But he was more than a peerless soloist and a keeper of the flame. Harris channeled the language and spirit of the founding fathers of bebop – alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk – through his own foxy spirit, vivid harmonic imagination and distinctive rhythmic rumble. He conducted weekly workshops in New York, appeared in clubs and concert halls and has traveled the world teaching and spreading the gospel of bebop – the postwar style that has become the lingua franca of music. One of the leading musicians to emerge from the explosion of modern jazz in Detroit in the 1940s and 1950s, Harris remained indefatigable until the early 1990s.
Harris would have turned 92 next week and gave his last lesson, via Zoom, on November 20. Harris had been hospitalized for the past two weeks and died of complications from Covid, said Kira von Ostenfeld-Suske, who was part of a small support team of friends and students who have helped Harris in recent years years. He was 91 years old and lived in Weehawken, NJ.
Jazz musician Barry Harris performed at the Henry Fonda Theater in 2006.īarry Harris, a pianist who has carefully preserved the language of bebop throughout a seven-decade career as a brilliant performer and influential teacher, died Wednesday at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, NJ.
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