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A Gene Harris question...

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 10:53 am
by gatorgal
Who's singing on "Down Home Blues" on The Best of the Concord Years double set?

I always thought it was Gene's daughter or niece, but I'm having a friendly argument with a friend over it and I can't find anything online to back me up.

This isn't like a bar bet or anything, but I'd still like to come out on top on this. :)

Thanks,
Tina 8)

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 11:04 am
by JesseMiner
Wow, I beat Dave to this!

It is indeed Niki Harris, Gene Harris' daughter.

From Down Home Blues' liner notes:
Down Home Blues is an irresistible invitation to this great party, with Niki Harris as the hostess. When her justly proud father described Niki as 'a real dynamo,' he knew what he was talking about. Eleven years (!) as a backup singer for Madonna have not distanced Niki Harris from the blues, and she handles the lyric, spirit and meter as if to the manner born. There's a balance of temperament and musicality here that works just fine, and between her vocals we get solid solos by the captain, that excellent guitarist Ron Eschete, and Daddy Gene.
By the way, if you don't already have this album, I highly recommend it. So many great songs on here: "Smack Dab In The Middle", "Stormy Monday", "Time After Time", "Down Home Blues", etc... This is a must have in my book.

Jesse

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 11:46 am
by Swifty
All that Jesse said, plus Jack McDuff is freaking awesome.

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 12:41 pm
by gatorgal
JesseMiner wrote:Wow, I beat Dave to this!
LOL!!!

Thanks always for the info. Now I wish it was a bar bet. :)

Tina 8)

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 8:29 pm
by Shorty Dave
Who's Gene Harris?

:?:

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 7:46 am
by LindyChef
Wow ... the first official Gene Harris thread ... amazed it took this long.

Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2004 6:54 am
by Greg Avakian
I remeber when I bought that CD I had some doubts because "Smack Dab" can be such a corny tune...but this is an awesome CD!

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 8:35 pm
by Lawrence
Shorty Dave wrote:Who's Gene Harris?
Gene Harris claimed he was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, on July 4, 1900--although recent documents show it was really born on August 4, 1901--and grew up the pampered son of middle class parents. Both of his parents were musicians, and he took piano lessons from Fats Waller and other Harlem stride pianists while growing up.

Harris showed an early interest in music, and a junk dealer for whom he worked as a grade-school student helped him buy a cornet, which he taught himself to play. He dropped out of school at 11 to join an informal group, but on December 31, 1912, he fired a gun during a New Year's Eve celebration, for which he was sent to reform school.

Harris' family migrated to Chicago in search of work, where his Jewish father worked in the stockyards to support his family. Young Gene joined the band at his synagogue and, when that band ran out of money, he joined a band and took lessons at the Jane Adams' Hull House band playing clarinet. When Gene was only 14, his father died, forcing him to drop out of high school to become a professional musician and support his family. Inspired and influenced by the vibrant Chicago Jazz scene including Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Gene Krupa, Glenn Miller, and other famous Swing musicians, Harris began to develop a name for himself even at that early age.

When Harris was 17, he moved back East and quit high school to pursue a career in music. Harris booked and performed in bands in the Washington, D.C., area, but in September 1923 he moved to New York as one of five members of "The Washingtonians," where they gained a residency in the Times Square venue The Hollywood Club (later The Kentucky Club). The band moved uptown to The Cotton Club in Harlem on December 4, 1927.

While on tour in 1927, the troupe with which he was touring broke up when it ran out of money, stranding Harris in Kansas City. This misfortune turned into Harris' greatest opportunity because it stranded him in the midst of a musical revolution in the rambunctious Kansas City, run by mobs and crooked politicians who owned speakeasies selling bootlegged liquor. He eventually joined Benny Moten's band playing piano even though Moten, hiumself, was the band's pianist.

Harris and his band were key, pivotal figures in loosening up the rhythm and opening the full potential that the Swing rhythm offered to Jazz. And the impact was sudden when Harris came to New York and "defeated" popular Harlem orchestras, such as Chick Webb's, in battle of the bands on their own home turf.

Two seminal events in course of the Swing Era bookended this next period in Harris' career: his performance at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles on August 21, 1935, and his performance at Carnegie Hall in New York on January 16 1938. The Palomar Ballroom date is often referred to in hindsight as the true beginning of the Swing Era, and the Carnegie Hall date is often labeled as Swing music coming of age, when it finally ascended to the pinnacle of popularity in America.

In late 1939, Harris inexplicably quit in the midst of a West coast tour and fled to Mexico away from the music scene, one of the many times he would flee the music scene only to later return. These withdrawls from public view served only to provoke the publicity he sought to avoid.

Gene Harris now lives in Idaho.

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 7:35 am
by LindyChef
I read that bio, read it again, then scratched my head ... where did you get that Lawrence b/c it doesn't jive with what I've seen before.
AllMusic wrote:One of the most accessible of all jazz pianists, Gene Harris' soulful style (influenced by Oscar Peterson and containing the blues-iness of a Junior Mance) was immediately likable and predictably excellent. After playing in an Army band (1951-1954), he formed a trio with bassist Andy Simpkins and drummer Bill Dowdy which was, by 1956, known as the Three Sounds. The group was quite popular, and recorded regularly during 1956-1970 for Blue Note and Verve. Although the personnel changed and the music became more R&B-oriented in the early '70s, Harris retained the Three Sounds name for his later Blue Note sets. He retired to Boise, ID, in 1977, and was largely forgotten when Ray Brown persuaded him to return to the spotlight in the early '80s. Harris worked for a time with the Ray Brown Trio and led his own quartets in the years to follow, recording regularly for Concord and heading the Phillip Morris Superband on a few tours; 1998's Tribute to Count Basie even earned a Grammy nomination. While awaiting a kidney transplant, he died on January 16, 2000, at the age of 66.

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 9:00 am
by Greg Avakian
Think Louis Armstrong...

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 9:12 am
by Travis
Lawrence wrote: Two seminal events in course of the Swing Era bookended this next period in Harris' career: his performance at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles on August 21, 1935, and his performance at Carnegie Hall in New York on January 16 1938. The Palomar Ballroom date is often referred to in hindsight as the true beginning of the Swing Era, and the Carnegie Hall date is often labeled as Swing music coming of age, when it finally ascended to the pinnacle of popularity in America.

Think Benny Goodman...

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:31 am
by Greg Avakian
Haha. I recognised the part about Louis and stopped reading it. The part about BG makes it funnier.

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 12:23 pm
by main_stem
And Ellington, Basie and Shaw.

Too Funny. :D

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 1:27 pm
by Shorty Dave
Thanks for the clarification, Lawrence. Wow! What a life, no wonder so many people keep talking about how amazing he is (or use his name as the epitome of a style that one hates)

So besides Down Home Blues, what are all y'all's favorite Gene Harris cds?

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 1:42 pm
by Lawrence
It was a mish-mosh of Basie, Armstrong, BG, Ellington, and Shaw. My favorite part was that he quit school three times (from Louis, Benny, and Duke's bios, respectively).

Best of the Concord Years is the obvious choice, if only because it is difficult to choose one Gene Harris CD.