Barry Harris, the Bebop Crusader, Has Left Us at 91
Barry Harris, perhaps one of the last of the authentic exponents of the early bebop style and language of the 1940s, has just died. Critic Gary Giddins, who once called him "the key conservator" of this style, also neatly summarized his performance aesthetic:
Barry Harris [was] one of those gloriously stubborn figures who saw the âsecond comingâ in Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk and has remained true to that vision while developing his own way of pursuing it. He has a lyrical, understated, beautiful sound on the piano.
Harris learned the style in his teens in Detroit by imitating the brash modernists - most especially Bud Powell - directly from recordings. While in hearing Harris play a Powell tune as above ("Oblivion") there is no mistaking his influence, Harris also demonstrates an extraordinary fluency and intensity within this language to find his own shading on this style. Also, his careful study and masterful performance of Monk's work made him as much a part of this niche orbit as anyone could who obviously would not have played with him. So much so that he was called upon to be a part of a tribute concert to Monk at Columbia University (one of two such concerts) in the wake of his death. Though there is a group of legends involved in this concert, it is nonetheless decided to lead this second concert with Barry Harris doing a poignant solo version of "Ruby, My Dear" (see below). Mark Stryker, in his thorough and excellent obituary for npr.org describes his performance of this very kind of composition in glowing terms: "On romantic ballads his ear for harmonic color and the eloquent movement of one chord to another lent his performances the lyric glow of a Shelley ode." That certainly feels right here.
But then, it is his long track record as a jazz educator that may be just as important. His deep, studied understanding of bebop - as well as the roots of it in earlier jazz and classic popular song - was always on display in his countless lessons and masterclasses. I found his masterclass I saw in Montreal to have shifted how I looked at constructing jazz melody and I have only caught up to the fundamentals of it in recent years. He was also a community educator and bandleader, putting on concerts involving choirs and ensembles largely as outreach. For all of this, he remains a hero. If you're looking for recordings to get started, I would recommend any or all of these trio recordings - Magnificent!, Barry Harris at the Jazz Workshop, and Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron.