Barry Harris

1929—

Jazz pianist, music educator

A profile of pianist Barry Harris featured in a press release by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem called him "one of the quintessential keepers of the bebop piano flame." Born and raised in Detroit, Harris was one of the artists who came on the scene during the fertile years of jazz in that city in the late 1950s. In 1960 he moved to New York and was active as a solo recording artist and performer, as a sideman in others' bands, and as a composer and arranger, with a style that drew on those of bop pianist Bud Powell and quirky experimentalist Thelonious Monk, among others. Harris became interested in jazz education, a field in which he was in demand in Europe as well as in the United States. Although bebop is sometimes thought of as a difficult jazz style to understand and perform, Harris has approached teaching with a spirit of openness and generosity, welcoming professionals and amateurs alike to a busy schedule of classes held in New York and other cities.

Born on December 15, 1929, Harris was taught to play the piano by his mother, who played the instrument at her church. His mother made him choose between gospel music and jazz, but accepted his decision when he chose the latter. Harris attended Detroit's Northeastern High School, where one of his classmates was another talented pianist, future Motown Records founder Berry Gordy. Harris entered his teenage years just as saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and their compatriots were making the first radical experiments in harmony and improvisation that led to bebop, and he learned to play the difficult solos of Powell with the help of a variable-speed record player lent to him by a girl he knew.

The teenager hung out at such jazz venues as downtown Detroit's Graystone Ballroom, hoping to get a chance to sit in with Parker and other traveling bebop players. By the early 1950s he was playing for dances, and in 1953 he landed a recurring gig as house pianist at one of the city's jazz clubs, the Blue Bird Inn. Harris gradually became a fixture in Detroit's jazz scene, which at the time served as a headquarters for nationally known talents such as trumpeter Miles Davis. He performed with Davis, saxophonist Lester Young, drummer Max Roach, and other established national stars while also nurturing younger players, and visiting jazz artists often headed for the apartment Harris shared with his mother, knowing that they would be among their peers there.

Harris recorded an album called Breakin' It Up for the Argo label in 1958. In 1960 he moved to New York City to take an open slot in the quintet of saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. Harris found plenty of work in New York, partly because he was a flexible musician who could back older players such as saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, play solo, lead a duo or trio, or even work with a tap dancer, Jimmy Slyde. He often joined with a fellow Detroiter, the saxophonist and flutist Yusef Lateef, in performances and on recordings, and he enjoyed a successful recording career of his own, releasing albums on the Riverside, Original Jazz, and Prestige labels. In the 1970s Harris often backed saxophonist Sonny Stitt and appeared on his highly regarded 1972 Tune-Up! and Constellation LPs. Harris made friends with the European-born jazz backer Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, who had supported the careers of Monk, Parker, and other musicians, and he eventually began to live at her estate in Weehawken, New Jersey.

As far back as the 1950s Harris had enjoyed teaching jazz piano to others, and many of the younger players who came to dominate Detroit jazz over the rest of the 20th century owed their careers partly to his example. In the mid-1970s he began to teach piano at the Jazz Interactions studio, and in 1982 he founded the Jazz Cultural Theater, on Manhattan's Eighth Avenue—a classroom, rehearsal space, and musicians' meeting place as well as a venue. In the words of Peter Watrous in the New York Times in 1988, "It was one of the most important jazz spots in the city; not only did the place feature great music at night, but Mr. Harris gave lessons—1,000 students went through his doors—and held big-band rehearsals."

The theater closed in 1988, forced out of existence by Manhattan's rising rents. But Harris's teaching career had gained enough momentum to continue independently. He served as a guest lecturer at the Dutch Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and that turned into an annual artist-in-residence slot. The conservatory's jazz department chair, Walter Turkenburg, told Michele Drayton writing in American Visions in 1999 that "I do not know of many people who are thinking music all the time—all the time, even if he is talking to you." A student, Manon Miessen, added that "in Europe people tend to be a little bit intellectual about jazz music. For Barry, it's just a thing you experience with everybody, whether they are extremely old or extremely young, very good or very bad. It's for everybody. You just have to be willing and eager to learn."

That same philosophy applied to Harris's classes back in New York, which were held at such venues as the Lincoln Square Neighborhood Community Center. They were open to players of any ability—even those with little experience on the piano—and there were no auditions. "Dr. Barry Harris conducts the workshops in a very unique fashion that allows everyone to participate and learn," Harris's Web site explained. "Generally, Dr. Harris will pick a tune and explain the harmonic chord movements and have the students play through the various scales. He also teaches you how to improvise over those various chord changes." Harris himself continued to perform in New York at such clubs as the Village Vanguard.

At a Glance …

Born Barry Doyle Harris on December 15, 1929, in Detroit, MI.

Career: Performed at Blue Bird Inn and other clubs, Detroit, MI, late 1950s; moved to New York, 1960; Cannonball Adderley Quintet, member performing with Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, and others; recorded with Sonny Stitt and others, 1970s; began teaching formally, mid-1970s; has recorded more than sixty-five albums with others and as a leader.

Awards: Award for the Preservation and Proliferation of the Jazz Heritage, Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, 1982; Jazz Master Award, Afro-American Museum, Philadelphia, 1983; American Jazz Masters Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, 1989; Honorary Jazz Award, U.S. House of Representatives, 1995; Special Presidential Award, International Association of Jazz Education, 1995; honorary doctorate, Northwestern University, 1995; inducted into American Jazz Hall of Fame, New Jersey Jazz Society, 2000; Jazz Award, Jazz Journalists Association, 2003.

Addresses: Record label—Concord Music Group, 100 N. Crescent Dr., Ste. 275, Beverly Hills, CA 90210-5412. Web—http://www.barryharris.com.

A virtual institution of jazz in his later years, Harris won a long series of awards, beginning with an Institute of Jazz Studies Award for the Preservation and Proliferation of the Jazz Heritage in 1982, continuing through induction into the American Jazz Hall of Fame in 2000, and beyond. It was in a way typical of his generous personality, however, that he was not content simply to receive awards. In 1988 he inaugurated the Barry Harris Jazz Achievement Award, known as the "Barry." He financed an awards ceremony out of his own pocket, taking on European teaching jobs to come up with the money. The first year's recipients included octogenarian trumpeter Doc Cheatham. "I wanted to give the cats something, especially since many of the great figures in jazz get forgotten," Harris explained to Watrous in 1988. "One's supposed to do something, and it's the least I could do."

Selected discography

Breakin' It Up, Argo, 1958.

Barry Harris at the Jazz Workshop, Riverside, 1960.

Listen to Barry Harris, Riverside, 1960.

Preminado, Riverside, 1961.

Newer Than New, Riverside, 1961.

Chasin' the Bird, Riverside, 1962.

Luminescence! Prestige, 1967.

Bull's Eye! Prestige, 1968.

Magnificent! Prestige, 1969.

Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron, Xanadu, 1975.

Barry Harris/Tokyo: 1976, Xanadu, 1976.

Barry Harris Plays Barry Harris, Xanadu, 1978.

Stay Right with It, Milestone, 1978.

Beautiful Africa, Soul Note, 1979.

For the Moment (recorded live at the Jazz Cultural Theatre), Uptown, 1985.

The Bird of Red and Gold, Xanadu, 1989.

Barry Harris in Spain, Nuba, 1991.

Live at Dug, Enja, 1996.

First Time Ever, Alfa Music, 1997.

I'm Old Fashioned, Pony Canyon, 2004.

Live from New York, Vol. 1, Lineage, 2006.

Sources

Periodicals

American Visions, February 1999, p. 36.

New York Times, May 27, 1988; May 28, 1994; May 10, 2003, p. B16.

Online

"Discography," "NYC Workshops," "Profile," and "Workshops Q & A," Barry Harris's official Web site, http://www.barryharris.com (accessed March 14, 2008).

"NEA Jazz Master Barry Harris Honored by Jazz Museum," The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, April 12, 2007, http://www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org/PR_040907.html (accessed March 14, 2008).

Rupp, Carla and Jason, "Dr. Barry Harris: Beloved Jazz Teacher Speaks," Jazz Review, October 2003, http://www.jazzreview.com/articledetails.cfm?ID=2348 (accessed March 14, 2008).

—James M. Manheim