Wendell Harrison

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Wendell Harrison

Wendell Harrison (* 1942 in Detroit ) is an American tenor saxophonist and clarinetist .

Live and act

Harrison attended Northwestern High School in Detroit, where he met trumpeter Lonnie Hillyer , alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, and percussionist Roy Brooks , who introduced him to jazz. Harrison's mother was a teacher and his father taught sociology at Southern University in Baton Rouge . At the age of five he played the piano and had lessons with the pianist Barry Harris before he moved to the Detroit Conservatory . After the clarinet, he switched to the alto saxophone at the age of 13. In 1960 he moved to New York and played in various jazz, blues, R&B and Latin bands, as well as with Lou Rawls , Joe Henderson , Kenny Dorham's Big Band , Hank Crawford , Grant Green , Sun Ra and Eddie Jefferson , Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald .

Heroin addiction interrupted his career; In 1967 he began rehabilitation at Synanon. In 1970 he returned to Detroit and taught at Metro Arts . In 1971 he co-founded the non-profit Tribe , which held concerts, published records and published a magazine, similar to the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in Chicago, the Black Arts Group in St. Louis and Strata, Detroit. After Tribe dissolved in 1977, he created the Rebirth organization .

His best-known release is likely to be the album The Battle of the Tenors with Eddie Harris . In 1994, the Enja label recorded the album Rush & Hustle under his own name with musicians such as James Carter , Harold McKinney and Jerry Gonzalez . From the 2000s he worked with musicians such as Phil Ranelin , Naima Shamborguer , Marion Hayden , Doug Hammond and John Lindberg . In 2011 the album It's About Damn Time was released . In the field of jazz, he was involved in 47 recording sessions between 1994 and 2016, according to Tom Lord .

Discographic notes

  • Birth of a Fossil (1985), with Pamela Wise, Duke Billinslea, Harold McKinney , Larry Barris, Darryl Pierce, Lorenzo Brown, Dennis Rowland
  • The Carnivorous Lady (1988), with Marcus Belgrave , Pamela Wise , Thomas Werner, Larry Fratangelo, Duke Billinslea, Shirley Hayden, Michele McKinney
  • Fly by Night (1990), with Kirk Lightsey , Cecil McBee , Doug Hammond
  • Live In Concer (1993), with Wendell Harrison 18 Piece Big Band & Sextet and Wendell Harrison Clarinet Ensemble & Sextet
  • Harold McKinney & Wendell Harrison: Something For Pops (1993)
  • The Eighth House: Riding with Pluto (2001), with Jumma Santos
  • Urban Expressions (2004)

literature

  • The Be Boppers Method Book Volume I for B flat Instruments. With CD. Rebirth Inc., 1997, ISBN 0-967-40431-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tom Lord: The Jazz Discography (online, accessed November 26, 2019)
personal data
SURNAME Harrison, Wendell
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American tenor saxophonist and clarinetist
DATE OF BIRTH 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit