Harris, Barry (Doyle)

Harris, Barry (Doyle), jazz pianist, educator, theorist; b. Detroit, Mich., Dec. 15, 1929. His mother was a church pianist, and began teaching him to play at age four. By 1946, he was playing jazz locally. He was known as a master teacher in Detroit in the late 1950s. His national reputation began in Cannonball Adderley’s group in 1960, and he moved to N.Y., working frequently with Coleman Hawkins, Yusef Lateef, and Charles McPherson, as well as his own groups. He made many sideman appearances in the 1960s and 1970s, with the first recordings of his own for Riverside and Prestige during the 1960s. As an educator (sometimes known as “professor”), he is especially known for his brilliant ability to distill from the works of Bud Powell and Charlie Parker a series of melodic principles which he calls “bebop scales.” (They are perhaps more accurately described as licks since they are built from existing scales rather than new ones.) For example, he has noted that beboppers tended to fill in certain steps chromatically when descending but not when ascending. John Coltrane was among many musicians who was said to have consulted with him. In 1982, Harris founded the Jazz Cultural Center, where he taught group classes and led a big band; after five years, he could no longer afford to keep the center open, and moved on to teaching at other venues. Among his protégés are Dan Faulk and Sue Terry. He was the recipient of NEA’s Jazz Masters award in 1989 and the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s 1996 Living Legacy Jazz Award. He was honored with Gregory Hines at Tap Extravaganza 98, held at N.Y.’s Town Hall.

Discography

Breakin’ It Up (1958); Barry Harris at the Jazz Workshop (1960); Listen to B. H (1961); Chasin’ the Bird (1962); Luminescence (1967); Magnificent (1969); B. H. Plays Tadd Dameron (1975); Live in Tokyo (1976); B. H. Plays B. H. (1978); Beautiful Africa (1979); Stay Right with It (1979); Bird of Red and Gold (1989); Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, V (1990); Confirmation (1991).

—Lewis Porter