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Artist
Barry Harris
12+ albums
jazzpianojazz pianoHard Bopbebop
about
There is more than one artist with this name: an American jazz pianist and a Canadian dance music DJ. 1) Barry Harris (born December 15, 1929) is an American bebop jazz pianist and educator. Born in Detroit, Michigan, on December 15, 1929, Barry Harris was influenced by Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. Harris left Detroit for New York City in 1960. Harris has played with Cannonball Adderley, Illinois Jacquet, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordon, and Max Roach. As a lead artist, he has recorded over 14 albums. Harris appears in the 1989 documentary film, "Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser" (produced by Clint Eastwood) performing duets with Tommy Flanagan. During the 1970s Harris lived with Monk and his family at the New Jersey home of the jazz patroness Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, and so was in an excellent position to comment on the last years of his fellow pianist. In the Eighties, Harris maintained a unique institution, the Jazz Cultural Theater, in a former restaurant storefront on Eighth Ave near 23rd Street in Manhattan. There he taught group music and piano lessons, as well as hosted his own performances and those of other like-minded artists. His album "For the Moment" was recorded there. His approach to the teaching of jazz used methods and techniques that pre-date the Berklee school and the Lydian Chromatic approach of George Russell. He relied upon the 6th chord and the 8-note, rather than seven-note, jazz scal
