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Jazz pianist, arranger, and composer
Lafayette Harris, Jr. is among the most respected session and touring musicians on the scene. He possesses an extreme rhythmic vitality coupled with considerable harmonic depth. He doesn't often engage in delivering flashy lines or rapid-fire tempos, but he always displays fine -- even elegant -- phrasing, a passionate flair, and extensive knowledge of the jazz tradition, classic pop repertoire, and an intimate familiarity with soul and funk. These qualities have made him a go-to pianist for dozens of musicians ranging from
Max Roach (with whom he worked as pianist and arranger for seven years) and
Ernestine Anderson to
Roswell Rudd and
Houston Person. His debut album, Lafayette Is Here, appeared on Muse in 1995 to critical acclaim. In 1996, the pianist hit Broadway: He played for and conducted the award-winning hit Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk.
Harris started his own Airmen label in 1997 and in 1998 issued Lafayette Is Here: Solo. It was voted one of the best recordings of the year by Cadence Magazine. He made
Roach's acquaintance in 1997 when they collaborated with the Abyssinian Baptist Church Choir. They worked together until 2005 -- the same year
Harris began his working relationship with trombonist
Roswell Rudd.
Harris' 2006 date, In the Middle of the Night, was an acclaimed foray into funk and contemporary jazz. Given how busy
Harris was, 2008's Trio Talk would be his last outing as a leader until 2015's Bend to the Light with
Lonnie Plaxico and
Willie Jones III. 2016's
Hangin' with the Big Boys featured
Person (whose quartet the pianist had just joined) and
Jazzmeia Horn.
Harris' Savant debut, You Can't Lose with the Blues, appeared in early 2020.
Harris was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1963. He began his musical career with private lessons and playing in church. By the time he was in high school, he was playing in popular local bands that covered all the classic R&B and funk hits of the day. He formulated the staunch work ethic that made him such a journeyman later on. This is evidenced by the fact that
Harris had already devoted himself privately to jazz after hearing fellow Baltimore native
Eubie Blake play
Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag."
Harris' goal at the time was to perfect it. He augmented the live work with hard study:
Harris attended and received a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory and studied with master pianist
Kenny Barron at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he earned his master's degree in Jazz Performance.
Moving to New York in the mid-'80s,
Harris met and studied with
Barry Harris. As a sideman, he worked in well-established clubs like the Blue Note, Sweet Basil, and Fat Tuesdays, and because of his sublime rhythmic and melodic ensemble interplay, he garnered a reputation as a musician to watch. He earned his first record deal with Muse, resulting in Lafayette Is Here, his 1993 debut offering featuring trumpeter
Terrell Stafford, saxophonist
Don Braden, bassist
Lonnie Plaxico, and drummer
Cindy Blackman (nee Santana). A second Muse outing, 1996's Happy Together, featured his trio with
Melba Moore. In 1995, Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk began its run at the Public Theater's Newman Theatre and left for Broadway in 1996.
Harris won the role of the orchestra's associate conductor and keyboardist. He has since created an excellent Broadway resume that includes work on The Color Purple.
Harris was a regular on the European jazz festival touring circuit. He played in bands led by
Slide Hampton and vocalist
Barbara Morrison. In 1997
Barron introduced
Max Roach to his former student. The great drummer was seeking a musical director for a collaboration with
Abyssinian Baptist Church Choir and
Harris got the gig. The project worked so well, they took it to London and Paris as well. (The pair worked together until 2005.)
Harris formed his own Airmen label in 1998 and issued Lafayette Is Here: Solo; it was voted one of the year's best recordings by Cadence Magazine. So busy with other projects was he,
Harris didn't record as a leader again for eight years. He also made regular appearances at New York’s Blue Note, and led a weekly open mike session at the historic Lenox Lounge in Harlem -- widely regarded as the “best vocal jam session” in the city by New York’s weekly listing guides -- for a solid decade.
In 2000,
Harris joined guitarist
Mark Whitfield's Soul Conversation and cut The Jazz Channel Presents Mark Whitfield & JK (Soul Conversation) for
Herbie Hancock's Transparent Music label. In 2003, he began a recording and touring relationship with Grammy-nominated singer
Ernestine Anderson. He appeared on her
Love Makes the Changes that year, and worked the road with her regularly, particularly in Europe. The following year,
Harris joined his friend Reggie Woods' popular band Soul Street in Morocco to play a New Year’s Eve bash hosted by the nation's King Al-Hassan. In 2005,
Harris debuted a new trio at the Burghausen Jazz Festival in Germany; it included bassist
Dwane Dolphin and drummer
Winard Harper. That group became his touring band and later his studio ensemble. He also toured with Sandra Reaves-Phillips, who he had worked with on occasion between 1989 and 1994. That same year, in November,
Harris met trombonist
Roswell Rudd and played his first gig with him. In 2006, he was a member of
Anita O'Day's studio band for Indestructible, her final recording session.
In the Middle of the Night,
Harris' first recording since 1998, marked a change of pace: it delved head on into contemporary jazz, funk, and soulful pop. Its cast included
Donald Harrison, Jr.,
Alyson Williams,
Stafford, Ben Butler, and more. The following year he worked the road with
Rudd and Reaves-Phillips. He appeared with the trombonist at the Newport Jazz Festival along with vocalist Sunny Kim and bassist Brad Jones. He also toured with
Anderson and
Frank Wess. The acclaimed
Harris-led Trio Talk with
Harper and
Dolphin appeared in 2008, as did
Harris' first recorded appearance with
Rudd's quartet on
Keep Your Heart Right from Sunnyside. It would be another seven years before the pianist recorded under his own name again.
Harris toured with
Anderson, and Reaves-Phillips, among others. In 2009 he appeared on
Anderson's A Song for You in 2009, and on
Nightlife in 2011.
During the latter year, he was touring and recording with
Rudd's quartet, which had just released
The Incredible Honk. For the next three years,
Harris toured and held down headline gigs at New York clubs like Small's. In 2014, he undertook a Kickstarter campaign to fund his next outing. Arriving in 2015, Bend to the Light included
Plaxico,
Jones III, percussionist
Thomas Dyani, and featured a guest spot by
Jazzmeia Horn on a vocal version of the set's title track. It might be the only album in jazz history to include tunes by
Herbie Nichols and
Luther Vandross. In 2016,
Harris followed with uncharacteristic quickness: He released
Hangin' with the Big Boys, an all-star date that included
Person,
Horn, Will Terrill,
George Delancey,
Antoine Drye, and
Caleb Curtis. It was, at least for the foreseeable future, his final album on Airmen.
In 2017,
Harris made his recorded debut with
Person's group -- with whom he had been touring for years -- on
Rain or Shine. The set's personnel also included
Warren Vache and
Rodney Jones.
Rudd made Embrace that year, his second recording for RareNoise. His band included
Harris, bassist
Ken Filiano, and vocalist
Fay Victor, and it drew some of best reviews of the trombonist's career.
Rudd died that December. After his death,
Harris spent most of his time teaching and playing club gigs though he still made it to Europe for the festival season and worked with
Person's group. In 2019, he cut his Savant debut, You Can't Lose with the Blues, leading a trio whose other personnel included bassist
Peter Washington and drummer
Lewis Nash. The set was released in January of 2020. ~ Thom Jurek