Kenny Barron & Mulgrew Miller
5:45–6:45PM, Carhartt Amphitheater Stage
This set features two giants of modern jazz piano. 2010 NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron has led a distinguished career that reads like a stroll through the modern jazz hall of fame. It includes stints with Philly Joe Jones, Yusef Lateef, Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter and Stan Getz, among others. Barron has won numerous jazz critics and readers polls from DownBeat, JazzTimes and Jazziz magazines and is a six-time recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association’s “Best Pianist” honors. In addition, his has earned nine Grammy nominations for his own recordings, including Wanton Spirit (1994) and Spirit Song (2000). In 2009 he was named a Living Legacy by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame in 2005.
With more than 400 recordings as a leader and sideman, Mulgrew Miller is undoubtedly one of the most recorded artists of his generation. His resume includes longtime associations with many of the legends of jazz, including Betty Carter, Woody Shaw, Art Blakey, Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin and Tony Williams. Although widely esteemed as a skilled, swinging accompanist and inventive soloist for many years, he has emerged as a leader of vision and a significant composer. In recent years, he has performed throughout Europe, Japan, Australia, the United States and Canada with his own trio and Wingspan. He was also a member of the Contemporary Piano Ensemble.
