Brian Kelly, Kenny Barron and Me…

Without Deception (2020) signed by Kenny Barron

Hello friends,

There is always lots to be grateful for, and I am incredibly thankful for the friendship, love and support of my fallen friend Brian Kelly, who passed away November 17, 2021 after a valiant struggle with cancer.

I met Brian long ago in a small college town when I attended Boston College. He was a year ahead of me in class and he was just the kindest, nicest person. Of malice, he had none. Me, I had plenty. I was struggling with my demons back then and it was not always pretty. I remember - well, that's not entirely true, I was in a blackout and pieced together the events over the next couple of days - I was invited on a wintry night to an off campus party deep in the bowels of Newton. I was in hot pursuit of a beautiful woman who didn’t exactly mirror my interest and affections. As confounding as that seemed to me, she didn’t share the same attraction.

Rebuffed again and again at the party, I took my solace by diving into the deepest end of the booze pool, a most unwelcome though familiar behavioral pattern for me at that time. Finally, I left the party, the Irish goodbye, just slinking out the side door and bracing for the long, coatless and uncertain walk home. Staggered and stumbling, I aimlessly walked the streets of Newton, they weren’t mean, but they were certainly empty, cold and desolate at 3am. I’d been walking for a while when a car pulled up alongside. The window rolled down, and through the frosty air, I could see Brian smiling and offering me the warmth and comfort of a drive back to my off campus house in Brighton. Of course, I declined, ‘I’m fine, I got this,’ I told him as unsteady as I could be, but Brian didn’t listen. He got out and poured me into the back seat of his car and dropped me safely at home…

That’s not the only time Brian had my back and helped me over the past forty years, it was only a beginning and that’s exactly who Brian was and how he lived his life. He was generous, kind, loyal, a devoted friend, father, husband and a lover of all things music and sports. The staunchest ally of my music writings, he implored me to add music links at the end of each post. That’s why his name has appeared in each subsequent post: ‘per BKs request’ has added untold value to each of my musings!

The last conversations BK and I had were by text on October 28. I knew he was weakened by chemo, so I sent him,
Sending peace and blessings.I love you BK
He replied,“Who is this?”
Neil Kirk Remember me?
“Oh yeah, love you more.”
Rooting for you like everyone else!!!
“The fight continues. Your friendship strengthens me.”
Keep fighting, I got more stories to tell.Per BKs request is in every one of them!
“You do such a great job with that series.I love it. I love reading the story and then listening to a cut or two.I think you should consider the potential of making it into video production.”
I just need a good executive producer based in Charlotte.You know any?
“Oh yeah, one challenge is a lot of these artists are gone, as are most of their contemporaries.”
Yeah, it’s a thinning herd. Bummer our baseball season ended, Sawx had a great run, over-achieved, but I can’t watch Stros or Braves. It be as painful as watching the Jankees!
“We’ll get em next year. I dozing off. Great chatting with you. Love you my brother “

So perfectly Brian. Though he knew his days might be numbered, he was ever the optimist, here’s an idea for your blog and we’ll get 'em next year. He was always trying to make things better and he did, by the sheer dint of his outsized encouragement and enthusiasm. I will miss him but am so thankful for his friendship and especially that car ride home long ago. As a postscript, I cleaned up my act, got the girl, have three great kids, and I haven't been stumbling around the streets in decades.

Sometimes, fairytales come true and sometimes, they don't last as long as we want them to...I love you BK. Wishing peace and blessings to your family. Giving thanks and praises. F#ck cancer.

Here’s the latest post. It has nothing and everything to do with BK. And click on a link, just like BK told us.

Brian Kelly, signing the Pesky Pole, Fenway Park, Boston 2013

I think that one of the things that has happened is that people used to dance to the music. (Saxophonist) Jimmy Heath used to play for dancers. Nowadays, people take themselves a little bit too seriously. The music is serious. The musicians say "I'm an artiste," not that that's a bad thing. For me, I'd rather just enjoy myself. There are moments when you're serious, like a beautiful ballad. It's about reaching people on an emotional level, not just intellectual level. The music may intrigue you on an intellectual level, but you don't remember anything. If somebody's a virtuoso, playing great stuff and really fast...OK. But I remember (Harry) Sweets (Edison) play and he would play one note and reach people. My goal, hopefully, is to reach people on an emotional level and make them feel things.
Kenny Barron

You Had Better Listen (1967) signed by Kenny, Jimmy Owens

I always credit Tommy Flanagan for helping me find my voice as a pianist. I loved his touch - it was unlike anyone else - he had a very distinctive sound and a unique way of phrasing. He could say so much with just a few notes. I admired the way he could play a chord and coax the most gentle feel from it and yet it would have this huge impact on the music. I learned the importance of melody. No matter how you play, it's melody that allows people to connect emotionally with the music.
Kenny Barron

At The Piano (1982) signed by Kenny

I love Cecil (Taylor) as well. I used to go hear him numerous times at the Keystone Korner with the alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons. Fascinating, so connected with his instrument. There was a sense of form and shape to the sets. There would be one long played-through improvised set and yet you could feel themes returning and it was a real journey. After I moved to New York, I discovered that Cecil was actually a straight ahead jazz fan. He came to hang out at Bradley's and we had many conversations, beautiful man... I used to see (avant-garde saxophonist) Henry Threadgill come out to hear me, and there are straight ahead guys who move "out" to hear them. Separation is sometimes in the heads of writers. A B-flat is a B-flat, you know.
Kenny Barron

Very Live At Buddy’s Place (1974) signed by Kenny

Students in the jazz programs today are much better prepared than twenty-five years ago. They tend to approach the music from a more cerebral and technical point of view as opposed to an emotional place which skews the music in a different direction. From my point of view, ideally you need both in order to connect with an audience.
Kenny Barron

Live At Fat Tuesdays (1988) signed by Kenny, Eddie Henderson, Cecil McBee

I had so much fun with that band. One of the things I remember, we would play a song for twenty, thirty minutes, and it would go in different kinds of directions. That didn't happen on the recording, but in live performance that's how it was...just dudes whose playing I loved. I met John Stubblefield in Chicago, his playing reminded me of Wayne Shorter a lot. But he also played R&B, he played with Solomon Burke. And Eddie Henderson, I met through Freddie (Hubbard). Eddie was studying medicine and he actually became a doctor, and Cecil McBee, his playing I always loved, he's a great bass player. And with Victor (Lewis), I did a record with a french horn player named Tom Varner. We lasted for a while.
Kenny Barron, Live At Fat Tuesdays 1988

Piccolo (1977) signed by Kenny, Ron Carter, Buster Williams

I can't really say what it was that attracted me to it, but I knew I loved it. I know that Horace Silver came out with Six Pieces Of Silver. At that time, we didn't have a record player and I would just run to this luncheonette five blocks away from home to play the jukebox to listen to "Senor Blues" and the flipside "The Enchantment." Then I found out that the drummer Louis Hayes was eighteen years old, it was like, wow, there's hope!
Kenny Barron, early inspiration

All Bird (1978) signed by Kenny

Well, what can you say about (Thelonious) Monk? You can be influenced by him, but if you try to play like him, it's kind of ludicrous. I may play a Monk song and I may allude to certain characteristics of his playing, but it's always done tongue in cheek. Monk had a great sense of humor. You can't separate his writing from his playing, they're so similar. Monk was such a stylist, anything he played, even standards, sounded like he wrote it. He influenced a lot of people.
Kenny Barron, more inspiration

1+1+1 (1984) signed by Kenny

Arranger, composer, educator and pianist, Kenny Barron has led a prolific and productive life, appearing on more than forty-five records as a leader (with nine Grammy nominations) while participating in four-hundred plus sessions during the past sixty years with jazz legends Chet Baker, Ron Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Buddy Rich and so many others. Two of his more notable associations were with Dizzy Gillespie (1962-66) and Stan Getz (1987-1991), before Kenny settled into an acclaimed and enduring solo career.

In Tandem (1975) signed by Kenny

Born in Philadelphia in 1943, Kenny was the much younger brother (by fifteen years) of saxophonist Bill Barron, an equally talented though sorely underrated jazz musician. Music was abundant in the Barron household, as Kenny recalled, "I started playing piano when I was six. I had two brothers and two sisters, and we were all required to study the piano. That was my sixth birthday present, which I absolutely hated. Well, the lessons I hated, but I loved the piano. Fortunately, I had a fairly good ear at a young age. I could go to the piano and pick out little things that I heard." His talents were also enhanced by exposure to his older brother's records, in keeping with a long standing tradition of crate digging in familial collections, "My brother Bill, he had a whole collection of old 78 records with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro, Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, people like that. So I was listening to the music and I really, really loved it. And Philly also had a great 24 hour jazz station so I could hear the music on the radio. I was listening to Dizzy's big band, they even played Sun Ra. I grew to really love the music just from hearing it."

Defying his mother who wanted him to study and play classical music (which he did until he was sixteen), Kenny pursued jazz and he got his first gig through his brother Bill, whom he remembered fondly, "He wasn't a self promoter, he was different. He loved Cecil Taylor and, in terms of composition, he loved Schonberg. He had one book I remember called The Schillinger Method. His approach was intellectual, he was really into analyzing things, and he got me my first gig, a dance band, and it was fun. I was the baby in the group."

What If? (1986) signed by Kenny, Cecil McBee

This modest beginning in Mel Melvin's Orchestra as a teenager led to jams with drummer extraordinaire Philly Joe Jones while Kenny was still in high school. Upon graduation, Kenny started at the Philadelphia Musical Academy, but left after two months, "I quit - and I was paying for it myself - midway, because they didn't offer jazz and I was taking music education...I wanted to play." Moving to New York City when he was nineteen, Kenny's real education began, gigging with Roy Haynes, Lee Morgan and James Moody. Moody introduced him to Dizzy Gillespie, "Dizzy hired me on Moody's recommendation, he never heard me play... It was a great experience. First of all, Dizzy was very easy to get along with. He wasn't a dictatorial kind of boss, just a really nice guy. And he was very generous with his knowledge. He knew a lot about chords and harmony, and he was very generous. He would always share, 'Why don't you try by voicing this chord like this?' He would show me things on the piano, and some nights, if the last set wasn't crowded, he would kind of chase me from the piano, and he would play a song or two himself with Moody. He wasn't a hell of a soloist, but voicings and things like that he really knew. And he also knew a lot about rhythms, especially Brazilian rhythms and Latin rhythms and where they came from, what region of Cuba or what region of Brazil." Kenny soaked up all these musical experiences and forged ahead in his exemplary and lengthy career.

No Escaping It!!! (1970) signed by Kenny, Billy Harper

Kenny also gave back to the jazz community with his service for more than twenty years as a Professor of Music at Rutgers University. As always, he was rather humble about his tutelage, "It was great, it's nice to feel you've had an impact on some people. I've had some great students, (Composer, Spike Lee soundtrack collaborator and trumpeter) Terrence Blanchard was a student of mine, Terrence plays great piano by the way. Harry Allen, the saxophonist, was a student of mine. At the time he was a student, he was an incredible saxophonist, he would make gigs in New Brunswick, New Jersey on piano. Ralph Peterson, the drummer, who actually started as a trumpet player there." Kenny's service and inspiration didn't stop there.

Legacy (1985) signed by Kenny, Jon Faddis

When Kenny retired from Rutgers in 1999, he taught at the Manhattan School of Music where he worked with gifted pianists Aaron Parks and Gerald Clayton, "Fortunately, I had a studio at Manhattan that had two grand pianos. What we did was play. We would play standards, we would play all kinds of repertoire, we would play some of their music, because they would bring in original music, and, for me, it was about listening to them and seeing what their weaknesses were. Was it their touch? Were they playing too much, were they too busy? Were they lyrical? Things like that. Just finesse. I couldn't teach them how to play, they already knew how to do that. It was just finesse."

The Blues And Other Colors (1969) signed by Kenny, James Moody

Erin and I have seen Kenny many times over the years at the Village Vanguard, The Blue Note and, most recently, at the Jazz Forum in Tarrytown, New York on September 24, 2021. As always, it was a lesson in grace, finesse and erudition from a piano master with his able accompanists: Kiyoshi Kitagawa on bass and McClenty Hunter on drums. They opened with “Shuffle Boil,” a discordant Thelonious Monk composition bolstered by the thumping bass of Kiyoshi Kitagawa who had an extensive bass solo and the snarling rim shots of McClenty Hunter. Other highlights were "Skylark" a beautiful, ruminative ballad with delicate brushwork by McClenty, "Bud Like, Bud Like" written and "dedicated to one of my favorite pianists, Bud Powell," and another Monk composition "Green Chimneys," an uptempo burner. Kenny closed the set "with an old favorite of mine," a bubbling and rollicking "How Deep Is The Ocean". It was a wonderful set of music by a jazz master.

Two For The Blues (1983) signed by Kenny, Frank Foster, Rufus Reid, Frank Wess

After the show, Erin and I visited with Kenny and he was gracious when he signed some vinyl. "Oh, I loved this band," he said as he signed Live At Fat Tuesdays. "And I loved playing with Ted (Dunbar), he was great to play with," Kenny said as handed back his duo album In Tandem. He was delighted that I had his newest album Without Deception, which was released at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, "This was a lot of fun to make, Dave (Holland) is such a great musician and Johnathan (Blake) too." I thanked Kenny again for his time, and especially his music.

Kenny Barron, an incredible pianist, composer and teacher. Underrated and relatively unknown but no less talented.