Kenny Barron discusses his choice of piano as an instrument

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Kenny Barron discusses musical inspiration

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Kenny Barron discusses the strange circumstances surrounding the recording of Sphere

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Q: “By a tragic coincidence, when you recorded the first album with Sphere, was the day that [Thelonious] Monk died. People probably know that ‘Sphere’ was his middle name – Thelonious ‘Sphere’ Monk – was the group formed to play nothing but Mingus music originally, or was it just to be a centerpiece? The first album was all Monk music…”

A: Kenny Barron: “Well, what happened? We started talking about this group, you know, quite sometime before Monk passed and the idea was to help to perpetuate his music and ...”

Interviewer: “Because at that time he wasn't playing?”

Kenny Barron: “He wasn't playing, exactly. So the original intent was to do the album and to maybe think that perhaps he would hear this album and then it might encourage him to come out and play you know. But as it happened, as you mentioned, you know, he died that very morning, you know, which we didn't find out about that until we were on our way home from the session when we found that he died that morning, so that naturally everybody was quite shocked. You know, but again, you know, the idea was to hopefully maybe he would hear this music and be encouraged to come out and play again.”