Track Listing
1. Take the Coltrane
2. Sail Away
3. Be Bop
4. Passion Flower
5. Madman
6. Nightlake
7. Loss of a Moment, The
8. Wanton Spirit
9. Melancholia
10. One Finger Snap
| Details | | Contributing Artists: | Charlie Haden, Roy Haynes | | Producer: | Joanne Klein | | Distributor: | Universal Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | DDD |
Album Notes
Personnel: Kenny Barron (piano); Charlie Haden (bass); Roy Haynes (drums).
Recorded at Systems Two, Brooklyn, New York on February 22 & 23, 1994. Includes liner notes by Alain Gerber.
WANTON SPIRIT was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual Or Group. "Take The Coltrane" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo.
Barron's gifts as a modern pianist are so formidable--great rhythmic drive and flexibility, a variety of inflections, exceptional harmonic intuition--that he is able to fit into any number of situations without imposing his will. Sometimes he is self-effacing to a fault, but WANTON SPIRIT reasserts Barron's place in the pantheon of post-modernists, a pianist comfortable in any style, almost incapable of playing cliches.
And from Roy Haynes' first chatty snare accents, to the indomitable spirit of Charlie Haden's eight-note song, it's apparent that Kenny Barron's antennae are way up. On "Take The Coltrane," his solo dances away with spiky dissonances, crushed blue notes, dazzling two-handed counterpoint and stunning harmonic contrasts. Dizzy Gillespie's climatic "Be-Bop" begins with a classic Haden bass sonnet before settling into an uncharacteristically laid-back groove; Haynes' drums suggest much of the tune's syncopated danger, and Barron and Haden treat the elliptical melody as something of a raga, before swing rules the day.
Barron's own "Madam" is a lucid, free-form shout, with its tolling left-handed orchestrations, skittering right-handed filigrees and percussive chants. Yet at the center of every assault wave is a translucent harmonic logic. So take your pick: On Billy Strayhorn's "Passion Flower" and Victor Lewis' "The Loss Of A Moment," Barron plays with a dark, romantic ardor, as Haden and Haynes melt away into silence. Herbie Hancock's "One-Finger Snap" is about real, after-hours swing--the pianist's sense of fullness and independence with both hands a thing of wonder. And Ellington's "Melancholia" is a design worthy of even the Duke's regal authority.
Editorial Reviews
...a masterpiece of post-bop character and wisdom.
Mojo (01/01/1995)
4 Stars - Very Good - ...sparklingly well-recorded....show[s] off his stylistic substance....Barron's approach is sharp and well-defined...Charlie Haden turns in one of the best performances...in years,...[Roy] Haynes...really catches the ear and makes the heart race...
Down Beat (08/01/1995)
Ranked #1 in the Village Voice's Best Jazz Discs of '95.
Village Voice (01/16/1996)
Included on Peter Watrous' list of the Top 20 Albums of `95 - ...the veteran pianist turns in his loosest, most searching record in years...
New York Times (01/06/1996)
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