Bill Harris (jazz musician)

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Bill Harris, 1947.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .
Bill Harris, Denzil Best , Flip Phillips , Billy Bauer , Lennie Tristano , Chubby Jackson , circa September 1947.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

Bill Harris (* 28. October 1916 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ; † 21st August 1973 in Hallandale , Florida ) was an American jazz - trombone player of Swing .

Live and act

Bill Harris became known as one of the leading soloists of the big bands of Woody Herman , as the First Herd , where he remained from 1944 to 1946; then he should work several times with Herman (1948–50, 1956–58 and 1959). He also led smaller formations together with Charlie Ventura (1947), was involved in the music film Improvisation in 1950 and in the big band recordings of Charlie Parker for Verve in 1952 ( The Cole Porter Songbook ), worked with bassist Chubby Jackson in 1953 and with Benny Carter in 1954 and Dizzy Gillespie ( The Urban Sessions ) and toured several times with Jazz at the Philharmonic from 1950 to 1954 . In 1949 he made his first recordings with his nonet (a piece on the album Crosscurrents ). In 1957 he made his only album under his own name, Bill Harris and Friends , with guest musicians such as Ben Webster Jimmy Rowles , Red Mitchell and Stan Levey . In 1959 he was a member of Benny Goodman's band. In the 1960s he worked in nightclubs in Las Vegas and eventually settled in Florida , where he was no longer musically active.

Harris' style is heavily influenced by swing veterans like JC Higginbotham , even if he was open to the innovations of bebop . In the later 1940s and early 1950s he was considered one of the most popular trombonists alongside Jay Jay Johnson and Kai Winding .

Discographic notes

  • 1952 - Live at Birdland 1952 (Baldwin Street Music)
  • 1957 - Bill Harris and Friends ( Fantasy Records (OJC))

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ With Ben Webster as well as Ralph Burns, Billy Bauer , Chubby Jackson and the drummer Johnny Blowers he had already formed the Bill Harris Sextet in January 1945 ; see. Bielefeld Catalog 1988
  2. ↑ Cook and Morton rate the album of the forgotten trombonist as a welcome reason to rediscover him and give the album the highest rating of four stars.
  3. ↑ With Pete Candoli , John LaPorta , Eddie Lockjaw Davis , Flip Phillips , Don Abney , Horace Silver , Ralph Burns , Billy Bauer , Gene Ramey , Ed Shaughnessy Material from three jam sessions between 1945 and 1952
personal data
SURNAME Harris, Bill
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz trombonist
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , USA
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1973
Place of death Hallandale , Florida