One of the most renowned pianists in jazz is returning to the Seacoast to perform in the UNH Traditional Jazz Series.

Kenny Barron, a pianist of consummate skill, will appear on the Johnson Theatre Stage accompanied by his long-time trio of Kiyoshi Kitagawa on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums, on Monday, Oct. 17, at 8 p.m.,

Mention the name Kenny Barron to most jazz fans and you’ll hear comments about his artistry, how well he swings, and the depth of his overall approach to jazz. All these are accurate, but they barely scratch the surface of his overall impact on the music. Barron’s approach to jazz encompasses the entire spectrum from stride to bop to more contemporary forms. Add to that a keen interest in Latin music and you have a musician with his own unique voice in jazz.

Barron’s style combines deep lyrical lines with a rich sense of harmonic development and rhythmic intensity. Boston-based pianist and educator Mark Shilansky notes that Barron has a “distinctive legato-yet-detached way of swinging his solo lines, as well as his sense of momentum and groove that is uniquely his. Yet, he easily adapts his approach, especially his harmonic content, to the players around him.”

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Barron began performing with a local band, Mel Melvin’s Orchestra, while in his teens. Joining him in the band was his brother, the late Bill Barron, on saxophone. After gigging with drum legend Philly Joe Jones, Barron settled in New York City in the late ’50s and soon began gigging with many musicians around the city, including Lee Morgan, Roy Haynes and James Moody. He joined the band of Dizzy Gillespie in 1962 and performed with him for the next five years. After leaving Gillespie, Barron went on to perform with Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard and Buddy Rich, among others. In the early ’70s, Barron earned a degree in music from Empire State College and, soon thereafter, joined the faculty at Rutgers University as professor of music, a position he held until 2000.

During his career, Barron has recorded and toured with a wide variety of performers, including Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Buck Hill and saxophonist Stan Getz. It was with Getz that Barron recorded the remarkable live duo session “People Time,” which garnered a Grammy nomination in 1992. “People Time” was recently reissued as a five-CD set on Sunnyside Records. Barron also performed with the cooperative quartet Sphere throughout the ’80s, along with saxophonist Charlie Rouse, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Ben Riley. The group released several recordings before Rouse’s untimely death in 1988.

Throughout his career, Barron has best utilized the trio format to showcase his abilities. While several recordings bear this out, there are two CDs that offer a definitive portrait of Barron’s approach, “Live at Bradley’s” and “The Perfect Set: Live at Bradley’s 2.” These two recordings were drawn from a 1996 performance at the now defunct jazz club in New York City. Both give excellent examples of how Barron makes use of lyricism and rhythm, as well as his approach to time, which is how Barron controls the beat within a given situation. Local pianist and saxophonist John Franzosa commented on this recently.

“I think Kenny Barron has an amazing sense of time. You can hear it in how he interacts with Stan Getz on ‘People Time’ and in his duo collaborations with Charlie Haden. It’s a flexible, elastic-like approach that allows for a freer, more interactive experience. It is also what helps him to move so easily between a variety of different styles, and it is what makes his playing so tasteful,” Franzosa said in an e-mail.

When he last appeared in the area in February 2010, Barron’s trio was the anchor for a performance by the Monterey All-Stars at The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Playing behind featured performers Regina Carter, Russell Malone and Kurt Elling, Barron was the catalyst in terms of guiding the various performers throughout the evening. He made it sound so easy, and the other performers sounded completely relaxed and at ease. That is the mark of a great jazz accompanist, one who knows how to listen, interact and draw out the best in the other musicians.

Yet, Kenny Barron is more than just an accompanist. He is a true legend of jazz today, an artist with a high level of creative imagination and a pianist with few equals.