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Eddie Harris

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Eddie Harris was an American jazz musician, born in 1934 in Chicago, with a Cuban father and a mother from Mississippi. He was taught by Walter Dyett at DuSable High School, like many other Chicago musicians, and later continued his studies. During his military service he played in Europe in the 7th Army Band. Afterwards he signed to Vee Jay Records. His first album there, Exodus to Jazz from 1961, contained his jazz arrangement of the theme from the film Exodus, which reached the American chart as a single.

Music and breakthrough

In 1964 he moved to Columbia and a year later to Atlantic. There The In Sound, a bop album, was released in 1965. In the following years he played electric piano and the electric Varitone saxophone and made jazz with funk, which sold well in both jazz and R&B. His album The Electrifying Eddie Harris from 1967 reached number two on the R&B chart. In 1969 he played with Les McCann at the Montreux Jazz Festival, a performance that came about without rehearsal and was released as Swiss Movement, one of the best-selling jazz albums ever. His best-known compositions are Freedom Jazz Dance, which Miles Davis made famous in 1966, and Listen Here. He also devised instruments of his own, such as the reed trumpet, a trumpet with a saxophone mouthpiece.

Influence

Harris brought humour and experiment into jazz and showed that a saxophone with electronics could sound very different. He died in 1996 in Los Angeles.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Freedom Jazz Dance and notice the broken, jumpy melody. Can you hear how it sounds almost like a dance pattern that keeps coming back?

Discography

Studio albums

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsSoul jazz