Kenny Barron
2015 AJPC Judge

With more than 40 albums to his name, and scores more that he has appeared on, Kenny Barron's imprint on jazz is large. The pianist has been recognized the world over as a master of performance and composition.

Barron started playing professionally in Philadelphia as a teenager with Mel Melvin's orchestra, which also featured Barron's brother Bill on tenor saxophone. At age 19, Barron moved to New York City and was hired by James Moody after the tenor saxophonist heard him play at the Five Spot. In 1962, he joinedDizzy Gillespie's band, an association that developed his appreciation for Latin and Caribbean rhythms. After five years with Gillespie, Barron began to perform with Freddie Hubbard, Milt Jackson, Buddy Rich, and Stanley Turrentine. In 1971, he joined Yusef Lateef's band, an experience that Barron acknowledges as having been a key influence on his improvisational skills. Three years later, Barron recorded Sunset to Dawn, his first album as a leader.

Throughout the 1980s, Barron collaborated with the great tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, touring with his quartet and recording several albums, one of which was nominated for a Grammy Award (People Time). In 1982, he co-founded the quartet Sphere, which was dedicated to Thelonious Monk's music and inspiration. Sphere comprised Barron, Buster Williams, and Monk band alumni Ben Riley and Charlie Rouse. After Rouse's passing in 1988, the band took a hiatus before reuniting in 1998 (with alto saxophonist Gary Bartz replacing Rouse) and releasing a recording for Verve Records.

Barron's own recordings have earned him nine Grammy nominations, among them Spirit Song, Sambao, Night and the City (a duet recording with Charlie Haden), and Wanton Spirit (a trio recording with Roy Haynes and Haden). He has won numerous jazz critics and readers' polls from DownBeat, JazzTimes, andJazziz magazines; and is a seven-time recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association's "Best Pianist" honors.

As a composer, Barron's works have been featured in film and documentaries, and he most recently scored the film Another Harvest Moon. In 2009 he was named a Living Legacy by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame in 2005.

As a long-standing professor of music at Rutgers University (1974- 2000), Barron mentored many of today's established jazz talents, including David Sanchez, Terence Blanchard, and Regina Bell. He continues to tour internationally solo and with his trio.