Eddie Harris

Eddie Harris
Birth name	Edward Harris[citation needed]
Born	October 20, 1934(1934-10-20)
Died	November 5, 1996(1996-11-05) (aged 62)
Genres	Hard bop Soul-jazz Jazz funk Mainstream jazz Jazz fusion
Instruments	Saxophone, Piano, Organ
Associated acts	Johnny Griffin, Nat King Cole
Website	http://www.eddieharris.com/

Eddie Harris (October 20, 1934 – November 5, 1996) was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ. His best-known compositions are "Freedom Jazz Dance", recorded and popularized by Miles Davis in the 1960s and "Listen Here".

Biography

Harris was born and grew up in Chicago. His father was originally from Cuba, and his mother from New Orleans. Like other successful Chicago musicians, such as Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington, Clifford Jordan, Johnny Griffin, Gene Ammons, Julian Priester, and Bo Diddley (among others), young Eddie Harris studied music under Walter Dyett at DuSable High School. He later studied music at Roosevelt University, by which time he was proficient on piano, vibraphone, and tenor saxophone. While in college, he performed professionally with Gene Ammons.

After college, he was drafted into the United States Army and while serving in Europe, he was accepted into the 7th Army Band, which also included Don Ellis, Leo Wright, and Cedar Walton.

Leaving military service, he worked in New York City before returning to Chicago where he signed a contract with Vee Jay Records. His first album for Vee Jay, Exodus to Jazz included his own jazz arrangement of Ernest Gold's theme from the movie Exodus. A shortened version of this track, which featured his masterful playing in the upper register of the tenor saxophone, was heavily played on radio and became the first jazz record ever to be certified gold.

The single climbed into the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and reached #16 in the U.S. R&B chart. Some jazz critics, however, regarded commercial success as a sign that a jazz artist had sold out and Harris soon stopped playing "Exodus" in concert. He moved to Columbia Records in 1964 and then to Atlantic Records the following year where he re-established himself. In 1965, Atlantic released The In Sound, a bop album which won back many of his detractors.

Over the next few years, he began to perform on electric piano and the electric Varitone saxophone, and to perform a mixture of jazz and funk which sold well in both the jazz and rhythm and blues markets. In 1967, his album The Electrifying Eddie Harris reached second place on the R&B charts. The album's lead track, "Listen Here" was issued as a single, climbing to #11 R&B and #45 on the Hot 100. Harris released several different versions of his composition over the years, including both studio and live concert recordings.

In 1969, he performed with Les McCann at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Although the musicians had been unable to rehearse, their session was so impressive that a recording of it was released by Atlantic as Swiss Movement. This became one of the best-selling jazz albums ever, also reaching second place on the R&B charts.

Harris also came up with the idea of the reed trumpet, playing one for the first time at The Newport Jazz Festival of 1970 to mostly negative critical feedback. From 1970 to 1975, he experimented with new instruments of his own invention (the reed trumpet was a trumpet with a saxophone mouthpiece, the saxobone was a saxophone with a trombone mouthpiece, and the guitorgan was a combination of guitar and organ), with singing the blues, with jazz-rock (he recorded an album with Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck, Albert Lee, Ric Grech, Zoot Money, and other rockers). He also started singing and to perform comic R&B numbers like "That is Why You're Overweight" and "Eddie Who?".

In 1975, however, he alienated much of his audience with his album The Reason Why I'm Talkin' S**t, which consisted mainly of stand-up comedy. Interest in subsequent albums declined. He was a member of Horace Silver's Quintet in the early 1980s, and continued to record regularly well into the 1990s, sometimes in Europe where he enjoyed a loyal following, but his experimentation ended and he mainly recorded hard bop. He had moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, and was responsible for much of the music on the hit TV series, The Bill Cosby Show.

Harris died in hospital in Los Angeles from bone cancer and kidney disease, at the age of 62.

References in pop culture

Harris has been name-checked in the Beastie Boys song "So What'cha Want".

Discography

Albums

• Exodus to Jazz, 1961 Vee Jay Records
• Mighty Like A Rose, 1961 Vee Jay Records
• Jazz for Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961 Vee Jay Records
• A Study In Jazz, 1962 Vee Jay Records
• Eddie Harris Goes To The Movies, 1962 Vee Jay Records
• Bossa Nova, 1963 Vee Jay Records
• Half and Half, 1963 Vee Jay Records
• Cool Sax, Warm Heart, 1964 Columbia
• Here Comes The Judge, 1964 Columbia
• Cool Sax From Hollywood To Broadway, 1965 Columbia
• The In Sound, 1965 Atlantic Records
• Mean Greens, 1966 Atlantic
• The Tender Storm, 1967 Atlantic, with Cedar Walton (p) Ron Carter (b) Bobby Thomas (d)
• The Electrifying Eddie Harris, 1968 Atlantic
• Pourquoi L'Amérique, 1968 AZ (Soundtrack)
• Plug Me In, 1968 Atlantic
• Silver Cycles, 1968 Atlantic
• Sculpture, 1969 Buddah
• High Voltage, live album 1969 Atlantic
• Swiss Movement, 1969 Atlantic; with Les McCann
• Come on Down, 1970 Atlantic
• Free Speech, 1970 Atlantic
• Smokin', 1970 Janus Records
• Second Movement, 1971 Atlantic, with Les McCann
• Live At Newport, 1971 Atlantic
• Love...From A Horn, 1972 Harmony
• Instant Death,1972 Atlantic
• Eddie Harris Sings The Blues, 1972 Atlantic
• Excursions, double LP, 1973 Atlantic
• Eddie Harris In The UK, 1974 Atlantic; with Albert Lee, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, Chris Squire, Alan White, Tony Kaye, Rufus Reid, Ronald Muldrow
• Is It In, 1974 Atlantic
• I Need Some Money, 1975 Atlantic, with Ronald Muldrow
• Bad Luck Is All I Have, 1975 Atlantic
• That Is Why You're Overweight, 1976 Atlantic
• The Reason Why I'm Talking S**t, 1976 Atlantic
• How Can You Live Like That?, 1977 Atlantic
• I'm Tired of Driving, 1978 RCA
• Playin' With Myself, 1979 RCA
• Sounds Incredible, 1981 AFE Records
• The Versatile Eddie Harris, 1981 (Recorded 1976) Atlantic
• The Real Electrifying Eddie Harris, 1982 Ubiquity Records
• Eddie Who?, 1986 Timeless Records
• People Get Funny, 1987 Timeless Records
• Live in Berlin, 1989 Timeless Records
• Live at the Moonwalker, 1990 Moonwalker Label (Suisa)
• A Tale of Two Cities, 1991 Virgin Japan
• There Was a Time - Echo of Harlem, 1991 Enja
• For You, For Me, For Everyone, 1992 Steeplechase
• Yeah You Right, 1993 Lakeside
• Listen Here, 1993 Enja
• Vexatious Progressions, 1994 Flying Heart Records
• The Battle of the Tenors, 1994, with Wendell Harrison
• All The Way-Live, (Recorded 1981) 1996 Milestone Records with Jimmy Smith
• The Last Concert, CD 1997; with WDR Big Band

Compilations

• The Best of Eddie Harris, 1970 Atlantic
• Black Sax, 1975 GNP Crescendo Records
• Exodus: The Best of the Vee-Jay Years, 2005 Charly Records

External links

• Allmusic
• MusicWeb Encyclopaedia of Popular Music
• Eddie Harris Official Web Site
• Eddie Harris Illustrated Discography