At the Jazz Kitchen, Kenny Barron Trio sustains vitality of conventional trio format

Having just turned 80, Kenny Barron long ago confirmed his eminence in modern jazz piano. On
Saturday night, he concluded a two-day run with his current trio at the Jazz Kitchen. There was not a scintilla of evidence that the pianist's skills have diminished over many decades of distinction as both sideman and bandleader.

Kenny Barron played four sets over two nights.

Up to now, I've known his work only from recordings. But that was enough to make his Jazz Kitchen engagement a can't-miss event. Barron is the sort of outstanding pianist that if you came across something in a record bin led by a player you weren't familiar with, you'd shell out for it just from seeing the pianist's name as a band member.

In the second set, he opened with his own "Lullaby." A long unaccompanied introduction unfolded with a series of tasty chords from which the melody gradually emerged. In his solo, after bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Savannah Harris joined in, his excursion became more florid. Yet Barron's playing never seemed a smorgasbord of different styles, but rather an integrated personal manner into which a variety of textures fitted naturally.

Thus it was throughout the set, which mixed originals and tunes by others that the trio made its own.  His arrangement of Billy Strayhorn's "Isfahan" was perkier than many versions you'll hear. Its dreaminess gradually took root as a bluesy solo. Decorative elements appeared out of a funky backdrop, with brief outbursts coming from the drummer. Kitagawa's  solo displayed a variety of accents, with some wry double-stopped phrases sliding into play. 

In "Nightfall," a ballad by Charlie Haden (one of a host of former Barron collaborators who have passed on), Barron conveyed a sense of holding something in reserve to draw the listener in further.  When Harris helped support a tango vibe in the middle, it was refreshing — even though probably no one suspected that further refreshment was called for.

This inviting approach to everything the trio did may account for the capacity audience's sustained attention. The cliché "everybody talks during the bass solo" was contradicted even when Kitagawa was at his most expansive. What used to be called a flag-waver, the Barron composition "New York Attitude," featured the bassist on a high plateau of inspiration. 

Piano and drums dropped out for a while as Kitagawa bounced wittily off the theme. Sometimes he inserted stubborn pauses that supported the song's title, reminiscent of Dustin Hoffman's jaywalking character yelling "Hey, I'm here!" in "Midnight Cowboy." Barron's exchanges with Harris brought her good taste and variety forward here and in other places during the set.

Holding his love of melody aloft, Barron offered an unaccompanied medley of four Ellington/Strayhorn tunes, ending with one of that center of genius' Shakespeare inspirations, "The Star-Crossed Lovers."

Gracious but never long-winded in speaking to the audience, Barron introduced the final selection, "Calypso," by noting all the Caribbean music he heard in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood after moving from his native Philadelphia to New York in the early 1960s. The trio maintained its virtuosity in this set-closer, giving a continuous lift to the tune's rhythmic intricacy. The performance confirmed Barron's habit of absorbing all kinds of music and turning his experience to account through personal mastery, shared here with two first-rate colleagues.