Craig S. Harris (trombonist)
Encyclopedia
Craig S. Harris is a Jazz
trombonist and composer
who has been a major figure in the jazz avant-garde
movement since his stint with Sun Ra
in 1976. Subsequently, Harris has worked with such notable jazz artists as Abdullah Ibrahim
, David Murray
, Lester Bowie
, Cecil Taylor
, Sam Rivers
, Muhal Richard Abrams
and Charlie Haden
. Harris has also recorded as leader for such labels as India Navigation
, Soul Note
and JMT
and led ensembles such as Cold Sweat and Tailgaters Tales.
Harris was born in Hempstead, New York, and is a graduate of the music program of State University of New York College at Old Westbury, was profoundly influenced by its founder and director Makanda Ken McIntyre. Craig's move to New York City in 1978 quickly established him in the forefront of young trombonists such as Ray Anderson, George Lewis and Joseph Bowie.
He first played alongside another of his teachers at SUNY, baritone saxophonist Pat Patrick in Sun Ra's Arkestra for two years. Harris than embarked on a world tour with a South African pianist/composer named Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) in 1981. While on tour in Australia Harris discovered the Indigenous Australian wind instrument, the didgeridoo
, which he added to the collection of instruments he plays.
With Cold Sweat
With Ayibobo
With Lester Bowie
With Don Byron
With Carla Cook
With Lena Horne
With Dollar Brand
With Joseph Jarman
With David Murray
With The Roots
With Sekou Sundiata
With Sun Ra
With Henry Threadgill
With the World Saxophone Quartet
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trombonist and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
who has been a major figure in the jazz avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
movement since his stint with Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
in 1976. Subsequently, Harris has worked with such notable jazz artists as Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim , born Adolph Johannes Brand, 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, and formerly known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer...
, David Murray
David Murray (jazz musician)
David Murray is an American jazz musician. Murray plays mainly tenor saxophone and sometimes bass clarinet. He has recorded prolifically for many record labels since the mid-1970s.-Biography:...
, Lester Bowie
Lester Bowie
Lester Bowie was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the AACM, and cofounded the Art Ensemble of Chicago.-Biography:...
, Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
, Sam Rivers
Sam Rivers
Samuel Carthorne Rivers , is an American jazz musician and composer. He performs on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano....
, Muhal Richard Abrams
Muhal Richard Abrams
Muhal Richard Abrams is an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the Free jazz medium. Abrams compresses both contemporary and traditional ideas into lean, elegant pieces.- Biography :Abrams attended DuSable High School in Chicago...
and Charlie Haden
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...
. Harris has also recorded as leader for such labels as India Navigation
India Navigation
India Navigation was an American independent record label that was active from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Founded by corporate lawyer Bob Cummins, the label specialized in jazz music, particularly avant-garde jazz.-Discography:...
, Soul Note
Black Saint/Soul Note
Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian jazz independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz.-History:...
and JMT
JMT Records
JMT Records was a record label that specialised in contemporary jazz. It was run by Stefan Winter.JMT recorded artists included Steve Coleman, Cassandra Wilson, Greg Osby, and Django Bates. The entire JMT catalogue is being re-released by Winter & Winter, Stefan Winter's new label....
and led ensembles such as Cold Sweat and Tailgaters Tales.
Harris was born in Hempstead, New York, and is a graduate of the music program of State University of New York College at Old Westbury, was profoundly influenced by its founder and director Makanda Ken McIntyre. Craig's move to New York City in 1978 quickly established him in the forefront of young trombonists such as Ray Anderson, George Lewis and Joseph Bowie.
He first played alongside another of his teachers at SUNY, baritone saxophonist Pat Patrick in Sun Ra's Arkestra for two years. Harris than embarked on a world tour with a South African pianist/composer named Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) in 1981. While on tour in Australia Harris discovered the Indigenous Australian wind instrument, the didgeridoo
Didgeridoo
The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"...
, which he added to the collection of instruments he plays.
As leader
- Aboriginal Affairs (India Navigation, 1983)
- Black BoneBlack BoneBlack Bone is an album by American jazz trombonist and composer Craig Harris recorded in 1983 and released on the Italian Soul Note label.-Reception:...
(Soul Note, 1983) - Tributes (OTC, 1984)
- Shelter (JMT, 1986)
- Blackout in the Square Root of Soul (JMT, 1987)
- F-Stops (Soul Note, 1993)
- Istanbul (Double Moon, 2003)
- Souls within the Veils (Aquastra Music, 2005)
With Cold Sweat
- Cold Sweat Plays J.B. (JMT, 1989)
- 4-Play (JMT, 1990)
As sideman
With Muhal Richard AbramsMuhal Richard Abrams
Muhal Richard Abrams is an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the Free jazz medium. Abrams compresses both contemporary and traditional ideas into lean, elegant pieces.- Biography :Abrams attended DuSable High School in Chicago...
- Blues ForeverBlues ForeverBlues Forever is an album by Muhal Richard Abrams released on the Italian Black Saint label in 1982 and featuring performances of seven of Abrams compositions by an eleven member big band.-Reception:...
(Black Saint, 1981) - Rejoicing with the LightRejoicing with the LightRejoicing with the Light is an album by Muhal Richard Abrams released on the Italian Black Saint label in 1983 and featuring performances of five of Abrams' compositions by a fourteen member orchestra. The Allmusic review by Ron Wynn states "He led the orchestra through pieces that were sometimes...
(Black Saint, 1983) - Song for AllSong for AllSong for All is an album by Muhal Richard Abrams which was released on the Italian Black Saint label in 1997 and features performances of eight of Abrams' compositions by Abrams, Eddie Allen, Craig Harris, Eugene Ghee, Alfred Patterson, Brad Jones, and Reggie Nicholson...
(Black Saint, 1995)
With Ayibobo
Ayibobo
Ayibobo is a mizik rasin band from New York, New York, USA. Ayibobo is one spelling of a Haitian Kreyòl word that means "amen" or "hallelujah". However, the majority, if not all Christian Haitians refrain from using the word Ayibobo as it is most commonly used among voodoo worshipers on the island...
- Freestyle (DIW, 1994)
With Lester Bowie
Lester Bowie
Lester Bowie was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the AACM, and cofounded the Art Ensemble of Chicago.-Biography:...
- I Only Have Eyes for YouI Only Have Eyes for You (album)I Only Have Eyes for You is the third album by Lester Bowie recorded for ECM and the debut album of his "Brass Fantasy" group. It was released in 1985 and features performances by Bowie, Vincent Chancey, Craig Harris, Steve Turre, Malachi Thompson, Stanton Davis, Bob Stewart and Phillip...
(ECM, 1985)
With Don Byron
Don Byron
Don Byron is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. He primarily plays clarinet, but has also used bass clarinet and saxophones....
- Bug Music (1996)
With Carla Cook
Carla Cook
-Biography:A Detroit, Michigan native, music seized hold of Cook at an early age. As a student at Cass Technical High School she played string bass in the school orchestra, studied piano and voice on weekends, and sang in her church’s choir...
- Dem Bones (Maxjazz, 2001)
With Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
- Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music (Qwest, 1981)
With Dollar Brand
Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim , born Adolph Johannes Brand, 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, and formerly known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer...
- African Marketplace (1979)
- Dollar Brand Live at Montreux (1980)
With Joseph Jarman
Joseph Jarman
Joseph Jarman , is a jazz musician, composer and Shinshu Buddhist priest. He is perhaps best known as one of the first members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and the Art Ensemble of Chicago.-Early life:Jarman grew up in Chicago, Illinois...
- Earth Passage - Density (Black Saint, 1981)
With David Murray
David Murray (jazz musician)
David Murray is an American jazz musician. Murray plays mainly tenor saxophone and sometimes bass clarinet. He has recorded prolifically for many record labels since the mid-1970s.-Biography:...
- Murray's StepsMurray's StepsMurray's Steps is the fifth album by David Murray to be released on the Italian Black Saint label and the third to feature his Octet. It was released in 1982 and features performances by Murray, Henry Threadgill, Bobby Bradford, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, Craig Harris, Curtis Clark, Wilber Morris and...
(Black Saint, 1982) - Live at Sweet Basil Volume 1Live at Sweet Basil Volume 1Live at Sweet Basil Volume 1 is the seventh album by David Murray to be released on the Italian Black Saint label and the first to feature his Big Band...
(Black Saint, 1984) - Live at Sweet Basil Volume 2Live at Sweet Basil Volume 2Live at Sweet Basil Volume 2 is the ninth album by David Murray to be released on the Italian Black Saint label and the second to feature his Big Band...
(Black Saint, 1984) - Hope ScopeHope ScopeHope Scope is the fourteenth album by David Murray to be released on the Italian Black Saint label and the fifth to feature his Octet. It was released in 1991 and features performances by Murray, Rasul Siddik, Hugh Ragin, Craig Harris, James Spaulding, Dave Burrell, Wilber Morris and Ralph...
(Black Saint, 1987) - New Life (Black Saint, 1988)
- David Murray Big BandDavid Murray Big BandDavid Murray Big Band conducted by Lawrence "Butch" Morris is an album by David Murray released on the DIW/Columbia label. It is the third album to feature his Big Band and was released in 1991 featuring performances by Murray, Hugh Ragin, Graham Haynes, Rasul Siddik, James Zollar, Craig Harris,...
(Columbia/DIW, 1991) - PicassoPicasso (album)Picasso is an album by the David Murray Octet released on the Japanese DIW label. It was released in 1993 and features performances by Murray, Rasul Siddik, Hugh Ragin, Craig Harris, James Spaulding, Dave Burrell, Wilber Morris and Tani Tabbal.-Reception:...
(DIW, 1992) - South of the BorderSouth of the Border (David Murray album)South of the Border is an album by the David Murray Big Band released on the Japanese DIW label. Recorded in 1992 and released in 1993 the album features performances by Murray, Rasul Siddik, James Zoller, Hugh Ragin, Craig Harris, Frank Lacy, Al Patterson, Vincent Chancey, Kalil Henry, John...
(DIW, 1995) - Dark Star: The Music of the Grateful DeadDark Star: The Music of the Grateful DeadDark Star: The Music of the Grateful Dead is an album by the David Murray Octet released on the Astor Place label. It was released in 1996 and contains Murray's versions of compositions by the Grateful Dead...
(Astor Place, 1996) - Fo Deuk RevueFo Deuk RevueFo Deuk Revue is an album by David Murray released on the Justin Time label. Recorded in 1996 and released in 1997 the album features performances by Murray with Darryl Burgee, Ousseynou Diop, Assane Diop, Craig Harris, Robert Irving III, Abdou Karim Mané, Oumar Mboup, Hugh Ragin, Doudou N'Diaye...
(Justin Time, 1996) - Octet Plays TraneOctet Plays TraneOctet Plays Trane is an album by the David Murray Octet released on the Justin Time label. Recorded in 1999 and released in 2000 the album and features performances by Murray, Rasul Siddick, Hugh Ragin, Craig Harris, James Spaulding, Ravi Best, D. D. Jackson, Mark Johnson and Jaribu Shahid...
(Justin Time, 2000) - Yonn-DéYonn-DéYonn-Dé is an album by David Murray released on the Justin Time label. Recorded in 2001 and released in 2003 the album features performances by Murray and the Gwo-Ka Masters. It was Murray's first album with the Gwo-Ka Masters and was followed by Gwotet .-Reception:The Allmusic review by David R...
(Justin Time, 2002) - Now Is Another Time (Justin Time, 2003)
With The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
- The Roots Come AliveThe Roots Come AliveThe Roots Come Alive is a live album from the group The Roots. It was recorded in Zurich, Switzerland; New York City; and other places and released November 2, 1999. An enhanced double-CD edition containing six extra tracks was also released with a limited pressing...
(MCA/Universal, 1999)
With Sekou Sundiata
Sekou Sundiata
Sekou Sundiata was an African-American poet and performer, as well as a teacher at The New School in New York City. Famous students include musicians Ani DiFranco and Mike Doughty. His plays include The Circle Unbroken is a Hard Bop, The Mystery of Love, Udu, and The 51st Dream State...
- Blue Oneness of Dreams (1997)
- Long Story Short (2000)
With Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
- Live at Montreux (1976)
- Unity (1977)
- Strange Celestial Road (1980)
With Henry Threadgill
Henry Threadgill
Henry Threadgill is an American composer, saxophonist and flautist. Threadgill came to prominence in the 1970s leading ensembles with unusual instrumentation and often incorporating a range of non-jazz genres....
- When Was That?When Was That?When Was That? is an album by Henry Threadgill released on the About Time label in 1982. The album and features five of Threadgill's compositions performed by Threadgill with Craig Harris, Olu Dara, Fred Hopkins, Brian Smith, Pheeroan akLaff and John Betsch.The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek states...
(About Time, 1982) - Just the Facts and Pass the BucketJust the Facts and Pass the BucketJust the Facts and Pass the Bucket is an album by Henry Threadgill released on the About Time label in 1983. The album and features six of Threadgill's compositions performed by Threadgill with Craig Harris, Olu Dara, Fred Hopkins, Diedre Murray, Pheeroan akLaff and John Betsch.The Allmusic review...
(About Time, 1983)
With the World Saxophone Quartet
World Saxophone Quartet
The World Saxophone Quartet is a jazz ensemble founded in 1977, implementing elements of free funk and African jazz into their musical routines.-History:...
- ExperienceExperience (WSQ album)-Track listing:# "Freedom" - 7:14# "If 6 Was 9" - 5:20# "Hey Joe" - 7:10# "Machine Gun" - 8:02# "Little Wing" - 7:34# "Foxy Lady" - 5:29# "Hear My Train a Comin'" - 8:34# "The Wind Cries Mary"- 7:38-Personnel:...
(Justin Time, 2003) - Political BluesPolitical Blues-Track listing:# "Political Blues" - 9:04# "Hal's Blues" - 2:54# "Mannish Boy" - 7:26# "Let's Have Some Fun" - 7:23# "Amazin' Disgrace" - 5:55# "Bluocracy, Part 1" - 5:03...
(Justin Time, 2006)