Remembering Barry Harris (1929-2021)

For many jazz fans, among whom we are, maestro Barry Harris, (Detroit, Michigan; December 15, 1929 – North Bergen, New Jersey; December 8, 2021) was one of the best disciples that Bud Powell had. and listening to him, it is difficult to deny that assessment. Barry is one of those musicians who is almost born with a piano under his arm. He studied since he was a child under the watchful eye of his mother in Detroit, where he was born in the middle of the crash of 1929, when the stock market was sinking and people were jumping out of the windows.

He studied at Detroit High School and discovered bebop there in 1946 while playing with an amateur orchestra that, at most, won a contest. Professionalism would come to him later, but it would be with a not insignificant position, since he became the regular pianist at the Bluebird club in Detroit. There he played with Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, so if he lacked something to learn, he learned it from the best.

He later replaced Richie Powell, who had died in the same traffic accident that killed Clifford Brown, in Max Roach’s group while he was developing the idea of ​​his own trio. He recorded albums as a sideman and with his group he played, among others, with Lee Konitz and Roy Eldridge. It was then that he started teaching classes and discovered that he liked the idea. He recorded with the Cannonball Adderley quintet, which he soon abandoned due to incompatibility of musical criteria. He settled in New York and began to dedicate more and more time to teaching, eventually being named professor at the Jazz Cultural Center. In 1987 he made his first trip to Europe to participate in the Boulogne Jazz Festival and, since then, every time he has set foot on the continent he has visited Spain.

On his visits he usually appears in a trio and does not miss the opportunity to teach some classes. Precisely in that context, Barry Harris was in Seville in the fall-winter of 2000 to teach at the seminar organized by the management of the Teatro Central of Seville and to perform in the jazz sessions of the Sevillian Jazz Festival where the members of Apoloybaco were able to enjoy with fullness of the wisdom, wisdom and mastery of the great Barry Harris.

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Barry Harris At The Jazz Workshop Full Album

The second recording as a leader by piano master Barry Harris, it was recorded live in San Francisco with the trio formula (the one preferred throughout his long career) and with Sam Jones on bass and Luois Hayes on drums. A beautiful recording.

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