Aug 12, 2025
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LEE MORGAN QUINTET
Lee Morgan - fluegelhorn,
Billy Harper - tenor sax,
Harold Mabern - piano,
Jymie Merrit - bass
Freddie Waits - drums.
Recorded on January 26, 1972
"Consummation": The Pinnacle of Brilliance in Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra's Legacy
Introduction: The year 1970 witnessed the birth of a musical masterpiece that would etch its place in the annals of jazz history – “Consummation” by the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Released on the revered Blue Note Records and reissued in 2002, this album not only stands as a testament to the collaborative genius of Jones and Lewis but also serves as a pivotal moment in the evolution of…
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1978 - Max Roach Quartet - Yubin Chokin Kaikan - Tokyo
Cecil Bridgewater (tp), Billy Harper (ts), Reggie Workman (b), Max Roach (dr)
He spent years playing with Art Blakey, Lee Morgan and Max Roach, earning praise for his sax’s piercing cry. He’s still composing and turning heads live.
Billy Harper, The Jazz Center, New York, 1982.
Billy Harper has the only tenor voice that, for me, attains the intensity of John Coltrane while retaining complete independence of thought and execution.
His appearance on the New York scene from the early 1970s felt like a natural extension of Coltrane's own musical statements, as well as those of McCoy Tyner's groups around that time. Billy was also boosted by memorable early partnerships with Gil Evans, Art Blakey, Max Roach and Randy Weston, to name just a few.
A seminal composer as well as a virtuoso saxophonist, Billy's music is infused with a powerful rhythmic swing, bone-level energy, and an ability to draw from the ancient sources for Black American music.
The first time I heard Billy, I was devastated, uplifted, astonished, unhinged, overjoyed, destroyed, recreated. His playing still reminds me today that even as a committed and devoted listener of this music and a veteran wordsmith, I'm incapable of composing words that describe it.
What Billy plays is so far beyond words, and all that. It's prayer.
In performance, one senses that his bands are pushing the edge of this art form right alongside him. To really hear where Billy is coming from, you need to experience one of his early milestones, Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart from Black Saint, his 1975 breakthrough album. Together with pianist Joe Bonner, trumpeter Virgil Jones, bassist David Friesen on drummer Malcolm Pinson, he created a sound that merged all of the Black musical streams that were happening into a rich, pulsing wonder.
And there's Priestess, from Love on the Sudan in 1977, which has since become a classic tenor showpiece.
With time of course, Billy's playing has mellowed. But his projects remain huge -- like this full orchestra and choir performance of The Light Within, shot in a church in from Poland in 2004.
In strong contrast with the fierceness of his playing, Billy possesses a quiet cordiality on stage, and in person, that perhaps is the real reason he succeeds time and again in bringing all sorts of players together, spiritually as well as artistically.
We're fortunate that Billy is as hard working as he is gifted, and that he remains an influential, innovative leader and teacher. In recent years, Billy has been a key partner in The Cookers, a supergroup of jazz veterans that is constantly traveling, recording, and bringing this music to a broader listening.
And Billy was born on this day in 1943!
Bootleg of Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers Live in Vienna, Austria 1968
Bill Hardman (tp), Julian Priester (tb), Billy Harper (ts), Ronnie Mathews (p), Lawrence Evans (b), Art Blakey (dr).
"Konzerthaus", Vienna, November 3, 1968.
1 Moment's Notice 2 You Don't Know What Love Is 3 Moanin' 4 A New World
Billy Harper - Black Saint
