Eddie Harris (b. Chicago, October 20, 1934; died November 5, 1996^[1]) was a jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ. His best-known compositions are "Freedom Jazz Dance", recorded and popularized by Miles Davis in the 1960s ^[1] and "Listen Here".

[edit] Biography

Harris grew up in Chicago. His father was originally from Cuba, and his mother from New Orleans. Like other successful Chicago musicians, such as Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington, Clifford Jordan, Johnny Griffin, Gene Ammons, Julian Priester, and Bo Diddley (among others), young Eddie Harris studied music under Walter Dyett at DuSable High School. He later studied music at Roosevelt University, by which time he was proficient on piano, vibraphone, and tenor saxophone. While in college, he performed professionally with Gene Ammons.

After college, he was drafted into the United States Army and while serving in Europe, he was accepted into the 7th Army Band, which also included Don Ellis, Leo Wright, and Cedar Walton.

Leaving military service, he worked in New York City before returning to Chicago where he signed a contract with Vee Jay Records. His first album for Vee Jay, Exodus to Jazz included his own jazz arrangement of Ernest Gold's theme from the movie Exodus. A shortened version of this track, which featured his masterful playing in the upper register of the tenor saxophone, was heavily played on radio and became the first jazz record ever to be certified gold.^[2]

The single climbed into the Billboard pop Top 40 and reached #16 in the R&B chart. Some jazz critics, however, regarded commercial success as a sign that a jazz artist had sold out and Harris soon stopped playing "Exodus" in concert. He moved to Columbia Records in 1964 and then to Atlantic Records the following year where he re-established himself. In 1965, Atlantic released The In Sound, a bop album which won back many of his detractors.

Over the next few years, he began to perform on electric piano and the electric Varitone saxophone,^[1] and to perform a mixture of jazz and funk which sold well in both the jazz and rhythm and blues markets. In 1967, his album The Electrifying Eddie Harris reached second place on the R&B charts. The album's lead track, "Listen Here" was issued as a single, climbing to #11 R&B and #45 on the Hot 100. Harris released several different versions of his composition over the years, including both studio and live concert recordings.

In 1969, he performed with Les McCann at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Although the musicians had been unable to rehearse, their session was so impressive that a recording of it was released by Atlantic as Swiss Movement. This became one of the best-selling jazz albums ever, also reaching second place on the R&B charts.^[3]

The versatile Harris also came up with the idea of the reed trumpet, playing one for the first time at The Newport Jazz Festival of 1970 to mostly negative critical feedback. From 1970 to 1975, he experimented with new instruments of his own invention (the reed trumpet was a trumpet with a saxophone mouthpiece, the saxobone was a saxophone with a trombone mouthpiece, and the guitorgan was a combination of guitar and organ), with singing the blues, with jazz-rock (he recorded an album with Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck, Albert Lee, Ric Grech, Zoot Money, and other rockers). He also started singing and to perform comic R&B numbers like "That is Why You're Overweight" and "Eddie Who?".

In 1975, however, he alienated much of his audience with his album "The Reason Why I'm Talkin' S**t", which consisted mainly of stand-up comedy. Interest in subsequent albums declined. He was a member of Horace Silver's Quintet in the early 1980's and continued to record regularly well into the 1990s, sometimes in Europe where he enjoyed a loyal following, but his experimentation ended and he mainly recorded hard bop. He had moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s and was responsible for much of the music on the hit TV series, The Bill Cosby Show. He died in hospital from cancer and kidney disease at the age of 62.

[edit] Discography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• Exodus to Jazz, 1961 Vee Jay Records
• The In Sound, 1965 Atlantic Records
• Mean Greens, 1966 Atlantic
• The Tender Storm, 1966 - Eddie Harris Quartet, with Cedar Walton (p) Ron Carter (b) Bobby Thomas (d)
• The Electrifying Eddie Harris, 1967 Atlantic
• Plug Me In, 1968 Atlantic
• Silver Cycles, 1968 Atlantic
• High Voltage, live album 1968 Atlantic
• Swiss Movement, 1969 Atlantic; with Les McCann
• Come on Down, 1970 Atlantic
• Free Speech, 1970 Atlantic
• Second Movement, 1971 Atlantic, with Les McCann
• Live At Newport, 1971 Atlantic
• Instant Death,1971 Atlantic
• Eddie Harris Sings The Blues, 1972 Atlantic
• Eddie Harris In The UK, 1973 Atlantic; with Albert Lee, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, Chris Squire, Alan White, Tony Kaye, Rufus Reid, Ronald Muldrow
• Is It In, 1973 Atlantic
• Excursions, double LP, 1973 Atlantic
• I Need Some Money, 1974; with Ronald Muldrow
• Bad Luck Is All I Have, 1975 Atlantic
• That Is Why You're Overweight, 1976 Atlantic
• How Can You Live Like That; 1976 Atlantic
• I'm Tired of Driving; 1978
• The Real Electrifying, 1982 Mutt & Jeff
• People Get Funny, 1987 Timeless Records
• Live in Berlin, 1989 Timeless Records
• Live at the Moonwalker, 1990 Moonwalker Label (Suisa)
• Listen Here; 1993
• Vexatious Progressions; 1994 Flying Heart Records
• The Battle of the Tenors; 1994, with Wendell Harrison
• The Last Concert; CD 1997; with WDR Big Band

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• allmusic
• MusicWeb Encyclopaedia of Popular Music
• Eddie Harris Official Web Site