Kenny Barron and his string playing friends

One thing great about going to a jazz concert is that you never know what to expect. For rock or pop concerts, the band/musician would usually be playing the hit singles from their new albums plus a few old big hits. For jazz, you might hear the compositions that the musician was famous for (or some standards that s/he is well-known for covering), or not. For tonight's Kenny Barron concert@SFJAZZ, there is yet another unknown: how is the "drum-less" lineup of a piano, a cello, a violin and a bass gonna work? It turned out to be all duets between piano and a string player except the last big jam. And the set list was a great mix of standards and his original compositions. What I enjoyed the most about the performance was how naturally they flow from one chorus to another. As much as improv is an important part of jazz, sometimes one could feel the player solo for the sake of it without much else really to say.

I am actually quite familiar with and admire Kenny Barron's piano playing in a duet setting from his album with Stan Getz. My sis loves that 2 Disc set too. He started the concert with the cellist Mark Summer who was the founding member of  the famous jazz string group, Turtle Island Quartet. I could hear him very comfortable in playing the role of a walking bassist. After all, he played the only instrument in that range in a string quartet! I would say his sound leaned more towards the European classical tradition than American jazz. Still, I enjoy the brief improv solo he played. The more memorable tunes from this set included a Thelonius Monk cover: San Francisco holiday (Worry later) and Barron's original: Concentric circles. This was actually the longest set.

The next set featured the main reason I went to the concert: violinist Regina Carter. I think the first time jazz violin really caught my attention was from the Kenny Barron album "Things Unseen" And of course, Carter and Barron did an album together way back in 2001. They played 2 tunes from that album: a Latin arrangement of "Softly as in the morning sunrise" and Monk's cover: Misterioso. (As I am writing I am listening their cover of Sting's "Fragile" from the same album. Very emotional!)

Last but not least was bassist Dave Holland. Piano-bass duo was actually more common than you think. I could easily think of many such collaborations by bassists Charlie Haden or Ron Carter. I have seen Holland led his "big band" (an octet) and quartet before. Now I really want to see him perform flamenco live!

All 4 of them closed the concert with a big jam of another Barron's original "What If." This is definitely the most memorable concert I have been to in 2016 (could be one of my all-time-best!)

RIP Prince