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Donald Harrison
New Orleans born saxophonist Donald Harrison is a musician/composer who master musicians consider a master of every era of jazz, soul, funk, and a composer of orchestral classical music. He is also a genius, according to geniuses like Eddie Palmieri and Mike Clark. In the HBO drama Treme, Emmy winning director David Simon created two characters to portray how Harrison innovated new styles of music. Harrison has appeared as an actor/musician in 9 episodes of Treme, Oscar-winning director Johnathon Demme’s film Rachel Getting Married, Spike Lee’s When The Levee’s Broke documentary, and Marvel’s Luke Cage. This talented artist is the recognized Big Chief of Congo Square in Afro-New Orleans culture and was made a Chief in 2019 by Queen Diambi Kabatusuila in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa.
Harrison honed his experience playing with Roy Haynes, Art Blakey, Eddie Palmieri, Dr. John, Lena Horne, McCoy Tyner, Dr. Eddie Henderson, Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, Chuck Loeb, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Digable Planets, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, The Headhunters, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and The Notorious BIG. He has performed with over 200 jazz masters and created three influential styles of jazz. At the age of nineteen, Harrison created a modern jazz take on the New Orleans second-line tradition and introduced his composition New York Second-Line to the jazz world in 1979. By the mid-’80s, he created Nouveau Swing, a distinctive sound that blended the swing beat of modern jazz with hip-hop, funk, and soul music. In the ’90s, Harrison recorded hits in the smooth jazz genre. He began exploring music through the lens of quantum physics in 2000. With quantum jazz, Harrison heard how to move music from a two-dimensional state into a four-dimensional state. Harrison has been a mentor to artist as diverse as The Notorious Big, Jonathon Batiste, Christian Scott, Trombone Shorty, and Esperanza Spaulding.
In 2020 look for Harrison performing Charlie Parker with strings in tribute to his centennial. He is composing orchestral classical music for upcoming premiers and adding hip-hop/jazz to his multi-genre recordings and performances.
Awards
2007 Jazziz Magazine Person of the Year
2007 Arts Council of New Orleans Community Arts Award Recipient
2008 Big Easy Music Awards Ambassador of Music
Gear
Donald Harrison is an International Woodwind Artist
http://www.internationalwoodwind.com/
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The Headhunters: The Stunt Man
by Doug Collette
With the half-century anniversaries of Herbie Hancock's work with the Headhunters having passed in roughly the last year--Head Hunters (Columbia, 1973) and Thrust (Columbia, 1974)--it is appropriate the current configuration of the group has continued regular activity. In fact, under the fitting tutelage of drummer Mike Clark and percussionist Bill Summers, the band has issued two albums of new material in this span of time. Speakers in the House (Ropeadope, 2022) is an album of dashing panache and ...
Continue ReadingEddie Henderson: Witness To History
by Mike Jurkovic
Make no mistake: it is the hot buttered soul, Shaft"-like theme of Scorpio Rising" that first snags one's attention. But once snagged, the old cool sets in and Witness To History, trumpeter Eddie Henderson's self curated soundtrack, unwinds with a wicked fervor. A deep, wicked joy. Henderson--who has pretty much seen it all from the impulsive, jazz rock Realization (Capricorn, 1973) through The Cookers to the still palpable Shuffle and Deal (Smoke Avenue, 2020)--looks back for a PBS ...
Continue ReadingEddie Henderson: Witness To History
by Dave Linn
Dr. Eddie Henderson, 82 years old at the time of writing in 2023, has one of the most interesting stories in modern jazz and is a true Renaissance man. His parents were entertainers; his mother was a dancer at the original Cotton Club while his father was a member of the popular singing group Billy Williams and the Charioteers. Later, his stepfather was a doctor to Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Duke Ellington. When he was nine years old, his ...
Continue ReadingDino Betti van der Noot: Here Comes Springtime
by AAJ Staff
There are some musicians whose instrument is the orchestra. They hear multiple voices, textures, harmonic designs. And if they are jazz composers, they hear the sweet and pungent tension between the orchestra and the improvising soloist. If, moreover, they are composers interested in more than self-gratification, they hear, as they write, particular players so that the ultimate scores reflect a range of individual personalities, each of them telling their own stories as well as that of the composer.
Continue ReadingThe Headhunters: Speakers In The House
by Doug Collette
Herbie Hancock's Headhunters (Columbia, 1973) remains one of the seminal works of the jazz fusion era. The group's heavy emphasis on rhythm not only separated it from its guitar-oriented peers of the era, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and the middle-period Return to Forever, but also from Weather Report: grooves became increasingly more prominent as that band evolved, but never to the depth of Hancock and company's all-encompassing funk. That solid foundation is more than enough distinction for the first ...
Continue ReadingThe Headhunters: Speakers In The House
by Chris May
Although it appears to have been self-released in limited numbers in 2019, this Ropeadope release of Speakers In The House is effectively the Headhunters's first album since Platinum (Owl) in 2011. The band continues to be led and produced by its two Herbie Hancock-era members, percussionist Bill Summers and drummer Mike Clark, who together have kept the outfit intermittently active since Hancock moved on to other things in the mid 1970s. Summers played on the band's debut, ...
Continue ReadingClifford Lamb: Blues & Hues New Orleans
by Kyle Simpler
There are quite a few cities in the world that have an important musical legacy, and in many cases, the city's musical history might be one of the first things people associate with it. Take New Orleans. Commonly known as the birthplace of jazz, it's hard to imagine New Orleans without conjuring up brass bands, jazz clubs and juke joints. San Francisco-based pianist Clifford Lamb explores New Orleans' musical and cultural aspects with Blues & Hues New Orleans by offering ...
Continue ReadingJazz Musician of the Day: Donald Harrison
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Donald Harrison's birthday today!
New Orleans born saxophonist Donald Harrison is a musician/composer who master musicians consider a master of every era of jazz, soul, funk, and a composer of orchestral classical music. He is also a genius, according to geniuses like Eddie Palmieri and Mike Clark. In the HBO drama Treme, Emmy winning director David Simon created two characters to portray how Harrison innovated new styles of music. Harrison has appeared as an actor/musician ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Donald Harrison
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Donald Harrison's birthday today!
New Orleans born saxophonist Donald Harrison is a musician/composer who master musicians consider a master of every era of jazz, soul, funk, and a composer of orchestral classical music. He is also a genius, according to geniuses like Eddie Palmieri and Mike Clark. In the HBO drama Treme, Emmy winning director David Simon created two characters to portray how Harrison innovated new styles of music. Harrison has appeared as an actor/musician ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Donald Harrison
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Donald Harrison's birthday today!
New Orleans born saxophonist Donald Harrison is a musician/composer who master musicians consider a master of every era of jazz, soul, funk, and a composer of orchestral classical music. He is also a genius, according to geniuses like Eddie Palmieri and Mike Clark. In the HBO drama Treme, Emmy winning director David Simon created two characters to portray how Harrison innovated new styles of music. Harrison has appeared as an actor/musician ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Donald Harrison
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Donald Harrison's birthday today!
Donald Harrison is being called one of the most important musicians of the new millennium by CBS Sunday Morning. A list of his accomplishments shows that he has developed into a musical category unto himself. In the classic jazz genre, he is the originator of the Nouveau Swing style which merges acoustic swing with modern R&B, second-line, hip-hop, Mardi Gras Indian music (New Orleans African American roots culture), and reggae rhythms. ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Donald Harrison
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Donald Harrison's birthday today!
Donald Harrison is being called one of the most important musicians of the new millennium by CBS Sunday Morning. A list of his accomplishments shows that he has developed into a musical category unto himself. In the classic jazz genre, he is the originator of the Nouveau Swing style which merges acoustic swing with modern R&B, second-line, hip-hop, Mardi Gras Indian music (New Orleans African American roots culture), and reggae rhythms... ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Donald Harrison
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Donald Harrison's birthday today!
Donald Harrison is being called one of the most important musicians of the new millennium by CBS Sunday Morning. A list of his accomplishments shows that he has developed into a musical category unto himself. In the classic jazz genre, he is the originator of the Nouveau Swing style which merges acoustic swing with modern R&B, second-line, hip-hop, Mardi Gras Indian music (New Orleans African American roots culture), and reggae rhythms... ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Donald Harrison
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Donald Harrison's birthday today!
Donald Harrison is being called one of the most important musicians of the new millennium by CBS Sunday Morning. A list of his accomplishments shows that he has developed into a musical category unto himself. In the classic jazz genre, he is the originator of the Nouveau Swing style which merges acoustic swing with modern R&B, second-line, hip-hop, Mardi Gras Indian music (New Orleans African American roots culture), and reggae rhythms... ...
read more
Donald Harrison Headlines Thailand International Jazz Conference 2017
Source:
All About Jazz
It's a thrilling, eclectic, annual three-day, multi-faceted jazz event in a tropical atmosphere that gets underway this week in Thailand. Combos of all kinds, big bands, you name it. It's an extraordinary cultural and beautiful, warm atmosphere. Hundreds of jazz lovers and musicians from a variety of countries eagerly congregate each day at various stages at the College of Music at Bangkok's Salaya campus of prestigious Mahidol University. Plenty of opportunities for education for all ages, performances and socializing around ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Donald Harrison
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Donald Harrison's birthday today!
Donald Harrison is being called one of the most important musicians of the new millennium by CBS Sunday Morning. A list of his accomplishments shows that he has developed into a musical category unto himself. In the classic jazz genre, he is the originator of the Nouveau Swing style which merges acoustic swing with modern R&B, second-line, hip-hop, Mardi Gras Indian music (New Orleans African American roots culture), and reggae rhythms... ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Donald Harrison
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Donald Harrison's birthday today! Donald Harrison is being called one of the most important musicians of the new millennium by CBS Sunday Morning. A list of his accomplishments shows that he has developed into a musical category unto himself. In the classic jazz genre, he is the originator of the Nouveau Swing style which merges acoustic swing with modern R&B, second-line, hip-hop, Mardi Gras Indian music (New Orleans African American roots culture), and reggae rhythms... ...
read more
"Donald Harrison is one of the most confident and convincing improvisers in jazz today." —All About Jazz
"The satisfied audience’s screaming ovation says it all." —All About Jazz
"...one of the best jazz sax men playing today." —Smoothjazz.com
"...alto saxophonist Harrison has become a seasoned veteran and respected bandleader-talent scout..." —JazzTimes
"...altoist’s creativity is commanding." —All About Jazz
Joe Dyson
drumsPhotos
Music
Totem Pole
From: Witness To HistoryBy Donald Harrison
Mardi Gras Day
From: Mardi Gras DayBy Donald Harrison
Twerk It
From: The SurvivorBy Donald Harrison