Barron, Harris Show Harmony in Contrasts

One of the great joys of jazz is the subtle but compelling intimacy with which it reveals an artist’s inner self. Most popular music, for all its appeal, allows a performer to remain behind a shield of song, drama and theatricality. Not so with the jazz improviser, whose every solo has the potential to be a soul-baring experience.

On Sunday afternoon at the Hermosa Civic Theatre, pianists Kenny Barron and Barry Harris, performing in duo-starring roles at a benefit for the Wellness Community, provided an object demonstration of jazz as interior expression--especially during segments in which they offered solos.

Harris, outgoing and whimsical, played with a buoyant, effervescent, let’s-all-swing enthusiasm, his bebop-drenched lines filled with melody and color. The first of his two solo sections wasted little time getting into a romp through “Just One of Those Things.” In the second, he asked for random numbers from the audience, converting them into a sequence of notes as the basis of a spontaneous improvisation. Then, building on the fragmentary phrase in the course of his soloing, he created foot-tapping rhythm patterns that called, first of all, for hand-clapping from the crowd, followed by the collective singing of a bossa nova-like melody.

Barron’s music, on the other hand, reflected his more cloaked personal style. His solo impromptus, based on standards “I’m Confessin’ ” and “Blue Moon,” were intricate excursions through layered harmonies and implied rhythms. At times, his lines would break through his characteristically hushed dynamics to burst out into a stride section, a jaunty, dissonant reference to Thelonious Monk or a high-flying bop number. But his soloing, whether played slow or fast, via ballad or bebop, was always more than it seemed on the surface, a multileveled articulation of inner complexity.

In the middle segments of the two sets, Barron and Harris worked a series of quartet pieces with bassist Buster Williams and drummer Ben Riley. Performing mostly standards--”Body and Soul,” “What Is This Thing Called Love?,” “On Green Dolphin Street” and a bop tune or two--they brought their dissimilar musical personalities into sync, opposite sides of the same jazz coin. Combined with the solo passages, the result was an attractive encounter between two contrasting but complementary musical styles, a fascinating display of the expressive riches of jazz improvisation.