THE JAZZ FORUM
presents:
The Big Chief Donald Harrison Quartet with Nori Naraoka bass, Brian Richburg drums, and Dan Kaufman piano
Friday Oct. 27 7:00 PM performance tickets:
Friday Oct. 28 9:30 PM performance tickets:
Saturday Oct. 28 7:00 PM performance tickets:
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Donald Harrison enters the smoothjazz.net top 100 with the “The Magic Touch,” smooth jazz single. The song features Chuck Loeb, Chris Botti, Michael White, and McKinley Williams. It is the first installment of his multi-genre singles release which feature the same song played in nine different genres. Look for the nouveau swing, post-bop, reggae, tropical-salsa, second-line, bossa nova, blues, and trap jazz hip-hop versions soon.
Meta-Morpheus: Donald Harrison’s Eclectic Jazz Revolution of Unity
By Greg Thomas
Donald Harrison’s musical universe is vast, populated with planets called “genres”—orbits of stylistic convention. Jazz is his sun, the blues his moon, with soul and funk the earthy undertone of his universe, yet, as you’ll hear, his planetary reach extends into far regions, musical galaxies.
Imagine a wheel within a wheel centered by a black hub. The straight lines extending from the hub to the edges of…
Read moreOn sale September 6
For their second Half Note issue, the power trio of Donald Harrison, Ron Carter, and Billy Cobham declare themselves spokesmen for a kind of exploratory improvisation and interplay known only to seasoned jazz professionals. Staunch individualists all, they come together with a unified voice of alto, bass and drums - at once steeped in jazz's richly variegated traditions yet forward-thinking in the cause of new creative expression. The group play here is all about a stylized call and…
Read moreMy father, Big Chief Donald always talked about how great jazz musicians were. He never put them down which made me understand to respect them. He would have never talked bad about Louis Armstrong and never would have let me tallk bad about Louis Armstrong. My father also never put down any other Mardi Gras Indians which also taught me to respect other human beings. I think him for the wisdom he imparted that gave me humility and showed me to honor those who are great.
Donald Harrison wrote his first piece for the LPO before Katrina. Now Harrison is begining an orchestral piece written from the inside perspectives of being a Big Chief in the culture of New Orleans, playing with modern jazz greats, playing in the brass bands of New Orleans as a youth. Donald Harrison is the only modern jazz musician that has participated in The Mardi Gras Indian culture of New Orleans. He started as the little Chief of the Creole Wild West in 1963 at the age of 2 years-old. Harrison…
Read moreDonald Harrison is The Big Chief of The Congo Square Nation and his mission is to keep alive secret aspects of Congo Square not known conciously by most Mardi Gras Indians. Harrison has named his faction Afro New Orleans Culture because now is the time to put the focus on the individuals that keep New Orleans root culture alive. The truth is there are many factions of Mardi Gras…
Read moreDonald Harrison wears many hats on David Simon's new HBO series Treme. Harrison was contacted early on before production began and asked to be a consultant. He helped in developing characters based on his life in modern jazz music and New Orleans culture. The show developed 2 characters based on Harrison being a jazz musician with a father that is a Big Chief in the culture of New Orleans. The father, Altert Lambreaux is played by Clark Peters. The son, Delmond Lambreaux is played by Rob Brown. Harrison…
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