SFJAZZ presents Kenny Barron's Women on the Rise featuring Camila Meza, Hailey Niswanger, and Nikara Warren
Robert M. Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
7:30 PM, Saturday, November 10, 2018

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2018 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2018 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:30 PM lights down, announcements from SBD, KB & band out; KB introduces the band and the first tune]

1. [7:32 PM] Dialogs in Blue
2. [7:50 PM] Beijo (Kiss) (CM)
   [CM & NW sit out the next tune]
3. [8:08 PM] Soul Eyes
4. [8:19 PM] I Mean You
   [set ends 8:33 PM]

[8:53 PM lights down, KB & band out; KB talks about the vacation that stimulated the first tune]

1. [8:54 PM] Cook's Bay
   [HN & NW sit out the next tune]
2. [9:10 PM] Until Then (CM)
   [CM out, NW in for the next tune]
3. [9:21 PM] Sunshower
4. [9:32 PM] Footprints
   [set ends 9:48 PM; bows, then all off]
   
   Encore (KB solo)
5. [9:50 PM] Reflections
   [show ends 9:55 PM]

• Kenny Barron: piano;
• Johnathan Blake: drums;
• Kiyoshi Kitagawa: contrabass;
• Camila Meza: guitar, vox;
• Hailey Niswanger: soprano saxophone;
• Nikara Warren: vibraphone.

There was a full house for tonight's show, and band didn't disppoint us. Some swingers, a few ballads, and plenty of great solos. Kenny made things easy for my note-taking by introducing each of the tunes, sometimes telling a short story too. I was a little surprised at how each of the tunes got stretched out, but that seemed to be a consequence of letting everyone in the band take a solo turn each time through. With lesser musicians, that could have become tedious, but tonight, it was perfectly fine!

I really liked that Kenny closed each of the sets with a tune by Thelonious Monk. Ending the first set, I Mean You was a real burner, and a terrific contrast to the quietly lyrical Soul Eyes that preceded it. That pattern was flipped for the second set: Footprints was reharmonized and presented in an uptempo arrangement – more bop than modal – and the evening ended with a short solo take on Reflections. Strangely, the encore began and ended without a word from Kenny – despite having introduced every tune of the night up until then, for this last part, he simply walked out onstage, sat at the piano and waited a moment for the audience applause to die down, then played. And upon wrapping things up, he stood up, waved once, then headed right backstage without turning to acknowledge the crowd or make any final bow. Rather mysterious!

All three of the featured guests were excellent, but Hailey Niswanger stood out to me as the one I'd most like to hear next.

Andrew Gilbert posted a nice preview article about Kenny with the Mercury News.

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2018 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2018 event list! ☸ On to the next event!