Barry Harris

[jlhoots]

Thanks for the tip. Will have to acquire. Looks great. I have a couple of the LP's.

Ordered.

Couldn't resist.

[flat5]

Larry, can you give me the Argo or Roost record number?

I will try to find out.

The pic I found is black & white.

It seems to be "Sonny Stitt Plays" Roost 2208

Covers are here.

http://coverjazz.canalblog.com/archives/sonny_stitt/index.html

Edited June 30, 2011 by flat5

[J.A.W.]

Larry, can you give me the Argo or Roost record number?

I will try to find out.

The pic I found is black & white.

It seems to be "Sonny Stitt Plays" Roost 2208

Covers are here.

http://coverjazz.canalblog.com/archives/sonny_stitt/index.html

Larry posted the number (229) in his post #48. Like he said it's an Argo album.

Edited June 30, 2011 by J.A.W.

[Larry Kart]

Larry, can you give me the Argo or Roost record number?

I will try to find out.

The pic I found is black & white.

It seems to be "Sonny Stitt Plays" Roost 2208

Covers are here.

http://coverjazz.canalblog.com/archives/sonny_stitt/index.html

Larry posted the number (229) in his post #48. Like he said it's an Argo album.

Actually, it's Argo 629:

http://www.bsnpubs.com/chess/argo600.html

[J.A.W.]

Larry, can you give me the Argo or Roost record number?

I will try to find out.

The pic I found is black & white.

It seems to be "Sonny Stitt Plays" Roost 2208

Covers are here.

http://coverjazz.canalblog.com/archives/sonny_stitt/index.html

Larry posted the number (229) in his post #48. Like he said it's an Argo album.

Actually, it's Argo 629:

http://www.bsnpubs.com/chess/argo600.html

My mistake, sorry.

[Larry Kart]

Larry, can you give me the Argo or Roost record number?

I will try to find out.

The pic I found is black & white.

It seems to be "Sonny Stitt Plays" Roost 2208

Covers are here.

http://coverjazz.canalblog.com/archives/sonny_stitt/index.html

Larry posted the number (229) in his post #48. Like he said it's an Argo album.

Actually, it's Argo 629:

http://www.bsnpubs.com/chess/argo600.html

My mistake, sorry.

Flat5 -- The color cover, with its catalogue number visible, is in your gallery of covers.

[JamesJazz]

BTW, Flat5, do you know who are the members of the unidentified rhythm section on Stitt's other (IMO exceptional) 1958 Argo album (629), "Sonny Stitt," which was originally issued with the same color photo of Stitt on front and back and no liner notes?

The liner notes to the 1990 MCA CD reissue say that it's "possibly" Harris, William Austin, and Frank Gant, but I'm sure that's not the case. My guess has always been that it's the Ramsey Lewis Trio, which of course was an Argo mainstay. Bassist El Dee Young is quite distinctive, for one.

Will Austin told me that Argo used Chicago musicians to complete the date but didn't know who they used.

[Larry Kart]

Don't know what "complete the date" means, unless Austin thought that "Burnin'" and "Sonny Stitt" were regarded as a single date by Argo. In any case, my ears tell me that the rhythm section on all tracks of "Sonny Stitt" (Argo 629) is entirely different than the Harris-Gant-Austin rhythm section on "Burnin.'" In particular, there's no way that the pianist on "Sonny Stitt" is Harris unless he underwent a sudden stylistic transplant, and again, the bassist sounds a good deal like El Dee Young.

[Tom in RI]

I have wondered who was on that Sonny Stitt date (Argo 629), one of my favorite dates, maybe because it was also one of the first jazz albums I listened to a lot.

[Peter Friedman]

BTW, Flat5, do you know who are the members of the unidentified rhythm section on Stitt's other (IMO exceptional) 1958 Argo album (629), "Sonny Stitt," which was originally issued with the same color photo of Stitt on front and back and no liner notes?

The liner notes to the 1990 MCA CD reissue say that it's "possibly" Harris, William Austin, and Frank Gant, but I'm sure that's not the case. My guess has always been that it's the Ramsey Lewis Trio, which of course was an Argo mainstay. Bassist El Dee Young is quite distinctive, for one.

The Fresh Sound CD Burnin' also mentions those names (Harris-Austin-Gant) for the Sonny Stitt date, and so does the Bruyninckx discography; however, the latter notes that "Barry Harris is said not to be present at the above session, so probably the other musicians are also uncertain."

Just found a note I put inside the booklet of my CD copy of this session. It indicates that according to the late Jack Tracey, who was the producer of this Stitt recording, the sidemen

are Ramsey lewis, Eldee young, and Red Holt.

[Larry Kart]

BTW, Flat5, do you know who are the members of the unidentified rhythm section on Stitt's other (IMO exceptional) 1958 Argo album (629), "Sonny Stitt," which was originally issued with the same color photo of Stitt on front and back and no liner notes?

The liner notes to the 1990 MCA CD reissue say that it's "possibly" Harris, William Austin, and Frank Gant, but I'm sure that's not the case. My guess has always been that it's the Ramsey Lewis Trio, which of course was an Argo mainstay. Bassist El Dee Young is quite distinctive, for one.

The Fresh Sound CD Burnin' also mentions those names (Harris-Austin-Gant) for the Sonny Stitt date, and so does the Bruyninckx discography; however, the latter notes that "Barry Harris is said not to be present at the above session, so probably the other musicians are also uncertain."

Just found a note I put inside the booklet of my CD copy of this session. It indicates that according to the late Jack Tracey, who was the producer of this Stitt recording, the sidemen

are Ramsey lewis, Eldee young, and Red Holt.

Many thanks.

[B. Goren.]

Happy B-Day to Barry Harris who's celebrating his birthday today. Mr. Harris is 82 today. A great pianist!!!

[Mark Stryker]

Yes, by all means: Happy Birthday to Barry Harris, one of the all-time great Detroiters!! Here he is cutting everyone on stage w/Cannonball in 1960, paced by another Detroiter, Louis Hayes, on drums. (In fairness, Cannonball plays his ass off too, especially in the coda. where he slyly quotes "They Didn't Believe Me.") Also note the sound is horrible for the first two minutes but improves considerably after that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmDss1K5ftE

[Peter Friedman]

Happy Birthday Barry. Wishing you many many more.

[mjzee]

When I was in Manhattan in December, I found the December 2014 issue of Jazz Inside magazine. It had a long interview with Charles McPherson. Among other things, he talked about growing up in Detroit. This section about how he met Barry Harris when he was 15 really grabbed me:

CM: Barry Harris would see me at the Blue Bird all the time, and I met him. Then I started going over to his house, and he started showing me about harmony and theory.

JI: Did he show you things on piano?

CM: Yeah. He showed me everything about two-five-one's - that whole thing: chords, scales, what it means. Then, I started listening to and transcribing music from records. He would write out little solos and say, "You should listen to this record...listen to that." He really just took me under his wing and would write out tunes—easy tunes at first, like blues, rhythm, "Perdido," and things without a bunch of [chord] changes. Then, he slowly brought me on to playing standards, and pretty soon, more complicated tunes that had a bunch of changes, like "All or Nothing at All." Then I got turned on to Bud Powell, Bird, Dizzy, Miles and those people. And another thing, too—this has nothing to do with music, but it's a very important part of my life. When I started going over to Barry's house, I was about fifteen. I was over his house every other day. I lived two minutes away, around the corner. One day, he said, "When do you get your report card, Charles?" I said, "Uh, well I'll get it this week or something." Report card day came, and I went over his house, and he said, "Did you get your report card?" I said, "Yeah." So, I gave him my report card. Now, this changed my life—from this moment on, other than the music part. He looked at the card and he said, "Oh, you're quite an average student, you know." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "I just see C's on here. I don't see the A's or B's." In those days, A's were great, B's were wonderful and C's were kind of average. And that was true of me. I just had C's—maybe a B somewhere, but mostly C's. Barry said, "Well, Charles, I must say to you, it's okay. At least it's average. But the kind of musicians and the people that you actually like—Charlie Parker—those people are not average at all. They're actually spectacular. I don't know if you'll really be able to play this kind of music, and actually be average in the brain." When he said that, my whole world changed about school, the importance of it. I said, "Well, what do you mean?" He told me about Bird because he knew I love Charlie Parker. Barry said: "I must say to you that Charlie Parker is probably a genius, man. And even though he's not a good boy in society— you know, with his habits—intellectually, Charlie Parker could sit down with anybody and talk about the planet; talk about anything." He's a book reader, and do you read?" I said, "No." Barry said, "Well, then I don't know if you're going to be able to play this music. This music is not real easy." And from that point on, my whole attitude about school, about getting good marks, totally changed. When I started reading about Bird, about how Bird was really a brilliant guy, then, all of a sudden, just to be in school and be average just to get along—I changed. From that point on, I started doing homework. I started to bring it over to Barry's house and he would look at it. Barry was very smart, you know, in terms of book-learning.

[Peter Friedman]

A wonderful story. Thanks for sharing it.

Long ago when I was a college student I had a summer job with the Detroit Dept. Of Parks and Recreation.

I was working at a recreation center not far from where Charles McPherson lived. i remember a couple of times Charles

And his good friend trumpet player Lonnie Hillyer came to the center to check out a basketball and shoot some hoops.

We spoke a bit and of course part of the discussion had to do with Barry Harris.

By the way, Charles McPherson has a new CD out. It it titled "Journey" and on the Capri label.

I have heard the first 4 tracks so far, and it is excellent.