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Bruce Harris

Born and raised in the Bronx, NY, trumpeter Bruce Harris has earned a reputation as one of the most important and emerging voices in jazz today. Harris’s love for music began in his home where the sounds of his grandfather’s alto saxophone and New York's storied music traditions of bebop and hip-hop consumed him. Inspired by acclaimed director Spike Lee’s “Mo Better Blues,” Harris became enamored with the trumpet and at the age of 13 his musical journey started. Heavily influenced by Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown and Dizzy Gillespie, Harris performed in the “Essentially Ellington” jazz band competition as a high school junior, earning the opportunity to play alongside famed trumpeter and jazz historian, Wynton Marsalis. Harris went on to earn a Bachelors Degree and Masters Degree in Jazz Performance at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, where he was mentored by trumpet virtuoso, Jon Faddis.

Bruce Harris’s professional career as a performer has been defined by his infectious joy, undeniable passion and youthful energy. His chops were honed in many of New York's premier music venues and jazz clubs such as Smalls, Smoke Jazz Club, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Ginny’s Supper Club, Minton’s, Rockwood Music Hall, among others. Harris has made appearances on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. In addition, he has appeared alongside a long list of legendary performers, including Wynton Marsalis & the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Dave Brubeck, Billy Taylor, The Count Basie Orchestra, Michael Feinstein, Barry Harris, Roy Hargrove, and Tony Bennett. In 2013, for Ebony Magazine, Wynton Marsalis highlighted Bruce as one of the five important young jazz musicians you should know.

In addition to well established reputation on the international jazz scene, Bruce Harris has made a name for himself in various musical worlds. Harris has been featured in two Broadway shows; After Midnight (2013) and Shuffle Along (2016), performing with the likes of Fantasia Barrino, Patti Labelle, KD Lang, Tony Braxton, and Audra McDonald. Harris has also compiled an eclectic list of collaborations with notable artists including Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Steve Martin, Seth MacFarlane, Prairie Home Companion, Harry Connick Jr, and hip-hop artist DJ Premiere. Harris’s career spans the globe, having completed multiple international tours as a performer and educator across Europe and Asia.

Harris’s highly anticipated debut recording as a bandleader entitled "Beginnings" is set to release in August 2017, on the Positone Label.

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32
Album Review

John Lang: Earotica

Read "Earotica" reviewed by Jack Bowers


There's something special about a nonet: small enough to have its own personality, yet large enough to sound at times akin to a full-size big band. Bassist John Lang leads a first-class nonet on Earotica, his fourth album as leader. Having given Lang's last disc a rather lukewarm appraisal almost two years ago, it is a pleasure to note that his new album is superior in every respect. Gone are the desultory funk and rock beats, replaced ...

23
Album Review

Andy Farber and His Orchestra: Early Blue Evening

Read "Early Blue Evening" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Saxophonist Andy Farber's New York-based orchestra came together and cut its teeth as the onstage band for three hundred performances of After Midnight, a Broadway revue that paid tribute to Jazz Age nightclub luminaries from Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford and Count Basie to Harold Arlen, Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh. As one might presume from the orchestra's provenance, echoes of Ellington and Basie can readily be discerned on its first recording since After Midnight closed in 2014--but Farber, who wrote ...

1
Radio & Podcasts

Four Quartets

Read "Four Quartets" reviewed by Patrick Burnette


Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged, And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight, And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly, and said shooby dooby doo—er, well, maybe not according to T. S. Eliot, but those aren't the four quartets we're talking about. Instead, we've got a mix of progressive and nostalgic takes on a jazz combo format as old as time and much, much hipper than “Cats." Playlist Discussion of Michael Marcus, Joe McPhee, Jay ...

6
Album Review

Bruce Harris: Soundview

Read "Soundview" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Cory Weeds, who is the executive producer of Soundview, is also the major domo behind The Cellar Music Group. This Vancouver, B.C. entity is committed to providing black artists with the opportunity to record and showcase their talent under the guidance of well-known trumpeter Jeremy Pelt. This initial release features trumpeter Bruce Harris and provides him with the launch pad to pay tribute to his family and community in the Bronx.Accompanied by pianist Sullivan Fortner, bassist David Wong, ...

1
In Pictures

Bruce Harris with the John Toomey Trio at Attucks Theater

Read "Bruce Harris with the John Toomey Trio at Attucks Theater" reviewed by Mark Robbins


In 1990 Spike Lee's movie, Mo Better Blues, was released. A young Bruce Harris watched the film about the turmoil surrounding a jazz trumpeter and his quintet and in the next 129 minutes his love of the trumpet was born. From performing in the “Essential Ellington" jazz band competition while in high school to a BA and Masters in Jazz Performance from the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College to stints at Smalls, Smoke Jazz Club, Dizzy's Club ...

6
Album Review

Bruce Harris: Beginnings

Read "Beginnings" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


Beginnings sounds as if it's guided by an old hand instead of someone relatively new to the demanding art of leading a band. The debut recording of trumpeter Bruce Harris captures a coherent, homogeneous group sound, while utilizing several different combinations of instruments. Harris ties together material ranging from Harold Arlen, to Bud Powell, to Prince, as well as his own originals, and judiciously employs the assorted voices of several soloists who effectively express themselves in only a chorus or ...

8
Album Review

Bruce Harris: Beginnings

Read "Beginnings" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Many a debut album receives a largely positive critique before being cut down to size with a qualifier. It's simply a jazz journalist's nature to paint newcomers as nascent talent in need of seasoning, players showing signs of potential, or artists taking a good first step with a first record. But sometimes a debut album is simply a strong statement with no need for journalistic hedging. Such is the case with Beginnings. If you haven't heard trumpeter ...

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Miles Davis
trumpet
Charlie Parker
saxophone, alto

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Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Earotica

Cellar Records
2023

buy

Unexpected Beauty

self released
2022

buy

Soundview

Cellar Live
2021

buy

Early Blue Evening

ArtistShare
2021

buy

Freedom Suite Ensuite

Sunnyside Records
2021

buy

Beginnings

Posi-Tone Records
2017

buy

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