Detroit-born pianist Barry Harris who taught jazz greats in 1950s dies at 91
Barry Harris, a Detroit-born jazz pianist and steadfast champion of bebop, died Dec. 8 at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, New Jersey.
He was 91.
Business partner and collaborator Howard Rees told the New York Times his death was caused by complications of COVID-19.
Harris was an influential performer and teacher who trained a number of jazz greats in music theory and improvisation from his Detroit home in the 1950s. He'd continue teaching in New York for decades.
“A pillar of the Detroit jazz piano tradition, Barry was one of my favorite Detroiters, human beings and mentors,” said Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation president and artistic director Chris Collins. “While most are aware of his mind-boggling career, legendary craftsmanship, refined elegance and stunning creative manipulation of the jazz language, some may not know of his generosity and commitment to mentoring.”
Jazz historian Mark Stryker, in his book "Jazz from Detroit," noted Harris' influential leadership in Detroit's 1950s music community, with young musicians clamoring to study with him.
"Detroit's role as a jazz incubator shifted into high gear during the formative years of bebop and ascended to fever pitch in the 1950s," Stryker wrote. "A unique confluence of economic, cultural, social, educational, and artistic factors transformed the city into a bebop factory. The profound marriage of superb formal instruction in public schools with the informal academy that pianist Barry Harris ran in his home — plus a vibrant club scene operating at night — had a catalytic impact on jazz in Detroit."
Harris grew up exclusively hearing church music before latching onto jazz in his teens. He was particularly enamored with bebop musicians such as saxophonist Charlie Parker and pianists like Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and quickly immersed himself in Detroit’s throbbing music scene – as did his high school pal Berry Gordy, the Motown founder who turned 92 last month.
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Harris became a mainstay in the vibrant Detroit jazz club scene, accompanying the likes of Parker, Miles Davis, Lester Young, and more as they toured through the city.
In 1954, he took over as house pianist for Detroit’s most popular jazz spot, the Blue Bird Inn, with a band that included saxophonist Pepper Adams and drummer Elvin Jones.
After leaving Detroit to tour with drummer Max Roach and then saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, he would go on to log more than two dozen albums under his own name throughout a seven-decade career, and record as sideman with such giants of bop as Adderley and Dexter Gordon, and was a major contributor to Lee Morgan’s 1964 hit “The Sidewinder.” In 1989, the National Endowment for the Arts bestowed him with their Jazz Master honor.
Harris also led a fiercely passionate career as an independent educator, guiding thousands of students to accomplished careers in jazz. The New York Times described him in 1986 as a “one-man jazz academy.”
A 1993 stroke briefly set him back, but he rallied and continued teaching and playing until the very end.
"The more I learn, the more I can see where Bird (Charlie Parker), Bud, Diz and those cats didn't do it all," Harris told the Free Press in 2000. "You need to learn the rules so you can bend the rules, extend the rules and come up with new answers."
His final performance was Nov. 12 in Queens, with other NEA jazz masters, and even during the COVID-19 pandemic, he continued to teach around 100 international students each week via Zoom. His final lesson was Nov. 20.
Collins, the festival organizer who also serves as Valade Endowed Chair in Jazz at Wayne State University, noted that, in addition to being a past recipient of the Detroit Jazz Festival’s Jazz Guardian Award, Harris was the first to play the Steinway grand piano at Grosse Pointe Farms’ Dirty Dog Jazz Café.
“To commemorate his blessing,” Collins recalled, “he signed the cast iron plate inside. Following his set, he did not retreat to the green room. Instead, he remained at the piano bench for a couple hours fielding questions from young musicians, giving autographs, taking selfies with fans.”
In 1953, Harris married Christine Brown, who died in 2017. The couple moved in 1960 to New York, where Harris would stay for the rest of his life. He is survived by daughter, Carol Harris Geyer, and son-in-law Keith Geyer, both of Grosse Pointe Farms.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit jazz icon Barry Harris dies at 91
