In an era of intensively schooled jazz performers, it’s a frequent reporter’s observation that a particular player seems at ease playing just about any style. But if omnicompetence in jazz is widespread, there’s more to covering older forms than hotshot technique – as is currently being demonstrated at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club by the 72-year-old Philadelphian Kenny Barron, one of the most articulate and polished mainstream-to-bop improvisers in the jazz of the past 40 years. Barron doesn’t play old Broadway songs, samba shuffles or swing grooves with respectful courtliness or knowing irony but with a devoted warmth, and a delicacy that comes from having lived with their nuances for a very long time.
Barron’s main agenda is the music from his album Book of Intuition, but he and his trio partners Kiyoshi Kitagawa (bass) and Johnathan Blake (drums) gave their show a piquancy typical of live jazz, particularly in the finesse of their dynamics, and the dramatic yet apposite impact of Blake’s excursions into a contemporary rhythmic world very different from Barron’s. The pianist began with a deceptively low-key opener not featured on the album, wrapping his slowly waltzing composition Lullaby in moist arpeggios and flicked asides, turning up the heat only marginally in thicker chords and busier lines after Kitagawa’s velvety bass break. Then he cranked up the momentum, with the rocking ostinato and jumpy descents of the Bud Powell dedication Bud Like releasing a stream of fast piano runs and snatches of salsa over Blake’s blend of cymbal chatter, snare rolls and occasionally admonishing rimshots, like a conductor tapping the baton for attention.
The late Charlie Haden’s Nightfall confirmed Barron’s mastery of developing narrative with the most sparing of touches and sly turns, and his own composition Calypso showed his capacity to inhabit a different rhythmic culture as if he had been raised in it. Barron’s trio charts a classic jazz course while sounding as modern as the moment, an impression driven home by Blake’s thrilling calypso climax of pounding-heart kick drum patterns and jolting figures assembled on the fly from all over contemporary jazz, pop and funk percussion.
