Press Releases

BNY Mellon Jazz 2008 Living Legacy Award
Honors Pianist and Jazz Educator Kenny Barron

Award to be Presented Saturday, January 24, 2009
at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Baltimore – June 23, 2008—Jazz pianist Kenny Barron will be honored with the BNY Mellon Jazz 2008 Living Legacy Award in a special ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, January 24, 2009.  The BNY Mellon Jazz 2008 Living Legacy Award is a program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and is sponsored by The Bank of New York Mellon.

The 2008 Award coincides with Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s 30th Anniversary and the 15th Anniversary of the Living Legacy Award.  Event guests will enjoy a performance honoring the 2007 awardee Benny Golson in the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. The performance, Benny Golson at 80, salutes the 60-year career of the award-winning saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master with concert appearances by the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Al Jarreau, Ron Carter, and others.

Following the performance, Mr. Barron will be honored during the 2008 award ceremony and gala reception. Mr. Golson and performers from the Benny Golson at 80 concert will join the event attendees to celebrate Mr. Barron’s remarkable career.

“To his many listeners Kenny Barron is simply a national treasure. To us, this Philadelphia-born artist is also an excellent representative of the BNY Mellon Jazz 2008 Living Legacy Award,” said David Kutch, Regional President, BNY Mellon Wealth Management. “Kenny Barron is recognized the world over as a master of performance and composition.”

Kenny Barron was born in Philadelphia in 1943 and while a teenager, started playing professionally with Mel Melvin’s orchestra. This local band also featured Barron’s brother Bill, the late tenor saxophonist.

Kenny had worked with drummer Philly Joe Jones while still in high school and by age 19, he had moved to New York City where he freelanced with Roy Haynes, Lee Morgan and James Moody, after the tenor saxophonist heard him play at the Five Spot. With Moody’s recommendation, Dizzy Gillespie hired Barron in 1962 without even hearing him play a note. In Dizzy’s band Kenny developed an appreciation for Latin and Caribbean rhythms. After five years with Dizzy, Barron played with Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Milt Jackson, and Buddy Rich.  The early ’70s found Kenny working with Yusef Lateef who Kenny credits as a key influence in his art for improvisation. Encouraged by Lateef to pursue a college education, Barron balanced touring with studies and earned his B.A. in Music from Empire State College. By 1973, Kenny joined the faculty at Rutgers University as professor of music.  He held this tenure until 2000, mentoring many of today’s young talents including David Sanchez, Terence Blanchard and Regina Belle. In 1974, Kenny recorded his first album as a leader for the Muse label entitled, Sunset To Dawn.

Following stints with Ron Carter in the late ’70s, Kenny formed a trio with Buster Williams and Ben Riley which also worked alongside of Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Eddie Harris, Sonny Stitt and Harry “Sweets” Edison. Throughout the 80s Barron collaborated with the great tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, touring with his quartet and recording several legendary albums including Anniversary, Serenity and the Grammy-nominated People Time.  Also during the ’80s, he co-founded the quartet Sphere, along with Buster Williams, Ben Riley and Charlie Rouse.  Sphere focused on the music of Thelonious Monk and recorded several outstanding projects for the Polygram label, among them Four For All and Bird Songs.  After the death of Charlie Rouse, the band took a 15-year hiatus and reunited, replacing Rouse with alto saxophonist Gary Bartz.  This reunion made its debut recording for Verve Records in 1998.

Kenny Barron’s own recordings for Verve have earned him nine Grammy nominations beginning in 1992, including: People Time, Sambao, Freefall, Spirit Song, Night and the City, and Wanton Spirit.  Spirit Song, Night and the City, and Wanton Spirit each received double-Grammy nominations - for album and solo performance.  His CD, Canta Brasil was named Critics’ Choice Top Ten CDs of 2003 by Jazziz Magazine. His 2004 release, Images was inspired by a suite originally commissioned by The Wharton Center at Michigan State University and features multi-Grammy nominated vibraphonist Stefon Harris. The long-awaited trio sequel featuring Ray Drummond and Ben Riley, The Perfect Set, Live At Bradley’s, Part Two was released in October 2005. In spring 2008, Mr. Barron released his first studio recording in four years with The Traveler, an intoxicating mix of favorite Barron tunes set to lyrics and newly penned compositions. 

Barron consistently wins the jazz critics and reader’s polls, including Downbeat, Jazz Times and Jazziz magazines.  In 2005, he was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame and won a MAC Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a six-time recipient of Best Pianist by the Jazz Journalists’ Association and was as a finalist in the prestigious 2001 Jazz Par International Jazz Award. 

Whether he is playing solo, trio or quintet, Kenny Barron is recognized the world over as a master of performance and composition.

Previous Living Legacy Award winners include Benny Golson, Oliver Lake, Rufus Reid, Randy Weston, Keter Betts, Jimmy Heath, Joe Kennedy, Jr., Shirley Scott, Reggie Workman, Dr. Donald Byrd, Larry Ridley, Barry Harris, Robert “Boysie” Lowery, and Clark Terry.  A Millennium Award was conferred on Dr. Billy Taylor in 2000.
 
This program is made possible through a collaboration with the Kennedy Center Education Department.

About The Bank of New York Mellon

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation is a global financial services company focused on helping clients manage and service their financial assets, operating in 34 countries and serving more than 100 markets. The company is a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and high-net-worth individuals, providing superior asset management and wealth management, asset servicing, issuer services, clearing services and treasury services through a worldwide client-focused team. It has more than $23 trillion in assets under custody and administration, more than $1.1 trillion in assets under management and services $12 trillion in outstanding debt. Additional information is available at www.bnymellon.com.

About Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation celebrates and supports the wealth and diversity of the region’s arts resources and works to make those resources widely accessible both in the region and beyond.

Founded in 1979, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation is one of six regional arts organizations in the United States. The mid-Atlantic region is composed of Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, the US Virgin Islands, Virginia, and West Virginia.  The Foundation works closely with its state arts agency partners in those jurisdictions as well as the National Endowment for the Arts, private foundations, corporations, and individuals to provide support for artists and arts organizations.