The Kenny Barron Trio

American jazz legend and nine-time Grammy Award-nominated master jazz pianist Kenny Barron brings his longstanding trio to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, April 16, 2016 at 8:30pm for a singular evening of jazz, presented in conjunction with The Jazz Bakery Movable Feast. Honored by the National Endowment for the Arts as a 2010 Jazz Master, Barron has an unmatched ability to mesmerize his audiences with his elegant playing, sensitive melodies and infectious rhythms, inspiring the Los Angeles Times to name him “one of the top jazz pianists in the world” and Jazz Weekly to call him “the most lyrical piano player of our time.” The Kenny Barron Trio features Barron on piano, Kiyoshi Kitagawa on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums. Tickets are now available for purchase at TheWallis.org.

“Kenny is truly one of the greats,” said Paul Crewes, the Wallis
Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts’ new Artistic Director who takes the reins full time in April 2016. “We are thrilled to welcome him, along with Kiyoshi and Jonathan, to The Wallis stage. We are equally thrilled to welcome for the first time the amazing Jazz Bakery as new artistic partners.”

“The Wallis has quickly become one of the best intimate venues in Los Angeles to hear music,” said Ruth Price, The Jazz Bakery’s President and Artistic Director. “We cannot think of a better way to showcase and introduce jazz to new audiences than partnering with The Wallis while our beautiful new venue is being built.”

Barron was born in Philadelphia in 1943, and while a teenager, started playing professionally with Mel Melvin’s orchestra. At age 19, Barron moved to New York City and freelanced with Roy Haynes, Lee Morgan and James Moody. In the early 1970s, Barron earned his BA in Music from Empire State College and joined the faculty at Rutgers University. Barron’s recordings for Verve Records have earned him nine Grammy Award nominations beginning in 1992 with People Time, an outstanding duet with Stan Getz. 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 a finalist in the prestigious 2001 Jazz Par International Jazz Award.

Bassist and composer Kiyoshi Kitagawa is also an integral part of today’s jazz scene. Born in Osaka, Japan in 1958, Kitagawa began playing the guitar at the age of 14 and switched to the acoustic bass at the age of 19. Kitagawa began his career by playing at various clubs in the Kansai area and quickly became the most sought-after bassist in Japan. Johnathan Blake, one of the most accomplished drummers of his generation, has also proven himself a complete and endlessly versatile musician — “the ultimate modernist,” as NPR has dubbed him. Blake’s gift for composition and band leading, so ably demonstrated on his 2012 recording debut The Eleventh Hour, reflects years of live and studio experience across the aesthetic spectrum.

Single tickets for the Kenny Barron Trio are now available for $25 – $55 (prices subject to change). For more information or to purchase, visit TheWallis.org, call 310.746.4000 or stop by in person at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Ticket Services located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Ticket prices subject to change.

As one of the premiere presenters of jazz in Los Angeles, The Jazz Bakery has a long history of curating and presenting the finest music acts in the world. The Jazz Bakery Movable Feast @ The Wallis continues this legacy while their remarkable Frank Gehry-designed performance center is being built. For more information about The Jazz Bakery, please visit:JazzBakery.org