Hiram Winard Harper is an American jazz

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...

 drummer.

Harper played in the 1980s with Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...

, Johnny Griffin

Johnny Griffin

John Arnold Griffin III was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.- Early life and career :Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax...

, and Betty Carter

Betty Carter

Betty Carter was an American jazz singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style...

, the last for four years. While working with Carter he met Wycliffe Gordon

Wycliffe Gordon

Wycliffe Gordon is a jazz trombonist. He also plays didgeridoo, trumpet, tuba, piano and sings.In 1995, he re-orchestrated the theme song for NPR's All Things Considered...

, with whom he would collaborate repeatedly. From 1988 to 1993 he worked with his brother, trumpeter Philip Harper, in the group The Harper Brothers, alongside musicians such as Justin Robinson

Justin Robinson

-Early life:Robinson played for the Brixton TopCats before moving to the United States to attended high school at the Blair Academy. As a junior he would lead Blair to a Mid-Atlantic Prep League title and was named to the All-MAPL first team.-College career:...

, Javon Jackson

Javon Jackson

Javon Jackson is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He played in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers from 1987 until Blakey's death in 1990, and has also played with the Harper Brothers, Benny Green, Freddie Hubbard and Elvin Jones...

, Walter Blanding, Kiyoshi Kitagawa, Stephen Scott

Stephen Scott

Stephen Scott is an American composer best known for his development of the bowed piano , which involves a grand piano being played by an ensemble of ten musicians who utilize lengths of horsehair, nylon filament, and other utensils to bow the strings of the piano, creating an orchestra-like...

, Kevin Hays

Kevin Hays

Kevin Hays is a jazz pianist. He was raised in Greenwich, ConnecticutHe is known for the Kevin Hays Trio and being in the Bill Stewart Trio....

, Michael Bowie, and Nedra Wheeler. After the dissolution of the Harper brothers, Winard went on to record several albums as a leader. In the early 2000s he worked with his own sextet, including for performances at Lincoln Center in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. He played with Avery Sharpe

Avery Sharpe

Avery Sharpe is an American jazz double-bassist.Sharpe began playing piano at age eight and also studied accordion in his youth. He learned both electric and acoustic bass as a teenager, then studied with Reggie Workman at the University of Massachusetts...

 in 2008.

Discography

• Be Yourself (Epicure Records, 1994)
• Trap Dancer (Savant Records, 1998)
• Winard (Savant, 1999)
• Faith with Carrie Smith (Savant, 2000)
• A Time for the Soul (Savant, 2003)
• Come into the Light (Savant, 2004)
• Make it Happen (Piadrum Records, 2006)