Eddie Harris

US-amerikanischer Tenorsaxophonist; geboren 20. Oktober 1934 in Chicago (Illinois, USA), gestorben 5. November 1996 in Los Angeles (California, USA)

Eddie Harris wuchs in Chicago auf und sang dort in verschiedenen Baptisten-Kirchen. Im Alter von etwa drei Jahren zeigte ihm sein Vetter Bernice Benson, der in der Kirche von Eddie's Mutter Klavier spielte, wie man Klavier und nach dem Gehör spielt, ausserdem wie man Noten liest. Er besuchte dann in die John Farren und Burke Grundschulen, später war er auf den DuSable und Hyde Park High Schools in Chicago. Auf der DuSable High School begann er unter dem einflussreichen Captain Walter Dyette erstmals Vibraphon zu spielen. Dyette war für die Entwicklung vieler Jazzgrössen aus Chicago zwischen den 1940er und 1960er Jahren verantwortlich, darunter Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington, Clifford Jordan, Johnny Griffin, Gene Ammons, Julian Priester und Bo Diddley. Wegen seines Aussehens wollte Eddie Harris schon immer Saxophon spielen, doch bei Dyette musste man erst Klarinette spielen, ehe man ans Saxophon durfte, also war Harris' erstes Instrument die Klarinette. Er nahm viele Jahre lang private Klarinetten- und Saxophonstunden, bevor er seine Karriere am Saxophon begann. Nach dem Abschluss der High School setzte Harris seine musikalischen Studien an der Illinois University und an der Roosevelt University fort.

Schliesslich wurde er in die Armee eingezogen, wo er im Bereich der Elektronik eingesetzt wurde. Später ging er zur Luftwaffe, entwickelte aber beim Anblick der vielen verwundeten Soldaten aber bald ein Ekelgefühl. Zu dieser Zeit spielte Harris bereits Klavier, Saxophon, Vibraphon, Klarinette, Trompete, Posaune und Fagott. Er bewarb sich schliesslich für die Militärmusik und erreichte 98 von den möglichen 100 Punkten, für die er in Gehörbildung, geschriebener Musik und Instrumentenbeherrschung getestet wurde. Sein Ergebnis war so überragend, dass er für das Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra in Deutschland empfohlen wurde. Weil das Orchester aber gerade keine neuen Mitglieder aufnehmen konnte, wurde er für acht Monate in der 7th Army Band in Fulda (Deutschland) eingesetzt, wo auch Don Ellis, Leo Wright und Cedar Walton spielten. Schliesslich wurde er Mitglied des Orchesters und auch Teil der Jazzgruppe, die aus dem Orchester gebildet wurde und auf Tournee durch Frankreich und Deutschland ging. Am Musikkonservatorium in Paris nahm er klassische Sxophonstunden. Nach dem Ende seiner Armeezeit kehrte er in die USA zurück und begann in New York zu leben und zu spielen. Er arbeitete ausgiebig mit Pit Bands und Jazzgruppen und spielte auch Klavier.

Due to an illness in his family, Eddie returned to Chicago, Illinois and eventually met and married Sara Elizabeth and they had two daughters - Lolita and Yvonne. Eddie has always been known for his experiments with the tenor saxophone. For example, he used to play the tenor saxophone with a trombone mouthpiece and called it the Saxobone. In later years, he began using a clarinet, double barrel joint in between the neck and the instrument. The tenor sax was made to sound like a bass clarinet. He then began playing saxophone with a bassoon boccel instead of the tenor sax neck. He recorded with these sounds on his album entitled, A Study in Jazz on Vee Jay Records. The main purpose with the boccel substitution was to make the tenor sax sound like a bassoon. He could make all these sounds with only a few spare parts along with the tenor saxophone.

Miles Davis veröffentlichte auf dem Album Miles smiles! (1966) die Eddie Harris-Komposition "Freedom jazz dance", die dadurch grosse Beliebtheit erlangte und heute als Jazzstandard gilt. Eine weitere bekannte Aufnahme stammt von Weather Report.

Eddie Harris kann als einer der Wegbereiter der Fusion-Musik gelten. Ende der 1960er Jahre experimentierte er auf den Alben The electrifying Eddie Harris (1968) und Plug me in (1968) mit einem elektrifizierten Saxophon. Ausserdem entwickelte er die sogenannte "reed trombone" und die "reed trumpet", indem er bei Posauen und Trompete die Blechblasmundstücke durch Saxophonmundstücke austauschte. Damit das Mundstück passt, muss man das Blechblasinstrument vorher "korken" lassen, sodass es einen Korkrand erhält. Dadurch konnte Harris seine aussergewöhnlich sichere Überblastechnik in den Clarin-Bereich des Tenorsaxophons auf die Naturtöne der Blechblasinstrumente anwenden, beispielsweise bei "Carnival" auf dem Album I need some money (1975). Daneben stellte er Versuche an, das Saxophon mit Fagottmundstücken zu spielen. Bekannt wurde Harris auch durch seinen von afrikanischen Gesangstechniken inspirierten jodelähnlichen Scat-Gesang.

Mit dem Hit "Compared to what" gilt das Live-Album Swiss movement mit Les McCann beim Montreux Jazz Festival am 21. Juni 1969 als eines der besten Jazz/Funk-Alben der 1960er Jahre.

Obwohl er einer der populärsten Jazzmusiker seiner Tage war und der erste, der eine Goldene Schallplatte erhielt, wurde seine Einbeziehung verschiedener Musikrichtungen in den Jazz und komödiantische Momente in seinen Auftritten von vielen Jazzkritikern als Anlass genommen, ihn nicht als ernstzunehmenden Jazzmusiker anzusehen. Über seine relative Unbekanntheit beim breiten Publikum mokierte er sich humoristisch in dem Titel "Eddie Who" (1986).

Insgesamt schrieb Eddie Harris über 300 Stücke in den verschidenensten Genres: Jazz, Balladen, Blues, Latin, Funk, Fusion, Soul Jazz, Pop, Fusion, Walzer, Straight Ahead, African, Swing, Bossa Nova, Marsch und Samba.

Another one of Eddie’s creations and most popular was the reed mouthpiece. He holds the U.S. patent for the reed mouthpiece for the trumpet, coronet, trombone and flugelhorn. Eddie Harris was the first musician to create the Electro Voice and Selmer Saxophone creation for all saxophones and the attachment was called, The Varitone which was designed in order to play along with the sound of the saxophone a sub octave plus a filter that could change the timbre of the tone. Eddie later signed onto the Chicago Musical Instrument Company, also known as Noreland. He introduced their new unit called the W2, a filtering unit for the saxophone and the clarinet that emulated the organ stops. He then went with a company called Innovex, a division of Hammond Organ that created a unit called the Condour. This unit was similar to the W2 but had more tabs and a modern circuitry. Eddie began advertising for a company called Frapp which had one of the most sophisticated audio pickups for wind instruments. Eddie developed The Eddie Harris Attachment, a wind synthesizer housing four oscillators that enable any sax player to play in five (5) part harmony as in a reed section of a big band. Eddie played on a Selmar sax, a Mark VI with a Selmar mouthpiece called a C start with a Selmar reed size number three (# 3). Eddie encompasses the use of his genius ability of the reed trumpet, tenor sax and the Eddie Harris Attachment on the CD entitled, Eddie Harris Quartet Steps Up on the track Freedom Jazz Dance. Eddie Harris was a man immersed in music as a composer, bandleader, performer, writer, innovator, inventor, and social critic.

 It was during the 1960’s that Vee Jay Records asked Eddie to record for their label, but they wanted Eddie to play piano. After some discussion, it was agreed that Eddie would record half the album playing piano and the other half playing saxophone. 

Eddie made his first major recording under his own name with Vee Jay Records in 1961. One of the tunes made on his first album was entitled, Exodus to Jazz. This composition was entitled, Exodus from the motion picture of the same title. The song was first released on a 45 rpm and sold well over a million copies which placed him at Gold Status. After two years, Eddie left Vee Jay Records and began recording for Columbia Records and then Atlantic Records. He recorded on Atlantic Records for over a decade.

 Eddie recorded Listen Here (a hit which coined Eddie, The Electrifying Eddie Harris) and composed the jazz tune, Freedom Jazz Dance which became a standard modern work recorded by Miles Davis and 53 other artists.  He is noted for a very successful partnership with pianist Les McCann in the late 60’s; a union which produced the Atlantic LP Swiss Movement - another million seller in 1969.   In 1970, this record awarded Eddie and Les a Grammy nomination at the 13th Annual GRAMMY Awards for the category of Best Jazz Performance/Small Group or Soloist with Small Group.  Eddie performed throughout the world at several domestic and international venues, concert halls, NBA games, and festivals.  Some of his most notable festival performances are: The Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Soul to Soul in West Africa, The North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands and The Playboy and Monterey Festivals in California.

Although Eddie played and experimented with several instruments, his primary and by far most proficient instrument was the tenor saxophone. Eddie Harris, the saxophonist, is the exploration in self-study. He describes his sound as a soft sound. Some call it the Stan Getz School, but it’s really the Lester Young School. Eddie plays this type of sound so he can skip over the horn faster, in which he sacrifices volume for speed. According to Eddie, “cats can play loud like Gene Ammons and Sonny Rollins but don’t play as fast as Sonny Stitt. When anyone else plays fast, they get softer because they can’t maintain volume going that fast.”

In later years, Eddie began singing due to the restrictions he faced playing the saxophone on funk tunes. “I would play more saxophone, but I realized the fact that if I played more saxophone I’d have to play a lot more Listen Here, and that was limiting my saxophone playing, so I figured that a way that I didn’t have to play so much funk on the saxophone was to start singing.”  Vocal recordings for Eddie represented pragmatism rather than fashion and provided both latitude and fulfillment for him as a jazz instrumentalist. 

As a composer and performer, Eddie is not limited to any of the musical vehicles within his grasp. He is most closely identified by the public and music critics in the funk-fusion genre – identification not without benefits. One such benefit has been access to the mass audience. A second product of the funk label, not necessarily a benefit, has been the problem of stereotyping and categorization. His reputation as a funk player has narrowed the public and music industry’s view of him. As a result, in the mid-1970s, Eddie worked consistently, but he did not have access to many of the prestigious and profitable musical outlets (concerts, tours, etc.) \his situation did not embitter Eddie, but has made him an astute businessman and musician and in turn, allowed him to concentrate more on his music. Part of understanding Eddie Harris, THE MUSICIAN, is understanding, Eddie Harris, THE MAN. One characteristic of Eddie the man is his dislike for cliques and fads. “I’m not hung up with fads, for the simple reason that they stunt my growth.” This love for individuality is apparent in Eddie Harris’ music and in whom he cites as influences. “I call it inspiration,” and “I like to hear anybody that is individualistic especially if they are individualistic minded. You can hear it come out in their playing…Monk, Miles, Mingus, Duke, Sun Ra, Tristano, Kool and The Gang, Sly, Bartok, Scheonberg… anything that people do that is unique and different.” Eddie Harris is much more than the funk player and humorist that he is often presented as. His musical and intellectual interests and capabilities are broad and he seems guided by one consistent force which is HONESTY. After talking with him briefly or listening to one of his live performances, his sincerity and honesty are easy to detect.

 	In the course of recording more than 70 albums and CD’s, and the author of seven (7) music books, Eddie has displayed himself as a jazz artist who has played blues, rock, jazz fusion, straight-ahead, soul and funk grooves.  Eddie’s pioneering work in musical electronics and the effective conjunction of different elements of blues, rhythm and blues, jazz and funk has had widespread influence of what is generally considered today’s music. Eddie’s music has been sampled by over 30 artists including: Macy Gray, Jamiroquai, DJ Jazz Jeff, Heavy D and the Fresh Prince.

Eddie was by far and foremost a great musician and a great human being. He was a master of his talents and a wonderful family man. His demise in November 1996 was a tragedy to his family and fans. His contributions to the music world will always be appreciated, recognized, and remembered. Eddie is survived by his wife Sara and their two daughters.;

Diskographie

Jahr	Interpret	Medium	Titel	Plattenfirma	GB	US	Anmerkungen
19	Eddie Harris
19	Eddie Harris

   * „Exodus to Jazz“, Vee-Jay 1961, 1987 Carli Records
   * „A study in Jazz“
   * „Breakfeast for Tiffanys“
   * „Eddie Harris Bossa Nova“ 1963
   * „The In Sound“, Atlantic 1965
   * „Swiss Movement“; 1969 (CD 1996); mit Les McCann
   * „Come on Down“, 1970 Atlantic Recordings
   * „In The U.K.“ / „Is It In“; 1973 (CD 1999); mit Albert Lee, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, Chris Squire, Alan White, Tony Kaye, Rufus Reid, Ronald Muldrow
   * „I Need Some Money“; 1975; mit Ronald Muldrow
   * „Bad Luck Is All I Have“, 1975 Atlantic Recordings
   * „That is why you`re overweight“, 1976 Atlantic Recordings
   * „I'm Tired of Driving“; 1979
   * „The Real Electrifying“, 1982 Mutt & JeffRecording Corp.
   * „People get Funny“, 1987 Timeless Records
   * „Live in Berlin“, 1989 Timeless Records
   * „Live at the Moonwalker“, 1990 Moonwalker Label (Suisa)
   * „Listen Here“; 1993
   * „The battle of the Tenors“; 1994, mit Wendell Harrison
   * „The Last Concert“; CD 1997; mit der WDR Big Band Köln

Literatur

• Peter Tschirky: Eddie Harris sings the Blues. - 2003. - ISBN 3-9522609-0-8

Weblinks

• The legendary Eddie Harris (EddieHarris.com) - offizielle Website
• Eddie Harris (en.Wikipedia.org)
• Eddie Harris (de.Wikipedia.org)