This installment of The Breakdown presents pearls of wisdom from piano titan Kenny Barron, who counsels pianists Elena Weng and Morgan Harrison on the concepts of touch and leaving space — critical aspects of piano performance that make musicians unique and can separate a good pianist from a truly great one.

He discusses the impact of iconic pianists known for their singular touch like Thelonious Monk and Tommy Flanagan, and performs a range of material including Jerome Kern’s “The Way You Look Tonight,” Charlie Haden’s “Nightfall,” and Thelonious Monk’s “Green Chimneys.”

The episode closes with Barron and Morgan Harrison play Dizzy Gillespie’s classic “A Night in Tunisia” as a duet, followed by George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm.”

ABOUT KENNY BARRON

Called “one of the top jazz pianists in the world” by The Los Angeles Times, Kenny Barron is a 2010 NEA Jazz Master and eleven-time GRAMMY nominee who helped define and extend the jazz tradition since his work with Dizzy Gillespie in the early ‘60s catapulted him into the spotlight.

Extensive associations with Freddie Hubbard, Yusef Lateef, Stan Getz, James Moody and Ron Carter built his peerless reputation as a sideman, and he has recorded over 50 albums as a bandleader over his five-decade career. A seven-time recipient of Best Pianist by the Jazz Journalists Association, Barron leads an ironclad trio with bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake, and regularly performs as a soloist and settings from duo to big band.

A lifelong educator, Barron taught piano and harmony at Rutgers University for 25 years and most recently at the Juilliard School of Music.