Kenny Barron & Buster Williams - The Complete Two as One / 2CD set

These sessions, gathered together for the first time in this set, were recorded at the same time as the legendary group Sphere appeared at the Umbria Jazz Festival in 1986, providing two excellent titles for Red Records in the process.

Barron and Williams represented 50 per cent of that group, and the opportunity was taken to record Barron in his own right. The pianist, after a long period of incubation, was hitting a level of virtuosity never previously demonstrated on record; with Sphere in live performance, he would develop even further with what would become a memorable association with Stan Getz (1986-91).

Two as One hints at the Barron butterfly gloriously emerging from his chrysalis. On display are nine classy standards from the Great American Songbook, of which Barron is a non-pareil interpreter. They are his language.

The harmonic and melodic imagination he displays throughout is mesmerising; nothing gratuitous, no fancy flourishes, but a substitute harmony here, a crafty melodic development there add to classics not often heard, such as ‘This Time the Dream's on Me,’ by Harold Arlen, or Matt Dennis’ ‘Will You Still Be Mine?’ two gems along with “I Love You,’ ‘On Green Dolphin Street,’ and ‘There Is No Greater Love’ are moments to genuinely savour.

https://www.jazzwise.com/review/kenny-barron-buster-williams-the-complete-two-as-one

disc 1

1. All Of You (C. Porter)
2. This Time The Dream’s On Me (H. Arlen, J.H. Mercer)
3. Some Day My Prince Will Come (F. Churchill)
4. I Love You (C. Porter)
5. My Funny Valentine (R. Rodgers, L. Hart)

disc 2

6. Will You Still Be Mine? (M. Dennis)
7. Some Day My Prince Will Come Take 2 (F. Churchill)
8. On A Green Dolphin Street (B. Kaper)
9. There Is No Greater Love (I. Jones)