On Beyond This Place, NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron summons the breadth of his sixty-year career into the present moment with a quintet that spans generations and styles. Released in May 2024 on the Artwork/PIAS label and nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Album at the 67th GRAMMY® Awards, this project is more than a celebration of legacy; it’s a vibrant, living document of musical mentorship, intuitive interplay, and the ever-evolving language of jazz. Featuring saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa, and drummer Johnathan Blake, Barron deftly balances seasoned wisdom with youthful vitality. The result is a musical dialogue that feels both grounded and adventurous, reverent yet freshly expressive.
The album opens in the most intimate of terms: a duet between Barron and Wilkins that blooms into a quartet performance of Hoagy Carmichael’s “The Nearness of You.” Wilkins plays the melody with exquisite clarity, his tone plush and restrained. Barron supports him with gospel-tinged harmony, grounding the changes with warmth and clarity. The rhythm section enters at the bridge, expanding the sound while preserving the track’s gentleness. Wilkins’ solo navigates modal colorations, which Barron mirrors with attentive harmonic dialogue. In his own solo, Barron employs elegant arpeggios that provide the melodic architecture of aural handrails for the listener to grasp as he journeys through the tune.
“Scratch,” first recorded in 1985, channels Monk through Barron’s own angular aesthetic. It begins with a buoyant swing, the bass and drums stating a firm rhythmic presence. But as Wilkins launches his solo, the rhythm section submerges the strict pulse and instead implies it. Time becomes elastic, stretched into a responsive field where bass, drums, and soloists interact in polyrhythmic conversation. During Barron’s own solo, the trio plays with the notion of time-keeping itself, blurring roles and leaning into moment-to-moment exchange. The result is a track that swings mightily not through rigidity, but through collective intuition.
The title track, a recent Barron original, is a gospel-inflected ballad that captures the spirit. Its harmonic language emerges directly from its melody: roots and chord tones guide the changes in a way that is gospel-inspired. Barron uses close voicings and sophisticated voice, which is reminiscent of gospel pianism, too. While his cadences and embellishments borrow liberally from that tradition’s expressive vocabulary. It is an emotionally spacious invitation to listen inward, even as the band listens outward to one another.
The album closes with Thelonious Monk’s “We See,” a duet between Barron and Wilkins that functions as a distillation of the record’s generational thesis. The two engage playfully and respectfully with the melody: Barron contributes harmonic movement and contrapuntal support that complements Wilkins’ phrasing rather than simply backing it. During the solos, Barron lays down a two-feel swing while Wilkins emphasizes the eighth-note pulse, building rhythmic contrast. As Barron shifts to a quarter-note foundation, the two rhythmic levels interact, creating an authoritative and deeply authentic swing. Their rapport here transcends generational divides as it’s simply two musicians speaking a common language with different dialects.
Beyond This Place is Kenny Barron’s musical dialog through his storied career. It signals his ongoing commitment to the vitality of jazz as a living tradition, as it respects its lineage while welcoming reinterpretation. Through his quintet, Barron speaks in a jazz conversation, and a meaningful dialogue occurs across generations, players, and listeners.
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