Leader of one of jazz’s best trios, Kenny Barron vies for leading the best hard bop quintet with the addition of Mike Rodriguez/tp and Dayna Stephens/sax to his working team of Johnathan Blake/dr and Kiyoshi Kitagawa/b. The team has a feel of vintage Horace Silver, with pieces such as the ominous “Blue Waters” or uptempo and crisp “L’s Bop” sounding like timeless early 60s Blue Note sessions. The addition of horns adds a rich funereal atmosphere to “In the dark” with the horns gliding over the rhythm teams Latin groove on the bouncy “Baile” and hip “Von Hangman.” Barron himself is masterful, delivering an ectomorphic left hand on “I’m Just Sayin’” and throwing in some upbeat lines on “DPW” while flowing with Rodriguez’s horn on the title track as Blake coaxes the band along with his cymbals. Stephens does wonders with his soprano sax as he sighs on “A Short Journey,” and Barron closes out with a wondrously playful solo take of Thelonious Monk’s “Reflections.” A portend of an album to come? What other worlds does he need to conquer?
Blue Note Records