many recordings as a leader and been featured on hundreds of albums as a sideman for over 60 years. He's returning to Grand Rapids to perform at St. Cecilia Music Center on Thursday, October 8th at 7.30 p.m. with bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Jonathan Blake. His most recent album is Songbook, a collection of compositions with lyrics from Janis Jarrett and a cast of wonderful singers like Jean Baylor, Kurt Elling, Tyler McDole, Anne Hampton Calloway, and Catherine Russell. Here's Thoughts and Dreams featuring Cecile McLaurin-Salvant:
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SVW: In April, Kenny Barron's longtime Japanese bassist, Kiyoshi Kirigawa, passed away suddenly at the age of 67. I asked him how he became part of his ensembles:
Kenny Barron: He had been with me almost 30 years.And Ben Reilly was the drummer at the time.And Ray Drummond was the bassist.And Ray decided to move back to California to teach at Claremont University somewhere near Monterey.So I was kind of floundering trying to figure out a bass player. And Ben told me about, well, “I heard this Japanese guy that everybody was talking about.”And he told me about him and I called him, you know. So we had a gig and the first gig was in St. Louis, a place called Just Jazz, I think it was called.Yeah, Just Jazz.And he made the gig. And it was perfect. Had no problems musically.And he was really, he was a hell of a nice guy, you know.And he just fit in right with the band. He knew a lot of repertoire, knew a lot of standards.Because we didn't have time to rehearse at that time. For that, that was a one week gig. So we just played standards and he knew every one of them.And he told me that he had heard me in Japan when he was in his twenties, I think, in Kobe, Japan at a club, jazz club there. I was playing there with Buster Williams and Ben, and Ben Riley.The club was called Chicken George.And he said that's when he first heard me. He was uh... very excited to be playing in New York but he had been doing other games as well you think that time he played with Kenny Garrick for a while and uh... uh... some other Harper Brothers he played with uh... singer that passed away Andy Bay for quite a while so he had a lot of experience on this bill but he was a wonderful bass player. And his death affected a lot of people, think, you know, and it was so sudden.
Scott Vander Werf: He's been on so many of your recordings over the the last couple of decades.
KB: Right. Right. Yeah.
SVW: And he was on your last original album songbook. And I wanted to know how did how did what was the process on that? Did I know the lyrics mostly were Janice Jarrett, were the lyrics written before the concept of the album or were they written for the recording of this album?
KB: Before the concept. She had been, she had started writing lyrics, uh, oh God, 30, 40 years ago. That's how long I've known her.
SVW: Oh, wow.
KB: Yeah. She lives in Arizona now. And, uh, so I guess she would listen to my records and she would call me and text me and say, here’s some lyrics for that song. This song and that song, you know, she would send them to me. And we had talked about doing a book, music and her lyrics, you know,which never came to fruition.Then this situation came up with the Artworks. You know, one of the things I like to do is do a recording with some of the singers that I like using Janice's lyrics. So we put it together with the help of my manager and Sebastian Vidal who has Artworks Records. So I kind of found the singers that I thought would work for each song.Like I heard Gene Valor at Desi's one night and I said, oh yeah, I like her, I love…. and she did a great job.She did three songs.And Hampton Calloway, who I love.I had actually been on several of her recordings. So I knew about her, so she came in and...just cleaned it up, you know, she just wiped it out.
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SVW: That's Cook's Bay by Kenny Barron featuring singer Ann Hampton Calloway, drummer Jonathan Blake and bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa. In Grand Rapids, Barron is bringing Blake and also Detroit-born bassist Robert Hurst.
KB: I've only played with Bob maybe once or twice, you know. So we got a little tour lined up and next year, actually, we're going to do with Bob in the West Coast. So I'm looking forward to that. But I'm looking forward to playing with them in Grand Rapids.
SVW: Pianist and composer Kenny Barron, the Jazz Master is returning to Grand Rapids to perform at St. Cecilia Music Center on Thursday, October 8th at 7.30 p.m.
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