BRATTLEBORO — The Vermont Jazz Center at the Cotton Mill will present New Orleans saxophonist and composer Donald Harrison and his quintet in concert. The Friday, Sept. 14, show will support Harrison's new album, Quantum Leap.
The Grammy-nominated trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Jack Walrath - also a longtime collaborator with Charles Mingus, and who wrote the liner notes for the album - said Harrison is “one of the most significant voices of the 'Young Lions' of jazz” and praises Quantum Leap as “an intertwined journey inward to the roots of jazz and outward to its furthest frontiers. This is jazz as it was envisioned to be … bluesy, original and forward-looking … always swinging and constantly surprising.”
This isn't surprising, because Harrison links traditional and cutting-edge jazz.
Born in New Orleans in 1960, Harrison was raised in the African-influenced Mardi Gras Indians' culture of brass bands, parades, and rituals by his father, a Big Chief of four Indian tribes; then, just out of music school, he started working with drummer Roy Haynes, and soon after was a member of the legendary ensemble of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Harrison went on to work with Lena Horne, Miles Davis, Terence Blanchard, Latin Jazz great Eddie Palmieri, Digable Planets, the Head Hunters, Larry Coryell, Spike Lee, and many others.
Harrison has balanced being in the vanguard of modern jazz while continuing his participation in New Orleans' culture. His critically-acclaimed 1993 album, Indian Blues, combined jazz and Mardi Gras Indians' traditional music. Now, as Big Chief of the Congo Square Nation, Donald Harrison summons the potency of his Afro-New Orleans heritage and his formidable experience in contemporary jazz to reconfigure musical boundaries on Quantum Leap. His ensemble follows him over the edge, and back.
Harrison describes his new project as “the crossroads where jazz tradition meets soul, science, and today's dance music. It's jazz for mind, body and soul. I call it: roots to infinity. I use Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and even Louis Armstrong as my role models. They learned from the masters before them, and extended that. I think it's important to know as much as you can before trying to extend the tradition. I want the whole spectrum of the music in what I present, from when it started here in New Orleans.”
In the course of his career, Harrison has discovered and nurtured some of the finest young jazz musicians – his protégés include trumpeter Christian Scott, Mark Whitfield, Dwayne Burno, Christian McBride, and Cyrus Chestnut, as well as rap icon The Notorious B.I.G.
As a spokesperson for jazz and for New Orleans culture, Harrison is committed to sharing his knowledge of jazz with the communities in which he works; he is especially encouraging to young people – he has run jazz camps, and is now the artistic director of the jazz program at the Tipitina's Foundation in New Orleans.
New Orleans is known as the birthplace of jazz because it was where the music was first performed by the progenitors of jazz - Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory, Baby Dodds, Louis Armstrong, and scores of other great innovators. Harrison's quintet – all but one of whom are from New Orleans – represents the continuing connection of New Orleans music to the jazz tradition.
General admission to hear the Donald Harrison Quintet is $20, $15 for students with valid ID. Purchase tickets online at www.vtjazz.org, at In the Moment in downtown Brattleboro, or call the VJC ticket line, 802-254-9088, ext. 1, for reservations. Tickets can also be purchased at the door.