Musicians - Barry Harris

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	Musicians - Barry Harris

Barry Harris, (December 15, 1929 - ) is an American bebop jazz pianist and educator.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, on December 15, 1929, Barry Harris was influenced by Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. Harris left Detroit for New York City in 1960.

Harris has played with Cannonball Adderley, Illinois Jacquet, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordon, and Max Roach. As a lead artist, he has recorded over 14 albums.

Harris appears in the 1989 documentary film, "Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser" (produced by Clint Eastwood). During the 1970s Harris lived with Monk and his family at the New Jersey home of the jazz patroness Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, and so was in an excellent position to comment on the last years of his fellow pianist.

In the Eighties, Harris maintained a unique institution, the Jazz Cultural Theater, in a former restaurant storefront on Eighth Ave near 23rd Street in Manhattan. There he taught group music and piano lessons, as well as hosted his own performances and those of other like-minded artists. His album "For the Moment" was recorded there.

His approach to the teaching of jazz used methods and techniques that pre-date the Berklee school and the Lydian Chromatic approach of George Russell. He relied upon the 6th chord and the 8-note, rather than seven note, jazz scale as a basis for melody and harmony. This is the material used by Bud Powell, Joseph Schillnger, George Gershwin, Glenn Miller, and even Frédéric Chopin. He emphasized the concept of building a repertoire of one's own "musical movements" over common licks and phrases.

The Jazz Cultural Theater lasted as long as the students and audiences kept the doors open. Mr Harris had an illness, which required all his attention, and the theater closed at that time.

In 2000, he was profiled in the film "Barry Harris - Spirit of Bebop".

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Musicians - Barry Harris

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