Saxophonist Donald Harrison talks about his new album, The Magic Touch, a multi-genre Nouveau Swing compilation, which includes nine stylistically different compositions of the same song. The idea began in 2005 when Harrison recorded “3D,” three separate CDs dedicated to different genres (jazz, soul, and hip hop) but were recreations of the same song collections.
Transcript/Text Alternative
Donald Harrison Interview Transcript:
[00:00–01:05] [Music: Upbeat jazz instrumental music with a strong saxophone lead.]
Blaise Lantana: That’s Donald Harrison with "A Night in Tunisia" on Jazz PHX, and that’s from his album Real Life Stories. Do you remember what year that was? Donald Harrison is here with me. We’re going to talk about his new record, and we’re going to talk about his performance. He’s going to be at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival Saturday, April 11th. That’s this Saturday. He’ll be there for a 5:00 show right after Nayo Jones. Kermit Ruffins is going to be there, much more, Spyro Gyra, and Donald Harrison plays at 5:00 at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival, and that’s going to be at the Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena in Scottsdale. So you can get to see him and hear him live and in person. So talk a little about this album that you did—this was a little bit further back—Real Life Stories.
Donald Harrison: Yeah, that was during the formation of what we call the "Nouveau Swing" sound. So we had some of the young guys—a lot of young guys came through that band. And at the time, I didn’t realize how influential the sound was because we were adding different elements to what we call a swing beat. And some of the young musicians like Robert Glasper, Christian McBride, and Christian Scott, Esperanza Spalding, Jon Batiste...
Blaise: Right there! They’re all big names now, huh?
Donald Harrison: They were—they were really listening to that, and some of them came through the band. And they cite the Nouveau Swing sound, which was mixing swing music with funk and hip-hop and modern dance sounds, as a key influence to what led them to playing multiple types of music and also playing jazz that embraced the universe that we live in now.
Blaise: Right. Jazz keeping up with the times, so to speak. And you started—where did you grow up? Where did you start out?
Donald Harrison: I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, the city that jazz built. And we still have what we call traditional jazz and tribal music down there, so it still informs what we do and what we bring to the world.
Blaise: So, what is this "Congo Square Suite"? Tell me about that.
Donald Harrison: Well, I’m the Big Chief of Congo Square, which is the place—well, the only place in America where people of African descent could practice their—or participate in their homeland culture. And that’s one of the key influences of what we call New Orleans jazz. The music that Sidney Bechet and Baby Dodds and those guys played were heavily influenced by Congo Square.
Blaise: And is it—do you think it’s more drum-based than a lot of other jazz?
Donald Harrison: Well, it’s based on certain rhythms. It’s based on rhythms instead of the idea of one-two-three-four, or one-two-three. It’s not based on a stagnant beat. It’s based on how rhythms are put together. So it has a different feel to it. We got away from that once we moved to different cities that didn’t have a strong African influence. So it’s still mixed in there, but now we count music one-two-three-four, you know? Africans really didn’t, in ancient times, they didn’t say "one, two, three"—it gives you—you don’t realize it, but it gives you a stiffer understanding of the music instead of a freer way of looking at it. But since it’s so ingrained inside of the music, we still get some of the aspects of what they were doing in New Orleans and in jazz. But anyway, so we use that as the basis of the foundation that we built upon with the music in New Orleans, and we’re just keeping that alive.
Blaise: Now, with the "second line rhythm," when you have that second line rhythm, is that part of that idea of a liquid feel of the rhythm?
Donald Harrison: Yes, part of that idea. Of course, but also with that, that’s like a mixture of a European and an African idea. And so it’s at the crossroads. But the music of Congo Square is more based on an African aesthetic. So we have all of these different ideas that permeate the universe, and all of them are beautiful. But me being the Big Chief of Congo Square, I can see and understand the differences in all of them and how to put them together and how to manipulate different concepts. So I’ve just, as the Big Chief of Congo Square, I’ve been moving that concept around in different styles of music. So the Congo Square Suite is, of course, the first movement is more traditional New Orleans music from Congo Square. The second movement is a classical movement that has inferences of my experiences becoming the Big Chief of Congo Square—if you know something about that, you can see the pageantry and the drama being played out, but in a classical state with the ideas from Congo Square inserted into that. And the third movement, we put the ideas from the first movement and the second movement mixed with a jazz band to create another template with the orchestra and the jazz band and aspects of the chants and percussion from Congo Square.
Blaise: So did you write all this? Did you arrange all this? Did you write out charts for everybody? This sounds like a lot of work.
Donald Harrison: Yeah, actually it was two weeks for me to compose this piece. But I did it without a piano because it was done with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, and I had to do it quickly. I booked the date because I was on tour in Russia, and I wanted to get this done because they did it for a good price. I had to pay for everything! So I was traveling on trains and planes, and I was writing the whole time. And then we finished it, so I was very happy. Great orchestra, great conductor, and we understood each other.
Blaise: How did you—did he speak English, or did you just understand each other musically?
Donald Harrison: No, he spoke great English.
Blaise: Well, let’s listen to "Congo Square Suite Movement 3." This is Donald Harrison. I’m talking with Donald Harrison. He’s in town for the Scottsdale Jazz Festival. That’s Saturday night, April 11th, at Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena. The show starts at 4:00 with Nayo Jones, and then Donald Harrison is going to be playing at 5:00. And let’s listen now to "Congo Square Suite Movement Number 3" on Jazz PHX.
[09:22–10:22] [Music: Orchestral jazz composition featuring complex percussion, sweeping strings, and prominent saxophone solos.]
Blaise: That is Donald Harrison, "Congo Square Suite Movement Number 3." Donald Harrison is a saxophonist, bandleader, composer, and Big Chief. And I’m talking with him today. He’s in town for the Scottsdale Jazz Festival Saturday, April 11th. The show starts at 4:00 at the Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena, and you can find out more about that on our website, jazzphx.org. Now, Donald Harrison, I’m so glad you could join us today, and you have a brand-new release which is so intriguing, and it’s one song—one melody—is that the idea? And then every cut on the album is a different style. So you have a Bossa Nova, Blues, Nouveau Swing... all these different styles of the same song. And what I love about you doing this is it really shows how jazz musicians take a basic thing and make it their own, expand whatever song they choose to play. So how did you come up with this idea to take one tune?
Donald Harrison: That’s because I’ve played with so many masters of so many styles of music. And it started first with my parents playing a lot of different styles of music at home, and then reading something that Charlie Parker said that was profound to me. And his statement was, "If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn," and "They teach you that there’s a boundary line to art, but there’s no boundary line." So I decided I was at a good point where I could play with every generation of jazz musicians and other styles of music. So I wound up playing with the great jazz artists who were playing in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s—basically every era of jazz over 200 masters of the music, and masters of funk and soul and classical music. And then I had the idea to mix all that together. So I wanted to show that I had actually been in the company of these great musicians and learned the lessons of how to compose and produce in all of these styles of music.
Blaise: But you based it on one song.
Donald Harrison: Right, one melody. We took one melody and we transposed it into all these different styles of music that I had been playing. And then the trick is, it’s really ten different styles of music. The tenth version mixes the first nine styles into a new acoustic jazz style. So, yeah, that’s the concept of that. How jazz embraces everything and has always embraced everything.
Blaise: Who did you start with when you went to New York and you started doing, you know, playing jazz? Who did you work with?
Donald Harrison: I started at 19 years old with a gentleman named Roy Haynes, who was Charlie Parker’s drummer, Louis Armstrong’s drummer, Duke Ellington—he played with everybody. John Coltrane, Chick Corea, so he was a wealth of information.
Blaise: So what—do you remember some of the things you learned from him? Some tips that he gave you? Did he tell you things, or did you just learn from being on the bandstand?
Donald Harrison: Well, I was always questioning what his encounter with Charlie Parker was like because I loved Charlie Parker. But, you know, we also got lessons about ideas that John Coltrane passed to him and the things that John Coltrane was doing and all other great masters.
Blaise: So were those things like technical things on your instrument, or how to play in a band? What kind of things were you talking about?
Donald Harrison: Yeah, all of those things. Technical things of how you move in the bebop template. Different moves that you make that make it bebop, where you know that a person really—bebop is known by people who have played with beboppers because they play from this template. If you don’t play with the beboppers, then you don’t really know what that template is. So at one point, that was very emotional for me. They started calling me their "young bebop brother," which is very heavy because they don’t say that to a lot of people to be in that club. And I guess I was tearing up, and they said, "Don’t you go crying on us!" But if they hadn’t stopped me, there would have been tears of joy.
Blaise: Wow. I’m talking with Donald Harrison. He’s in town to play at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival on Saturday night at Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena. Well, I’m going to play two tunes from the new album. This is Donald Harrison’s new release, The Magic Touch, where he took one melody and stretched it in every direction. And we’re going to hear the Bossa Nova version, which I love, and the Blues version, which I love. We’re going to hear both of those so you can hear some of the contrast in that music. Here’s Donald Harrison from his brand-new release, The Magic Touch, on Jazz PHX.
[14:10–15:35] [Music: First, a smooth Bossa Nova jazz track with a rhythmic acoustic guitar and melodic saxophone. Transitions into a slower, soulful blues jazz piece with deep piano chords and expressive saxophone play.]
Blaise: That’s Donald Harrison from his new release, The Magic Touch, and Donald Harrison is in town. He’s going to be playing Saturday, April 11th, at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival. It’s being held at the Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival. Find out how to get tickets and more on our website, jazzphx.org. This is KJZZ 91.5 HD2 Phoenix, and I’m glad you found us. I’m glad you’re here with me. I’m Blaise, and I’m talking with Donald Harrison today about his upcoming concert and his music. Now, I have you here with Eddie Henderson, and I love this album, Shuffle and Deal. It’s a lot of fun. And how did you get together with Eddie Henderson? Did you play with him on another band, or did he just call you for the gig?
Donald Harrison: Well, I met Eddie Henderson when I was quite young and working with Art Blakey, probably 21 years old, something like that. And he just took me under his wing as a young man and he mentored me from that moment to now. And I’ve played off and on with him over the years. But we’re in The Cookers together and a number of other groups we work with together. Right now, we’re doing the 100th birthday of Miles Davis with the Miles legacy—his family’s foundation. We’re in that band that they call the "Kind of Blue" band; we play the music of Kind of Blue. Great band! So, and I’m also in his band and in a number of other projects. But he’s like an elder statesman who’s played with everybody himself. And he’s, you know, sometimes he’s telling me, showing me things that he learned from Sonny Rollins or all the different people that he’s played with. He’s passing the information on. And that’s what happens when you’re part of the firmament of jazz artists. We call it apprenticeship that leads to mastery and in finding your own voice but still being connected to all the generations. So that same thing is happening between myself and Eddie Henderson. And then I pass it on to the new generation, and that’s the continuity that for traditional music...
Blaise: Mm-hmm. Do you think—do you think you have to be in New York for this to happen? Because there seems to be a lot of centering in New York City, and here we are out the rest of the world wishing you guys would come west, so to speak. So do you think it’s necessary to have that community in one place?
Donald Harrison: Well, you get a symmetry when everybody’s together. You know, at one point, Kansas City was a mecca when, you know, Count Basie and Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, everybody was in the same place. Chicago after New Orleans, Chicago was a hotbed for New Orleans music. But New York has always been a place where great musicians who play jazz music especially get together and share ideas and move the music forward as a community.
Blaise: But do you think it changed during COVID? Because there was—there were more people communicating like this, like online, talking to each other online, playing online with each other, doing things like that. Does that still continue on, you think?
Donald Harrison: I’m not sure if that happened. You may be right. All I know is I’m happy that there’s way more jazz musicians and the young guys are coming up, and we’re working to get more opportunities for our elder masters, more presence like they used to have. But certain aspects of the music are healthy right now, and that’s a good thing. We just have to keep working on awareness because it is modern music and it is today’s sound and it’s always timeless when you have musicians who are embracing the universe and doing—playing music that strives to be something at the highest level of humanity.
Blaise: Yeah. I’m talking with Donald Harrison, who’s a saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and Big Chief. And he’s going to be at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival. And you can hear him and his band at 5:00. They’ll be at the Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival. And you can find out more about it on our website, jazzphx.org. Well, let’s listen to Donald Harrison with Eddie Henderson on Jazz PHX.
[19:10–20:25] [Music: Fast-paced, rhythmic jazz ensemble piece featuring a lively dialogue between the trumpet and saxophone over a walking bass line.]
Blaise: That is Donald Harrison doing The Magic Touch with a Nouveau Swing version. And Donald Harrison is here with me, and we are talking about his concert, about his music. He’s going to be at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival this Saturday. The show starts at 4:00 with Nayo Jones. Donald Harrison will be playing at 5:00 with his band at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival. It’s at the Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena. Find out how to get tickets and more on our website, jazzphx.org. Now, that was your version—your Nouveau Swing version of "The Magic Touch." And just tell us a little about the ingredients that you put into this sound you created, "Nouveau Swing."
Donald Harrison: Yeah, well, like we said, the record is nine different styles of music—well, ten. The first nine being true to the genres: Roots, Reggae, Hip-Hop, Post-Bop, and Salsa, various styles of music. So imagine a big lake that’s fed by nine different rivers. So these nine different rivers are these different styles of music. And they all come from different places and different temperatures and have different sediments, and they all—these nine rivers come to this lake, and then they get mixed up together into the lake, which has the nine different ideas from nine different places. So that’s what Nouveau Swing is. You can hear swing music coming up in there, you can hear Salsa, you can hear Reggae, you can hear Hip-Hop, and they all form this new template that you’re still bopping your head to, you’re still feeling good to. All of those tenaments that we love in the music are still there.
Blaise: Now, where did you start studying music? How did you get...
Donald Harrison: I started studying officially studying music in the public school system of New Orleans, and then I moved to Southern University in Baton Rouge. Then I also studied at Southern University in New Orleans with a guy named Kidd Jordan and a guy named Alvin Batiste in Baton Rouge, two incredible masters. And then I went to Berklee College of Music in Boston, and then from there...
Blaise: Now, why did you make that leap? That’s really quite a leap from going from Louisiana, New Orleans, all that masters, learning from masters, and now boom, Berklee. It’s a different energy, a different vibe.
Donald Harrison: Yeah, well, at the time, Berklee was—it still is—one of the quintessential institutions to learn about... well, now for all music because they have incorporated New England Conservatory, which is a school for classical music, ballet, and really all of the performing arts. So that’s part of their lexicon as well. But I went to Berklee...
Blaise: But what—what drew you there? What—was there a teacher who said, "You should try this"? Was there somebody who went there that you said, "Oh, I want to go there because they went there"? What got you there?
Donald Harrison: It was really myself and my mother. And we were thinking about Juilliard or Berklee, but we chose Berklee because it had—at the time—there was jazz there. There was no jazz at Juilliard. So since my focus wasn’t classical music at the time, we decided Berklee was the better place. But it was fortuitous because my teacher was a guy named—my saxophone teacher was a guy named Billy—he’s going to kill me because I can’t remember—I’m getting older, I can’t remember. But anyway, Billy was playing with Art Blakey. And when they came to Boston, he introduced me to Art Blakey and he said, "This is my student. He’s a great saxophonist." So Art Blakey said, "Well, where’s your horn? Come play with us." I said, "I left it at school." He said, "You never leave your horn," so he made me go back and get my horn. And I got to sit in with Art Blakey, and he brought me backstage and he said, "You’re going to be a Jazz Messenger one day. I really like you." And that came to pass. Billy Pierce, that was my saxophone teacher, the great, great saxophonist. So I was stealing his ideas because he was so great, and then I got to play with my teacher in Art Blakey’s band.
Blaise: That’s pretty exciting for a young artist, really just such a leap to make that change and make those connections. And I think Berklee does a lot of that, helping people make those connections. But you started out playing with your dad as a Big Chief? Was he a Big Chief as well in New Orleans?
Donald Harrison: Oh, yeah. My father was incredible, one of the iconic Big Chiefs in the culture. And he connected me with the older Big Chiefs because they have lessons from older days. So he was a "Chief of Chiefs" in the fact that he was able to expound and teach other people how to become Big Chiefs.
Blaise: Do you have brothers and sisters? Do you have any brothers and sisters?
Donald Harrison: Sisters, yeah. And some nephews who are also in the culture. So we all grew up with it, so we can’t help it.
Blaise: Now, do your sisters play? Do they play music?
Donald Harrison: No, they played music in school, and they were quite good. My wife plays as well. My mother played; she was actually taught by Alvin Batiste as well. So she was helping to guide you in the path too, as well as your dad.
Donald Harrison: Oh, yeah. She could hear that I had a little talent, and she actually nurtured it in me. So we want to thank her for seeing that. I never had parents who told me, "You shouldn’t play music." They always nurtured it, so I was very fortunate.
Blaise: Well, thank you for coming by and talking with us today. I want to play Donald Harrison’s "Iko Iko," and this is from one of my favorite albums that you did with Dr. John and a bunch of different people. The album is called Indian Blues, and it has such a great vibe to it. I really love everything on that album. And here’s Donald Harrison with a little "Iko Iko." Thanks for coming by KJazz today. Thank you.
Donald Harrison: I had a great time. Thank you for everything. And thank you for keeping the music alive in people’s hearts and ears so they can hear it all day. Thank you.
Blaise: All right. Here’s Donald Harrison on Jazz PHX.
[25:34–26:45] [Music: A high-energy New Orleans-style jazz rendition of "Iko Iko" featuring vibrant brass, rhythmic chanting, and a festive street-beat percussion.]
[00:00–01:05] [Music: Upbeat jazz instrumental music with a strong saxophone lead.]
Blaise Lantana: That’s Donald Harrison with "A Night in Tunisia" on Jazz PHX, and that’s from his album Real Life Stories. Do you remember what year that was? Donald Harrison is here with me. We’re going to talk about his new record, and we’re going to talk about his performance. He’s going to be at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival Saturday, April 11th. That’s this Saturday. He’ll be there for a 5:00 show right after Nayo Jones. Kermit Ruffins is going to be there, much more, Spyro Gyra, and Donald Harrison plays at 5:00 at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival, and that’s going to be at the Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena in Scottsdale. So you can get to see him and hear him live and in person. So talk a little about this album that you did—this was a little bit further back—Real Life Stories.
Donald Harrison: Yeah, that was during the formation of what we call the "Nouveau Swing" sound. So we had some of the young guys—a lot of young guys came through that band. And at the time, I didn’t realize how influential the sound was because we were adding different elements to what we call a swing beat. And some of the young musicians like Robert Glasper, Christian McBride, and Christian Scott, Esperanza Spalding, Jon Batiste...
Blaise: Right there! They’re all big names now, huh?
Donald Harrison: They were—they were really listening to that, and some of them came through the band. And they cite the Nouveau Swing sound, which was mixing swing music with funk and hip-hop and modern dance sounds, as a key influence to what led them to playing multiple types of music and also playing jazz that embraced the universe that we live in now.
Blaise: Right. Jazz keeping up with the times, so to speak. And you started—where did you grow up? Where did you start out?
Donald Harrison: I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, the city that jazz built. And we still have what we call traditional jazz and tribal music down there, so it still informs what we do and what we bring to the world.
Blaise: So, what is this "Congo Square Suite"? Tell me about that.
Donald Harrison: Well, I’m the Big Chief of Congo Square, which is the place—well, the only place in America where people of African descent could practice their—or participate in their homeland culture. And that’s one of the key influences of what we call New Orleans jazz. The music that Sidney Bechet and Baby Dodds and those guys played were heavily influenced by Congo Square.
Blaise: And is it—do you think it’s more drum-based than a lot of other jazz?
Donald Harrison: Well, it’s based on certain rhythms. It’s based on rhythms instead of the idea of one-two-three-four, or one-two-three. It’s not based on a stagnant beat. It’s based on how rhythms are put together. So it has a different feel to it. We got away from that once we moved to different cities that didn’t have a strong African influence. So it’s still mixed in there, but now we count music one-two-three-four, you know? Africans really didn’t, in ancient times, they didn’t say "one, two, three"—it gives you—you don’t realize it, but it gives you a stiffer understanding of the music instead of a freer way of looking at it. But since it’s so ingrained inside of the music, we still get some of the aspects of what they were doing in New Orleans and in jazz. But anyway, so we use that as the basis of the foundation that we built upon with the music in New Orleans, and we’re just keeping that alive.
Blaise: Now, with the "second line rhythm," when you have that second line rhythm, is that part of that idea of a liquid feel of the rhythm?
Donald Harrison: Yes, part of that idea. Of course, but also with that, that’s like a mixture of a European and an African idea. And so it’s at the crossroads. But the music of Congo Square is more based on an African aesthetic. So we have all of these different ideas that permeate the universe, and all of them are beautiful. But me being the Big Chief of Congo Square, I can see and understand the differences in all of them and how to put them together and how to manipulate different concepts. So I’ve just, as the Big Chief of Congo Square, I’ve been moving that concept around in different styles of music. So the Congo Square Suite is, of course, the first movement is more traditional New Orleans music from Congo Square. The second movement is a classical movement that has inferences of my experiences becoming the Big Chief of Congo Square—if you know something about that, you can see the pageantry and the drama being played out, but in a classical state with the ideas from Congo Square inserted into that. And the third movement, we put the ideas from the first movement and the second movement mixed with a jazz band to create another template with the orchestra and the jazz band and aspects of the chants and percussion from Congo Square.
Blaise: So did you write all this? Did you arrange all this? Did you write out charts for everybody? This sounds like a lot of work.
Donald Harrison: Yeah, actually it was two weeks for me to compose this piece. But I did it without a piano because it was done with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, and I had to do it quickly. I booked the date because I was on tour in Russia, and I wanted to get this done because they did it for a good price. I had to pay for everything! So I was traveling on trains and planes, and I was writing the whole time. And then we finished it, so I was very happy. Great orchestra, great conductor, and we understood each other.
Blaise: How did you—did he speak English, or did you just understand each other musically?
Donald Harrison: No, he spoke great English.
Blaise: Well, let’s listen to "Congo Square Suite Movement 3." This is Donald Harrison. I’m talking with Donald Harrison. He’s in town for the Scottsdale Jazz Festival. That’s Saturday night, April 11th, at Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena. The show starts at 4:00 with Nayo Jones, and then Donald Harrison is going to be playing at 5:00. And let’s listen now to "Congo Square Suite Movement Number 3" on Jazz PHX.
[09:22–10:22] [Music: Orchestral jazz composition featuring complex percussion, sweeping strings, and prominent saxophone solos.]
Blaise: That is Donald Harrison, "Congo Square Suite Movement Number 3." Donald Harrison is a saxophonist, bandleader, composer, and Big Chief. And I’m talking with him today. He’s in town for the Scottsdale Jazz Festival Saturday, April 11th. The show starts at 4:00 at the Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena, and you can find out more about that on our website, jazzphx.org. Now, Donald Harrison, I’m so glad you could join us today, and you have a brand-new release which is so intriguing, and it’s one song—one melody—is that the idea? And then every cut on the album is a different style. So you have a Bossa Nova, Blues, Nouveau Swing... all these different styles of the same song. And what I love about you doing this is it really shows how jazz musicians take a basic thing and make it their own, expand whatever song they choose to play. So how did you come up with this idea to take one tune?
Donald Harrison: That’s because I’ve played with so many masters of so many styles of music. And it started first with my parents playing a lot of different styles of music at home, and then reading something that Charlie Parker said that was profound to me. And his statement was, "If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn," and "They teach you that there’s a boundary line to art, but there’s no boundary line." So I decided I was at a good point where I could play with every generation of jazz musicians and other styles of music. So I wound up playing with the great jazz artists who were playing in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s—basically every era of jazz over 200 masters of the music, and masters of funk and soul and classical music. And then I had the idea to mix all that together. So I wanted to show that I had actually been in the company of these great musicians and learned the lessons of how to compose and produce in all of these styles of music.
Blaise: But you based it on one song.
Donald Harrison: Right, one melody. We took one melody and we transposed it into all these different styles of music that I had been playing. And then the trick is, it’s really ten different styles of music. The tenth version mixes the first nine styles into a new acoustic jazz style. So, yeah, that’s the concept of that. How jazz embraces everything and has always embraced everything.
Blaise: Who did you start with when you went to New York and you started doing, you know, playing jazz? Who did you work with?
Donald Harrison: I started at 19 years old with a gentleman named Roy Haynes, who was Charlie Parker’s drummer, Louis Armstrong’s drummer, Duke Ellington—he played with everybody. John Coltrane, Chick Corea, so he was a wealth of information.
Blaise: So what—do you remember some of the things you learned from him? Some tips that he gave you? Did he tell you things, or did you just learn from being on the bandstand?
Donald Harrison: Well, I was always questioning what his encounter with Charlie Parker was like because I loved Charlie Parker. But, you know, we also got lessons about ideas that John Coltrane passed to him and the things that John Coltrane was doing and all other great masters.
Blaise: So were those things like technical things on your instrument, or how to play in a band? What kind of things were you talking about?
Donald Harrison: Yeah, all of those things. Technical things of how you move in the bebop template. Different moves that you make that make it bebop, where you know that a person really—bebop is known by people who have played with beboppers because they play from this template. If you don’t play with the beboppers, then you don’t really know what that template is. So at one point, that was very emotional for me. They started calling me their "young bebop brother," which is very heavy because they don’t say that to a lot of people to be in that club. And I guess I was tearing up, and they said, "Don’t you go crying on us!" But if they hadn’t stopped me, there would have been tears of joy.
Blaise: Wow. I’m talking with Donald Harrison. He’s in town to play at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival on Saturday night at Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena. Well, I’m going to play two tunes from the new album. This is Donald Harrison’s new release, The Magic Touch, where he took one melody and stretched it in every direction. And we’re going to hear the Bossa Nova version, which I love, and the Blues version, which I love. We’re going to hear both of those so you can hear some of the contrast in that music. Here’s Donald Harrison from his brand-new release, The Magic Touch, on Jazz PHX.
[14:10–15:35] [Music: First, a smooth Bossa Nova jazz track with a rhythmic acoustic guitar and melodic saxophone. Transitions into a slower, soulful blues jazz piece with deep piano chords and expressive saxophone play.]
Blaise: That’s Donald Harrison from his new release, The Magic Touch, and Donald Harrison is in town. He’s going to be playing Saturday, April 11th, at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival. It’s being held at the Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival. Find out how to get tickets and more on our website, jazzphx.org. This is KJZZ 91.5 HD2 Phoenix, and I’m glad you found us. I’m glad you’re here with me. I’m Blaise, and I’m talking with Donald Harrison today about his upcoming concert and his music. Now, I have you here with Eddie Henderson, and I love this album, Shuffle and Deal. It’s a lot of fun. And how did you get together with Eddie Henderson? Did you play with him on another band, or did he just call you for the gig?
Donald Harrison: Well, I met Eddie Henderson when I was quite young and working with Art Blakey, probably 21 years old, something like that. And he just took me under his wing as a young man and he mentored me from that moment to now. And I’ve played off and on with him over the years. But we’re in The Cookers together and a number of other groups we work with together. Right now, we’re doing the 100th birthday of Miles Davis with the Miles legacy—his family’s foundation. We’re in that band that they call the "Kind of Blue" band; we play the music of Kind of Blue. Great band! So, and I’m also in his band and in a number of other projects. But he’s like an elder statesman who’s played with everybody himself. And he’s, you know, sometimes he’s telling me, showing me things that he learned from Sonny Rollins or all the different people that he’s played with. He’s passing the information on. And that’s what happens when you’re part of the firmament of jazz artists. We call it apprenticeship that leads to mastery and in finding your own voice but still being connected to all the generations. So that same thing is happening between myself and Eddie Henderson. And then I pass it on to the new generation, and that’s the continuity that for traditional music...
Blaise: Mm-hmm. Do you think—do you think you have to be in New York for this to happen? Because there seems to be a lot of centering in New York City, and here we are out the rest of the world wishing you guys would come west, so to speak. So do you think it’s necessary to have that community in one place?
Donald Harrison: Well, you get a symmetry when everybody’s together. You know, at one point, Kansas City was a mecca when, you know, Count Basie and Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, everybody was in the same place. Chicago after New Orleans, Chicago was a hotbed for New Orleans music. But New York has always been a place where great musicians who play jazz music especially get together and share ideas and move the music forward as a community.
Blaise: But do you think it changed during COVID? Because there was—there were more people communicating like this, like online, talking to each other online, playing online with each other, doing things like that. Does that still continue on, you think?
Donald Harrison: I’m not sure if that happened. You may be right. All I know is I’m happy that there’s way more jazz musicians and the young guys are coming up, and we’re working to get more opportunities for our elder masters, more presence like they used to have. But certain aspects of the music are healthy right now, and that’s a good thing. We just have to keep working on awareness because it is modern music and it is today’s sound and it’s always timeless when you have musicians who are embracing the universe and doing—playing music that strives to be something at the highest level of humanity.
Blaise: Yeah. I’m talking with Donald Harrison, who’s a saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and Big Chief. And he’s going to be at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival. And you can hear him and his band at 5:00. They’ll be at the Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival. And you can find out more about it on our website, jazzphx.org. Well, let’s listen to Donald Harrison with Eddie Henderson on Jazz PHX.
[19:10–20:25] [Music: Fast-paced, rhythmic jazz ensemble piece featuring a lively dialogue between the trumpet and saxophone over a walking bass line.]
Blaise: That is Donald Harrison doing The Magic Touch with a Nouveau Swing version. And Donald Harrison is here with me, and we are talking about his concert, about his music. He’s going to be at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival this Saturday. The show starts at 4:00 with Nayo Jones. Donald Harrison will be playing at 5:00 with his band at the Scottsdale Jazz Festival. It’s at the Talking Stick Resort outdoor arena. Find out how to get tickets and more on our website, jazzphx.org. Now, that was your version—your Nouveau Swing version of "The Magic Touch." And just tell us a little about the ingredients that you put into this sound you created, "Nouveau Swing."
Donald Harrison: Yeah, well, like we said, the record is nine different styles of music—well, ten. The first nine being true to the genres: Roots, Reggae, Hip-Hop, Post-Bop, and Salsa, various styles of music. So imagine a big lake that’s fed by nine different rivers. So these nine different rivers are these different styles of music. And they all come from different places and different temperatures and have different sediments, and they all—these nine rivers come to this lake, and then they get mixed up together into the lake, which has the nine different ideas from nine different places. So that’s what Nouveau Swing is. You can hear swing music coming up in there, you can hear Salsa, you can hear Reggae, you can hear Hip-Hop, and they all form this new template that you’re still bopping your head to, you’re still feeling good to. All of those tenaments that we love in the music are still there.
Blaise: Now, where did you start studying music? How did you get...
Donald Harrison: I started studying officially studying music in the public school system of New Orleans, and then I moved to Southern University in Baton Rouge. Then I also studied at Southern University in New Orleans with a guy named Kidd Jordan and a guy named Alvin Batiste in Baton Rouge, two incredible masters. And then I went to Berklee College of Music in Boston, and then from there...
Blaise: Now, why did you make that leap? That’s really quite a leap from going from Louisiana, New Orleans, all that masters, learning from masters, and now boom, Berklee. It’s a different energy, a different vibe.
Donald Harrison: Yeah, well, at the time, Berklee was—it still is—one of the quintessential institutions to learn about... well, now for all music because they have incorporated New England Conservatory, which is a school for classical music, ballet, and really all of the performing arts. So that’s part of their lexicon as well. But I went to Berklee...
Blaise: But what—what drew you there? What—was there a teacher who said, "You should try this"? Was there somebody who went there that you said, "Oh, I want to go there because they went there"? What got you there?
Donald Harrison: It was really myself and my mother. And we were thinking about Juilliard or Berklee, but we chose Berklee because it had—at the time—there was jazz there. There was no jazz at Juilliard. So since my focus wasn’t classical music at the time, we decided Berklee was the better place. But it was fortuitous because my teacher was a guy named—my saxophone teacher was a guy named Billy—he’s going to kill me because I can’t remember—I’m getting older, I can’t remember. But anyway, Billy was playing with Art Blakey. And when they came to Boston, he introduced me to Art Blakey and he said, "This is my student. He’s a great saxophonist." So Art Blakey said, "Well, where’s your horn? Come play with us." I said, "I left it at school." He said, "You never leave your horn," so he made me go back and get my horn. And I got to sit in with Art Blakey, and he brought me backstage and he said, "You’re going to be a Jazz Messenger one day. I really like you." And that came to pass. Billy Pierce, that was my saxophone teacher, the great, great saxophonist. So I was stealing his ideas because he was so great, and then I got to play with my teacher in Art Blakey’s band.
Blaise: That’s pretty exciting for a young artist, really just such a leap to make that change and make those connections. And I think Berklee does a lot of that, helping people make those connections. But you started out playing with your dad as a Big Chief? Was he a Big Chief as well in New Orleans?
Donald Harrison: Oh, yeah. My father was incredible, one of the iconic Big Chiefs in the culture. And he connected me with the older Big Chiefs because they have lessons from older days. So he was a "Chief of Chiefs" in the fact that he was able to expound and teach other people how to become Big Chiefs.
Blaise: Do you have brothers and sisters? Do you have any brothers and sisters?
Donald Harrison: Sisters, yeah. And some nephews who are also in the culture. So we all grew up with it, so we can’t help it.
Blaise: Now, do your sisters play? Do they play music?
Donald Harrison: No, they played music in school, and they were quite good. My wife plays as well. My mother played; she was actually taught by Alvin Batiste as well. So she was helping to guide you in the path too, as well as your dad.
Donald Harrison: Oh, yeah. She could hear that I had a little talent, and she actually nurtured it in me. So we want to thank her for seeing that. I never had parents who told me, "You shouldn’t play music." They always nurtured it, so I was very fortunate.
Blaise: Well, thank you for coming by and talking with us today. I want to play Donald Harrison’s "Iko Iko," and this is from one of my favorite albums that you did with Dr. John and a bunch of different people. The album is called Indian Blues, and it has such a great vibe to it. I really love everything on that album. And here’s Donald Harrison with a little "Iko Iko." Thanks for coming by KJazz today. Thank you.
Donald Harrison: I had a great time. Thank you for everything. And thank you for keeping the music alive in people’s hearts and ears so they can hear it all day. Thank you.
Blaise: All right. Here’s Donald Harrison on Jazz PHX.
[25:34–26:45] [Music: A high-energy New Orleans-style jazz rendition of "Iko Iko" featuring vibrant brass, rhythmic chanting, and a festive street-beat percussion.]