THE ART OF CONVERSATION
Kenny Barron, piano
Dave Holland, double bass
The Art of Conversation marks the first time bassist/composer Dave Holland and pianist/composer Kenny Barron have recorded their duo performances. These titans began touring together throughout Europe and the United States in 2012. One such performance at the Jazz à La Villette at Cité de la Musique in Paris in September 2012 caught the attention of Jean-Philippe Allard, producer and director of Universal Music Publishing France. So moved by the concert, Allard encouraged them to record a studio date.
The disc reflects two years of Holland and Barron finessing their empathy chemistry and repertoire. Out of an expansive body of work that they’ve cultivated, The Art of Conversation offers 10 compositions of originals and standards that exemplify their individual and combined musical ingenuity.
Holland contributes four originals. The disc openers with “The Oracle,” a well-known Holland tune, mostly associated with his the 1990 edition of his quartet. On The Art of Conversation, he and Barron pare the song down to its bare essential, maximizing the song’s singable melody and jubilant rhythm. The other Holland-penned tunes are “Waltz for Wheeler,” an evocative tribute to trumpeter Kenny Wheeler; “In Your Arms,” a lovely ballad that Holland recorded in 1985 with his Gateway ensemble; and the Latin-tingled “Dr. Do Right,” which was featured on Holland’s 1995 disc, World Trio, with guitarist Kevin Eubanks and percussionist Mino Cinelu.
In turn, The Art of Conversation showcases three superb Barron compositions. Just as Holland represented his affinity for Latin music with “Dr. Do Right,” so does Barron with the buoyant “Seascape,” a gem the pianist featured on his 1991 disc, Lemuria-Seascape (Reservoir). A master at penning and playing comely ballads, Barron also contributes “Rain,” on which he provides the perfect vehicle for Holland to demonstrate both strength and sensitivity as the first lead soloist. Barron’s whimsical “The Only One” appears on this disc too; the tune alludes to one of his most significant lodestars, Thelonious Monk.
Speaking of Monk, Barron and Holland deliver a frisky makeover of “In Walked Bud,” one of the three non-originals featured on the disc. On the suggestion of Holland, the duo culls from Charlie Parker’s discography the rare bebop gem, “Segment.” Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington’s wistful “Daydream” closes the disc, displaying Barron and Holland’s gift for pithy romanticism.
Throughout the multifaceted disc, Holland and Barron imbue each composition with an enormous sense of jazz history paired with a musical simpatico that suggest that they’ve been playing together much longer than two years. Born only three years apart, their paths crossed many times in New York during the 1960s and ’70s with each developing reciprocal admiration. Still they didn’t record together until Barron’s 1985 LP, Scratch (Enja Records), a trio date that featured drummer Daniel Humair. Afterward, Holland and Barron played together on a couple of baritone saxophonist Nick Brignola’s discs – On a Different Level (Reservoir, 1989) and It’s Time (Reservoir, 1991).
Both Holland and Barron have illustrated musical brilliance in the duo setting with their respective careers. Barron has recorded numerous critically acclaimed duo albums withsuch luminaries as tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, violinist Regina Carter, multi-instrumentalist Mino Cinelu, vibraphonist Joe Locke, and bassists Buster Williams and Harvie Swartz. Likewise, Holland has documented his exploration in the duo setting with such notable jazz pioneers as bassist Barre Phillips, pianist and vibraphonist Karl Berger, and saxophonists Steve Coleman, George Young and Sam Rivers.
People Time, the critically acclaimed 1991 double-disc from Getz and Barron, in particular, is pivotal for several reasons. First, it was recorded live in March 1991 at Copenhagen’s Café Montmatre– three months before Getz passed away in June. The disc was also produced by Allard, who then ran his Gitanes imprint, which in coordination with Verve/ Polygram released not only People Time but other ’90s late-career classic discs from such jazz stars as Abbey Lincoln, Shirley Horn, Hank Jones, and Randy Weston. After the huge success of People Time, Barron gained a mid-career resurgence by teaming with Allard and his Gitanes imprint to release such ’90s gems as Sambao (1993), Other Places (1993), Wanton Spirit (1995) and Night and the City (1996), another piano/bass duet, this time with Charlie Haden.
“[Duos] afford you the opportunity to go into different directions,” claims Barron, when asked why he loves the intimate yet also intimidating setting. He also explains that he revels in playing in that setting with bassists because it gives him a foundation to unravel exquisite voicings.
For Holland, it’s the direct and intimate interactions of just two musicians that attract him to the duo setting, before complimenting Barron on being both a “tremendous listener as well as a tremendous player.” “For me, it’s a harmony lesson every time I play with [Barron] or listen to what he does with chords and reharmonization of things,” Holland says. “I always love playing with musicians that I can learn from and increase my understanding of the music. And I certainly had that experience playing with Kenny.”
Holland and Barron each have over 40 years of experience underneath their belts; they are now considered leading figures on today’s modern jazz scene. Holland is a three-time Grammy winner; he’s also won numerous awards at the annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards. The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed the “Jazz Master” honor onto Barron in 2010, and the pianist has also garnered nine Grammy nominations. Both musicians continue to rank high in Jazz Times and Down Beat magazine’s critics polls.
Before arriving to the United States in 1968 to play in Miles Davis’ band, the British born Holland was making a name for himself on London’s jazz circuit by supporting American traveling musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Joe Henderson. Holland was also collaborating with fellow European jazz artists such as John McLaughlin, Evan Parker and Chris McGregor. With Miles, Holland played on such seminal LPs – Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew.
After his stint with Miles, Holland continued exploring multiple musical paths. He worked in a variety of settings, arranging from abstract avant-garde to fusion to post-bop. The list of significant other significant collaborators includes Chick Corea, Anthony Braxton, Eric Kloss, Betty Carter, Geri Allen and host of others. Then there’s Holland’s string of stellar albums as a leader on ECM beginning with the epochal 1972 LP, Conferences of the Birds and concluding with 2003’s Extended Play: Live at Birdland. Also on ECM, are several dates Holland recorded with Gateway ensemble, a cooperative with John Abercrombie and Jack DeJohnette. After his tenure with ECM, Holland launched is own label, Dare2, on which he’s released five discs as a leader, including last year’s critically acclaimed, Prism.
Barron too has built an illustrious career; the Philadelphia-born pianist worked with Dizzy Gillespie and Jazztetin the early-’60s. Afterward, he worked with a slew of other jazz heavyweights including Joe Henderson, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Heath, James Moody, Ron Carter, Stan Getz, Bobby Hutcherson and Freddie Hubbard. With trumpeter Jimmy Owens, Barron recorded the 1968 Atlantic Records LP, You Had Better Listen, marking his recording debut as a co-leader, before recording as a solo leader for such noted labels as the Muse, Reservoir, Candid, Verve, and Sunnyside.
Holland and Barron will continue touring as a duo throughout the rest of 2014 in Europe and the United States. With The Art of Conversation capturing only a small portion oftheir still expanding repertoire, this disc hopefully marks just the beginning of more artful conversations between the two.
Kenneth ”Kenny” Barron
Kenneth ”Kenny” Barron was born on June 9, 1943, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He began playing piano in 1955 at age 12, though early on he studied classical music with Vera Bryant. In an interview with Josef Woodard, published in the Los Angeles Times, Barron said: ”As a teenager, I used to do classical recitals around Philadelphia, at churches and things like that. But you wouldn’t call it professional. I couldn’t do it now to save my life. You do have to stay in shape. Also, it’s a different mind-set.”
Barron also studied with pianist Ray Bryant, Vera’s brother, and by 1957 was playing in an R&B band headed by Mel Melvin. Jazz, however, had a greater pull. Barron’s older brother (by 16 years) was the noted tenor saxophonist Bill Barron. At age 16 Barron was able to cut his jazz teeth by playing piano in drummer Philly Joe Jones’ band as well as in Jimmy Heath’s group. In 1960 he was in Detroit working with Yusef Lateef. By then Bill Barron had moved to New York City, and in 1961, at age 18, Kenny joined him. Soon after the move he played piano on his brother’s recording, The Tenor Stylings of Bill Barron. In the early 1960s Barron also played in James Moody’s group.
Barron’s career made a big leap in 1962 when, on Moody’s recommendation, Dizzy Gillespie invited him to join his group; he eventually replaced Lalo Schifrin. Barron remained with Gillespie until 1966 and the experience, including touring and recording, helped him build a reputation as a dependable sideman. Years later, in a New York Times interview with writer Peter Watrous in which he reflected on his time in the Gillespie group, Barron declared, ”From Dizzy … I gained a real appreciation for be-bop and Latin music.”
Barron solidified his reputation as a dependable and adaptable sideman in a number of influential jazz groups over the next 15 years: he played piano for Stanley Turrentine and in various configurations fronted by Freddie Hubbard from 1966 to 1970. In the same Watrous interview, Barron admitted that Hubbard’s music was ”really hard but allowed me to stretch out into areas that might be called avant-garde.” Barron rejoined Yusef Lateef from 1971 to 1975, and was a member of the Ron Carter Quartet from 1976 until 1980. ”When I worked with Ron Carter,” he recalled, ”I learned about nuances, how to play soft and still be intense.” In the 1970s Barron also worked with such artists as Roy Haynes, Lou Donaldson, the Buddy Rich Sextet (in 1974) and trumpeter Chet Baker, among others.
By then Barron had performed on various recordings, and his musical career took him in many directions-often simultaneously. In 1973 he joined the faculty of Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he taught music theory, jazz composition, and arranging. He retired from Rutgers at the end of the 1998-99 academic year. He subsequently taught part time at the Manhattan School of Music.
In 1980 Barron cofounded Sphere, the jazz group that paid tribute to the legendary jazz pianist, Thelonious ”Sphere” Monk. The group consisted of Barron and three alumni of Monk’s quartet: saxophonist Charlie Rouse, bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Ben Riley. Barron, Williams, and Riley had also been together in the Ron Carter Quartet in the late 1970s and in 1980 made up the Kenny Barron Trio. Sphere recorded eight albums between 1982 and 1988, three of them live performances. Ironically, February 17, 1982, the day the group entered the studio to record its first album, Four in One, which was comprised of six of Monk’s songs, was the day Monk died. Sphere dissolved with Rouse’s death in 1988, but regrouped in the 1990s with Gary Bartz playing saxophone.
By the mid-1980s, Barron, though still a member of Sphere, was once again exploring new directions, revisiting old ones, and showing audiences a new way to listen to familiar tunes. It was during these years that he began stretching himself as a composer, and once and for all broke out of the sideman mold, though he had led groups in the past and would continue as a sideman in the future. In addition to working and recording throughout the decade with such people as Michal Urbaniak, Frank Foster, Sheila Jordan, Red Mitchell, Carol Sloane and Barney Kessel, in June of 1984 Barron opened the Kool Jazz Festival in New York City as a soloist. Less thanthree months later he sat in on piano as part of a quintet led by his brother, Bill.
In 1986 Barron led his own quintet that featured saxophonist John Stubblefield, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, drummer Victor Lewis and, alternately, Cecil McBee and Ray Drummond on bass. During this period music critic Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times, ”New York jazz would be far poorer without the pianist Kenny Barron… Mr. Barron brings a suave touch, a command of be-bop filigree and a gift for bluesy phrasing to all sorts of material, and in recent years he has been turning typical melodic figures sideways and inside-out, with sly aplomb.”
Barron began one of his most fruitful collaborations – with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz – in 1986. Over the next five years Barron recorded with Getz as part of the latter’s quartet (Barron’s predecessor on the piano was Chick Corea) and performed with Getz at a number of venues, including Getz’s final concert in Munich in 1990. Their partnership was capped by the album People Time, which featured only Barron and Getz; the album, released in 1991, shortly before Getz’s death, garnered critical acclaim and a Grammy Award nomination.
In a 1994 Los Angeles Times interview with Zan Stewart, Barron reminisced about his collaboration with Getz: ”Stan was very lyrical, and I like to play that way too, so it was great just to listen to his lines, observe his choice of notes. I listened, and I learned.” Getz had his own take on their collaboration. He called Barron ”the other half of my heart.” Meanwhile during these years the ubiquitous Barron continued to be a fixture in the New York jazz world. In 1987 he was again performing with Ron Carter, who was now leading a quintet. In October of 1989 Barron had the sad honor of leading a musical tribute to his brother, Bill, who had died the previous month. Barron was also among the sidemen who performed on his brother’s final recording, Higher Ground.
In 1992 Barron formed another quintet with percussionist Mino Cinelu, Toninho Horta on guitar, Nico Assumpcao on bass, and Victor Lewis on drums. The result was the recording Sambao. Barron also moved away from mainstream jazz, performing with bassist Charlie Haden and saxophonist Ornette Coleman. His next album, Swamp Sally, which also included Cinelu, is considered a minor classic of jazz funk. In the mid-1990s he led first a trio, then a quartet that included Lewis, Drummond, and saxophonist Ravi Coltrane. During the decade he also worked with such musicians as Bartz, violinist Regina Carter, vibraphonist Ray Alexander, Dusko Goykovich, Barney Wilen, Nick Brignola, and Ernie Watts.
At the turn of the century Barron was still touring and recording. One of his quintet configurations included saxophonist David Sanchez, a former student from Rutgers. Barron also performed live and recorded a duet CD with Regina Carter. Befitting one of the best-known figures on the New York jazz scene, in 1996 he recorded a live show at Bradley’s, the intimate Greenwich Village club that closed for good that year; the CD was released in 2001. In that same year Barron, along with bassist Ron Carter, vibraphonist Stefon Harris and drummer Lewis Nash, known as the Classical Jazz Quartet, released a CD of a jazz version of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.
In 1995 Jazz Time gave Barron its Best Piano Award, and in 1998 Down Beat magazine named him Best Pianist. In 1996 Barron as a composer was paid the highest compliment when saxophonist Harvey Wainapel released the CD, Ambrosia: The Music of Kenny Barron, which featured nine of his tunes. Barron cofounded Joken Records with his former manager, Joanna Klein in 1998; one of the label’s first releases was Bill Barron’s Higher Ground.
By Frank Caso
Kenny Barron’s Career
Began studying classical piano, age 12; played with Philly Joe Jones’ band, 1959, and with Yusef Lateef, 1960; moved to New York City where he performed on his brother’s album, 1961; performed with Dizzy Gillespie, 1962-66; Stanley Turrentine, 1966; Freddie Hubbard 1967-70; Yusef Lateef, 1971-75; and Ron Carter, 1976-80; cofounded Sphere, 1980; performed with Stan Getz, 1986-91; released duet CD with Getz, People Time, 1991; led trios and quintets, performed solos and in duets with Charlie Haden and Regina Carter throughout the 1990s; cofounded Joken Records, 1998; was also an instructor at Rutgers University, New Jersey, 1973-99, and at the Manhattan School of Music.
Kenny Barron’s Awards
Jazz Time, Best Piano Award, 1995; Down Beat, Best Pianist, 1998.
Selected discography
The Tenor Stylings of Bill Barron, Savoy, 1961.; Dizzy for President, KnitClassics, 1963; (sa Ron Carterom) New York Slick, Original Jazz Classics, 1979; What If?, Enja, 1986; Lemuria-Seascape, Candid, 1991; (sa Stan Getzom) People Time, Verve, 1992; Sambao, Verve, 1992; (sa kvintetom Bill Barrona) Higher Ground, Joken, 1994; (sa kvartetom Lee Konitza) Jazz Nocturne, Evidence, 1994; Swamp Sally, Verve, 1996; Night and the City, Verve, 1998; Spirit Song, Verve, 2000; Freefall, Verve, 2001; (sa Classical Jazz Quartet) The Nutcracker, Vertical, 2001.
Dave Holland
Contrary to popular depictions, evolution has never moved in a straight line. Nature is in a continual process of transformation, moving along myriad pathways of adaptation, refinement, experimentation, and discovery, creating new and staggeringly diverse objects of beauty and wonder along the way. Over the course of a nearly five-decade career, bassist/composer Dave Holland has exemplified that evolutionary process in musical form, reinventing his concept and approach with each new project while constantly honing his instantly identifiable voice.
Since Holland’s professional debut in the mid-1960s, that voice has been heard in a remarkable number of different contexts. From the electric whirlwind of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew-era band to the elegant flamenco of his collaboration with Spanish guitar legend PepeHabichuela; accompanying the great vocalist Betty Carter in her last years to forging a new sound with the pioneering avant-garde quartet Circle alongside Chick Corea, Anthony Braxton, and Barry Altschul; standing alongside legends like Stan Getz, Hank Jones, Roy Haynes, and Sam Rivers to providing early opportunities to now-leading players like Chris Potter, Kevin and Robin Eubanks, or Steve Coleman; Dave Holland has been at the forefront of jazz in many of its forms since his earliest days.
In 2013, Holland celebrated 40 years as a leader in trademark fashion, by looking decidedly forward. On the anniversary of his first release, Conference of the Birds, which featured Rivers, Braxton and Altschul, Holland unveiled his latest quartet, Prism, a visceral electric band featuring his longtime collaborator Kevin Eubanks along with keyboardist Craig Taborn and drummer Eric Harland.
In addition to Prism, Holland continues to lead his Grammy-winning big band; his acclaimed quintet with saxophonist Chris Potter, trombonist Robin Eubanks, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, and drummer Nate Smith; and the Overtone quartet, with Potter, Harland, and pianist Jason Moran. In recent years Holland has been performing in a duo context with pianist Kenny Barron and with flamenco legend Pepe Habichuela; a follow-up to Hands, his 2010 recording with Habichuela, is due in the fall of 2013. And he continues to explore his solo voice, as documented on the albums Emerald Tears (1977), Ones All (1993), and Life Cycle (1982), a solo cello recording.
Since 2005, Holland’s output has been released on his own Dare2 Records label, founded so that the bassist could exercise greater control over the recording and release of his music. The move came on the heels of a fruitful relationship with ECM Records that had lasted for more than three decades. Attentive to devising a one-of-the-kind packaging to match the product within, Holland drafted world-famous graphic designer Niklaus Troxler to craft the label’s distinctively bold and colorful look.
Born in Wolverhampton, England in 1946, Holland shifted seamlessly between jazz traditions from the beginning. While still in his native country, he collaborated with forward-thinking peers like saxophonists Jon Surman and Evan Parker and pianists Chris McGregor and John Taylor while also playing with more traditional forebears from an earlier generational, such as saxophonists Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott. It was while playing at Scott’s storied Soho jazz club in 1968 that Holland was spotted by Miles Davis, who immediately hired the young bassist for his ground-breaking electric ensemble.
Over the next two years, Holland would appear on Davis’ landmark recordings Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, and meet many of the artists with whom he would continue to revolutionize modern jazz. They include such renowned names as Chick Corea, with whom he co-founded the short-lived but influential quartet Circle; Jack De Johnette, a frequent rhythm section partner during Holland’s ECM years and co-leader of the collective Gateway trio with Holland and guitarist John Abercrombie; and Herbie Hancock, with whom Holland would reunite in the mid- 90s and record such genre-defying albums as The New Standard and 2008 Grammy Album of the Holland and guitarist John Abercrombie; and Herbie Hancock, with whom Holland would reunite in the mid-90s and record such genre-defying albums as The New Standard and 2008 Grammy Album of the Year award winner Rover: The Joni Letters.
After leaving Davis’ group, Holland embarked on his solo career with the release of Conference of the Birds in 1973, marking the beginning of several key relationships: with ECM, with Braxton, and with Sam Rivers. At the same time, he was a prolific sideman both in the jazz world and without, where he recorded with rock and folk musicians including Bonnie Raitt, John Hartford, and bluegrass legend Vassar Clements.
The 1980s saw the formation of Holland’s first working quintet, featuring alto saxophonist Steve Coleman, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, and trombonist Julian Priester, which would gradually transform into the quartet with Coleman, drummer Marvin “Smitty” Smith, and Kevin Eubanks that recorded Extensions in 1988 – the only one of Holland’s recordings to include future Tonight Show bandleader prior to their reunion in Prism.
The foundations for most of the groups that Holland currently leads were laid in the 1990s, when he founded his current quintet and his much-acclaimed big band. The latter won two Grammy awards in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album category, for its debut, What Goes Around, in 2002 and for its follow-up, 2005’s Overtime, both on Dare2. A third Grammy came in 1999 in the Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group category, for the all-star quintet record Like Minds (Concord), with Gary Burton, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, and Roy Haynes.
A Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, where he studied from 1965-68, Holland has received honorary doctorates from Birmingham Conservatoire in England and both Boston’s Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory, where he has been a visiting artist in residence since 2005. He served as artistic director for the Banff Centre Jazz Workshop in Alberta, Canada for seven years in the 1980s and is currently an artist in residence at the Royal Academy of Music and the University of Miami.