From the first sparkling notes of his intro to Luiz Bonfá’s “Manha De Carnaval”, originally recorded for the soundtrack to the classic film, Orfeu Negro (“Black Orpheus”), it was clear that Kenny Barron is a master pianist who plays with soul, grace, wit, and technique. His first set on Saturday at the Kennedy Center‘s Family Theater saw him play 90 minutes of polished jazz that was pleasing to the ear, but there was something missing. While there is no fair criticism of what the audience heard, we did miss what was unheard, and that is any sense of adventure from the music. Barron and his highly skilled rhythm section of Japanese bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and Cuban drummer Francisco Mela gave a polished performance, but these musicians are capable of taking the music anywhere, and they didn’t. The result was a show that was very good, but fell short of being truly memorable.

The lack of fire coming from the stage might have to do with the trio’s setlist. The first four tunes of the six song set were all subdued performances. After opening with the oft-played “Carnaval”, the band went into the standard “How Deep is the Ocean”, Barron’s own “Lullabye”, and Thelonius Monk’s “Ask Me Now”. All are beautiful compositions with rich harmonies and gorgeous melodies, but offered little variation in terms of tempo and energy level. Had the group played even one uptempo number near the beginning of the set, the entire tone of the performance would have changed.