HERALDING PIANIST BARRY HARRIS
By Len Dobbin

April 7, 2003

"The Father of Detriot Jazz", that's one of the things I've heard pianist Barry Harris called. In the mid 50s there was what seemed like a mass exodus of jazz musicians from the Motor City. Pepper Adams, Donald Byrd, Curtis Fuller, Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers, Doug Watkins, Tommy Flanagan and Sonny Red [Kyner] were among those who swelled the jazz population of New York City back then. If you spoke to them about who was left behind, Barry, Otis "Boo Boo" Turner and Abe Woodley would certainly be among the names that you would hear in reply. In fact most of the aforementioned, studied with Harris, either formally or informally. Today, at 73, Harris ranks as premier bebop pianist in jazz and Montreal is in for a rare treat as Barry will be joining a quintet led by trumpeter [and McGill professor] Kevin Dean, one that will also include a marvellous trombonist Terry Lukiwski, in from Toronto, and the longtime rhythm twosome, bassist Alec Walkington [guitarist Mark Elf quipped that with a name like that Alec was destined to be either a cop or a bass player] and drummer Dave Laing. The event takes place at eight in the evening on Wednesday, April 9 at Salle Gesu on Bleury Street just south of Ste. Catherine. The following day the group will record for CBC radio and Barry will also be passing it on via a clinic at McGill on Friday.

He was born Barry Doyle Harris in Detriot on December 15, 1929 and has been playing professionally for better than 50 years, his first piano studies were at age 4, his mother, a church pianist, was his first teacher. Beginning in 1954, he was the house pianist at the Bluebird, a renowned Detriot jazz club. There he hooked up with the likes of Miles Davis, Wardell Gray and Charlie Parker. He was also heard backing Lester Young and Lee Konitz at Detriot's Rouge Lounge. Bird, Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell were his main influences and indeed, today, he is the premier interpreter of their music. Although he worked on the road briefly with Max Roach in 1956, replacing Bud's brother Richie Powell, who died in the same car accident as Clifford Brown, Harris didn't leave Detriot until 1960 when he, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes became the rhythm section for Cannonball Adderley's Quintet. Settling in NYC, Barry began leading his own groups as well as working with the likes of Yusef Lateef and Charles McPherson, a former student. Coleman Hawkins showed a preference for pianists from Detriot and Barry, who was with Bean off and on from 1965 through 1969, joined Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan and Hugh Lawson in that chair. I mentioned McPherson, other students included Lonnie Hillyer and bassists Paul Chambers and Doug Watkins, who happened also to be cousins. In 1982 Harris formed the Jazz Cultural Center in NYC and education continues to be an important part of his life. Besides combo recordings like "Luminescence" with Pepper Adams, Junior Cook and Slide Hampton and "Bull's Eye" with Adams, McPherson [on tenor] and Kenny Dorham, Barry has done countless trio sessions of his own and recorded with a who's who of jazz artists including reedmen Hawkins, Cannonball, Lateef, Konitz, McPherson, Hank Mobley, Sal Nistico, Sonny Stitt, Al Cohn, Buck Hill, Ralph Lalama, Frank Morgan, Dexter Gordon, Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin, Steve Grossman, Illinois Jacquet, James Moody, Clifford Jordan, Don Wilkerson and Warne Marsh, brass players like Frank Rosolino, Red Rodney, Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Carmell Jones, Howard McGhee, Jack Sheldon and Lee Morgan as well as with guitarist Jimmy Raney, violinist Regina Carter, vibraphonists Terry Gibbs and Dave Pike and singer Eddie Jefferson. He's also a composer of note, "Father Flanagan" [for Tommy] "Luminescence", "Nascimento", "Nicaragua" and "Like This!" are some of the titles. He lives in Weehawken, N.J. in the former home of the Baroness Nica Rothchild de Koeningswater, where Monk spent the last year's of his life. Barry Harris in Montreal, an event not to be missed. (See also: www.barryharris.com )

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