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Mark Stryker über Harris:
Harris channeled the language and spirit of bebop’s founding fathers — alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk — through his own foxy wit, vivid harmonic imagination and distinctive rhythmic rumble. But he was more than a sterling soloist and keeper of the flame. He was a Talmudic scholar of bebop; a beacon of artistic integrity and generosity; and a swinging Socrates, guiding students in a quest for truth, beauty and the hippest chords to play on „Indiana“ and „Embraceable You.“
At a time when the traditional apprentice system all but collapsed in jazz, Harris represented a direct link to the pantheon. His authority descended from a lifetime of bandstand and recording experience with countless iconic figures.
„Barry was revered,“ said Michael Weiss, one of the many pianists Harris mentored. „He orchestrated his melodies and constructed his improvisations in a lyrical, unhurried and free-flowing manner. His codification of the bebop language stands apart from most of the trite attempts at jazz theory in the academic world, because it goes to the heart of what makes a melody.“
The essence of Harris’s individuality was his storytelling expression, spontaneous flow of melody and harmony and the intensity of his swing. On romantic ballads his ear for harmonic color and the eloquent movement of one chord to another lent his performances the lyric glow of a Shelley ode. On „Stay Right With It,“ a blues recorded in 1962 for his LP Chasin‘ the Bird, his articulation and inflection are in constant flux as he tears through a dozen choruses filled with coiled triplets, vocalized syncopations and expansive phrases.
Quelle / Vollständiger Artikel:
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/08/1062389633/barry-harris-beloved-jazz-pianist-devoted-to-bebop-dies-at-91
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