People Time by Stan Getz and Kenny Barron (Verve)
The double album People Time was recorded at Café Montmartre in Copenhagen just a few months before Stan Getz died of cancer aged 64.
This lovely duet recording with pianist Kenny Barron shows no weakening of Getz’s powers. He plays with that same lyricism and melodic imagination that listeners had come to expect from him.
However pianist Kenny Barron is as much the star of these recordings as Getz. Barron is from the same generation as pianists Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett, but he never had the same exposure as them. When they played fusion music or explored the legacies of Ornette Coleman and Bill Evans, Barron stayed much closer to the bebop tradition and pianists like Hank Jones or McCoy Tyner.
He is perfectly suited for playing the program of well-known ballads on People Time. Among them are ”I Remember Clifford”, ”Gone With The Wind”, ”Softly As In A Morning Sunrise”, and ”Soul Eyes”.
Barron has the same patience and care as Getz when he interprets these songs. He gives them great detail in both harmonic and rhythmic development, and his interplay with Getz is a joy to hear.
Barron has since recorded a lot of other duo recordings with musicians as violinist Regina Carter and bassist Dave Holland and this year he was voted as pianist of the year in Downbeat Magazine’s international critics poll, before all of those other pianists from his own generation, and the following ones.
Best track: Like Someone In Love
Jazz Desk 