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Barry Harris

Barry Harris is an NEA Jazz Master

Dr. Harris has devoted his life to the advancement of Jazz and in the 1980’s founded the Jazz Cultural Theatre. For the past several decades Dr. Harris has been an exponent of the classic Jazz style that was developed by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Coleman Hawkins.

Harris' earliest musical mentor was his mother who played for church and taught him his first song at the age of 4. This led him studying with different teachers in Detroit. In intermediate school he played clarinet and somehow he heard Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Fats Navarro. This proved to be his real love. Somewhere in the late forties he sat in with Charlie Parker and Gene Ammons at dance halls.

Barry Harris had musicians coming from all over to study with him. To name a few Joe Henderson and Yusef Lateef. John Coltrane came to Barry’s house to see how he was teaching some young students such as Charles McPherson, Lonnie Hillyer, James Jamerson, Paul Chambers and Harry Whitaker.

In the early '50s he traveled to New York City and recorded with Benny Golson, Thad Jones, Carmell Jones and others. Later he went to Chicago and

recorded with Sonny Stitt and then he played with Miles Davis in Detroit. He joined Max Roach band in 1956. He went back to Detroit and then in 1960 join Cannonball Addeley’s band. Barry also recorded with Dexter Gordon, played with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young.

For the past several decades Barry Harris is considered to be the foremost interpreter and an exponent of the classic bebop jazz style, traveling the world over as an Ambassador of Jazz.

He continued the tradition and devotion for the advancement of Jazz throughout his life and in the 1980s founded the Jazz Cultural Theatre. He has also presented and produce annual concerts at venues like Symphony Space and the Manhattan Center in New York. ​

Barry Harris has received the Living Jazz Legacy award from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Association, and an American Jazz Masters Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is the recipient of Honorary Doctorate degrees from Northwestern University, Lewis College of Business and the Manhattan School of Music. In addition, he received the Manhattan Borough President Award for Excellence.

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15
Interview

Barry Harris: Iconic Jazz Pianist and Keeper of the Flame

Read "Barry Harris: Iconic Jazz Pianist and Keeper of the Flame" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer


In memory of Barry Harris. This article was first published at All About Jazz on October 29, 2015. At the ripe age of 85, pianist Barry Harris has been on the jazz scene for seventy years, and throughout that time, he has remained loyal to and consistent with his bebop roots. Even though his playing has evolved in complexity and depth, it remains profoundly connected to his origins. He is a true keeper of the flame that was ...

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Album Review

Hank Mobley: The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Sessions 1963-70

Read "The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Sessions 1963-70" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


The music world has changed considerably since Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie founded their boutique reissue label Mosaic Records back in 1983. From its inception, vinyl was still the preferred format, shortly to be overtaken by the popularity of the compact disc. At the cusp of vinyl's recent resurgence, Mosaic briefly got back into that format only to find themselves on the brink of closing up shop. Fortunately, the powers that be have forged on and recent CD boxed sets ...

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Album Review

Lee Morgan: The Sidewinder

Read "The Sidewinder" reviewed by Greg Simmons


Legend tells us that 1964's The Sidewinder was the album, and indeed the song, which saved Blue Note Records at a time when the label was struggling financially. Dashed off to fill some tape, at the end of the recording session, it peaked at number 25 on the Billboard charts—almost unheard of for a hard-bop record—stabilizing the label's finances as well as providing Lee Morgan with steady royalties for the remainder of his tragically abbreviated life. Although the ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Barry Harris, Bob Brookmeyer and Chet Baker @ 90 – Bob James @ 80

Read "Barry Harris, Bob Brookmeyer and Chet Baker @ 90 – Bob James @ 80" reviewed by Marc Cohn


December birthdays on G&M! Some big numbers for the living and those who caught the bus. Still with us are pianists Barry Harris at 90 and Bob James at 80. Among those who are with us in sound and memory are trumpeter Chet Baker and valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer who would have turned 90. We also salute guitarists John Scofield, Jim Hall and Ron Affif; saxophonists Joe Lovano and Grover Washington Jr.; vocalist Lou Rawls; pianists Ray Bryant, Larry Willis ...

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Radio & Podcasts

December Birthday Salutes

Read "December Birthday Salutes" reviewed by Marc Cohn


Whether they've grabbed their hats and caught the bus, or are still with us, every one of these musicians makes the world a bit brighter. Of those living that we've featured, a special Gifts & Messages greeting to Curtis Fuller, Barry Harris and Eddie Palmieri as each celebrated more than 80 years on the planet on our day of broadcast! Enjoy the show! Playlist Tony Williams “Fred" from Believe It (Columbia) 00:00 Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson, Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley ...

Multiple Reviews

I classici Xanadu - Seconda parte

Read "I classici Xanadu - Seconda parte" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


In questo nuovo blocco di riedizioni Xanadu, pubblicate dalla Elemental, dopo la puntata dedicata ai sassofonisti, ci occupiamo soprattutto di pianisti, ovviamente legati alla scuola bop secondo le preferenze stilistiche del produttore Don Schlitten: Kenny Drew, Dolo Coker e Barry Harris. Questi non sono leader in tutti i dischi ma il loro contributo è sempre centrale. Unica eccezione della serie è un album del chitarristaJimmy Raney in trio, autonomo dal supporto armonico della tastiera. Kenny Drew Home ...

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Live Review

Barry Harris at the Village Vanguard

Read "Barry Harris at the Village Vanguard" reviewed by Bob Kenselaar


Barry HarrisVillage VanguardNew York, NYJanuary 15, 2012 Ambling in from the back of the room, Barry Harris introduced his trio to the crowd at the Village Vanguard as the musicians filed in ahead of him: Ray Drummond on bass, Leroy Williams on drums, and then he announced, with a wink, “I'm Barry Johnson." Of course, everybody in the audience was well familiar with the name of the living legend they were there to see. ...

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Obituary

Barry Harris (1929-2021)

Barry Harris (1929-2021)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Barry Harris, a jazz pianist and beloved educator whose leadership and sideman recordings celebrated bebop—the 1940s modernist movement that established a roadmap for improvised jazz—died on December 8. He was 91. Though Harris was too young to have participated in bop's birth or initial  popularity in the years immediately after World War II, the Detroit-based pianist caught the tail end of the first wave. In particular, he was influenced by and adored Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, bebop's founding-father pianists, ...

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Event

Join Us On The Inaugural Bandwagon Excursions Philly Jazz JAWNt For Larry McKenna & The Barry Harris Quartet on November 12

Join Us On The Inaugural Bandwagon Excursions Philly Jazz JAWNt For Larry McKenna & The Barry Harris Quartet on November 12

Source: All About Jazz

Ride with us to see Larry McKenna & The Barry Harris Quartet at the Shea Center for the Performing Arts at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ on Sunday, November 12, 2017 at 4 pm Bus leaves 1575 The Fairway, Jenkintown, PA (in front of Whole foods Market) at 12:45 pm on Sunday, November 12 Bus arrives back in Jenkintown around 8pm Price: $75 per person (Price includes ticket to show, bus ride, boxed supper & special gift) BYOB GET ...

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Education

Jazz Masters Barry Harris And Rufus Reid Featured At 2017 Straight Ahead Jazz Camp

Jazz Masters Barry Harris And Rufus Reid Featured At 2017 Straight Ahead Jazz Camp

Source: Adriana Prieto

From July 17-21 2017 The Jazz Institute of Chicago in collaboration with Columbia College Chicago will offer five days of interactive explorations of jazz via lectures, demonstrations, hands-on clinics and jam sessions during its 9th annual Straight Ahead Jazz Camp. Designed for adults age 18 and up and open to the general public, the camp provides an opportunity for jazz educators, music students, jazz enthusiasts and musicians to immerse themselves in the scholarship and performance of jazz. The camp is ...

Education

Music Education Monday: Jazz theory with Barry Harris

Music Education Monday: Jazz theory with Barry Harris

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Today for Music Education Monday, here are some lessons in piano and jazz theory from the veteran pianist Barry Harris, via a series of short videos produced by the Jazz Academy program of Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC. The first of these four clips was part of a previous post here with some other piano-related material, but now that the whole series is online, it seemed worth sharing again along with the companion videos. With regard to Harris, we ...

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Education

Music Education Monday: Jazz piano lessons from Mike Wolff and Barry Harris

Music Education Monday: Jazz piano lessons from Mike Wolff and Barry Harris

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Today for “Music Education Monday," we've got some video lessons that nominally are intended for jazz pianists, but also contain information that may be of interest to jazz improvisors in general. Pianist Michael Wolff is know for his early work with Cal Tjader, Cannonball Adderly and Nancy Wilson, for leading the house band on the original Arsenio Hall Show in the 1990s, and more recently, for film scoring work and collaborations including the Wolff & Clark Expedition with former Headhunters ...

Event

Emmanuel Baptist Church Celebrates Black History Month With NEA Jazz Master Barry Harris

Emmanuel Baptist Church Celebrates Black History Month With NEA Jazz Master Barry Harris

Source: Emmanuel Baptist Church Jazz Vespers

As one of jazz’s living legends, NEA Jazz Master Dr. Barry Harris will perform at Emmanuel Baptist Church’s first Jazz Vespers of 2014, in honor of Black History Month. It will take place in its standing home at the historic Emmanuel Baptist Church, 279 Lafayette Avenue, located in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn, New York, on February 23, 2014 at 3:00 PM. The recurrent theme of the Jazz Vespers is: “Experience the Presence of God through the Sounds of ...

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Recording

Barry Harris: Luminescence!

Barry Harris: Luminescence!

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

In April 1967, pianist Barry Harris assembled a magical sextet   for what would turn out to be one of his most exciting record dates. The album for Prestige was called Luminescence! and it featured trombonist Slide Hampton, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Lennie McBrowne, with Harris on piano. The competitive spirit and drive for excellence is so uplifting on this date that it explodes with aggression and beauty. Bebop recordings were quaint ...

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Education

Barry Harris jazz workshop and concert in Rome, March 21-25

Barry Harris jazz workshop and concert in Rome, March 21-25

Source: anna pantuso

BARRY HARRIS JAZZ WORKSHOP From Monday 21 to Friday 25 March 2011 Felt music club & school, via degli Ausoni 84, ROME Barry Harris is one of the world's most respected jazz piano players and teachers, considered by many to be the foremost interpreter of the music of Bud Powell, Tadd Dameron and Thelonious Monk. For more than half a century, Harris has played with the giants of jazz including Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, ...

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Event

Benefit Performance by Barry Harris Trio

Benefit Performance by Barry Harris Trio

Source: Michael Ricci

UNIVERSITY OF THE STREETS PRESERVATION CAMPAIGN Join us for an evening of exciting musical performances, delicious food, drink and fun with friends. University of the Streets celebrates its 41st year as a thriving institution of the New York arts community. Thanks For The Memories: A Musical Tribute to Muhammad Salahuddeen To benefit the University of the Streets Preservation Campaign Saturday, March 27th, 2010 7:00p.m. (followed by Open Mic & JAM) Muhammad Salahuddeen Memorial Jazz Theatre, 2nd Floor 130 ...

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Performance / Tour

Barry Harris Trio Opening Tonight for Four Nights at the Iridium, Sets at 8:30 & 10:30PM

Barry Harris Trio Opening Tonight for Four Nights at the Iridium, Sets at 8:30 & 10:30PM

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

THIS WEEK AT IRIDIUM FEB. 4-7 BARRY HARRIS TRIO RAY DRUMMOND-BASS, LEROY WILLIAMS-DRUMS BARRY HARRIS Barry Harris is an Internationally renowned Jazz Pianist, Composer and Teacher. Strongly influenced by Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker Harris is unquestionably the foremost exponent of the music of Powell, Tadd Dameron, and Monk, and is one of the few jazz musicians of the late 20th and 21st Centuries who can teach and play the music with equal clarity. RAY DRUMMOND ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Complete Hank...

Mosaic Records
2020

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The Sidewinder

Music Matters
2019

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Live In Rennes

Plus Loin Music
2010

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Live in New York

Reservoir Music
2004

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Newer Than New

Fantasy Jazz
2001

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Magnificent!

Prestige Records
2000

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