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Marilyn Harris
About Me
After studying composition with Hale Smith at UConn and film scoring
with Ray Wright and
Manny Albam at Eastman School of Music, Marilyn worked extensively
with jazz arranger
Gil Evans and studied piano with Richard Tee and Rodgers Grant in
NYC. Over the years
she worked with a wide variety of other artists including co-writing a gold
record with Jim
Brickman, doing arrangements for Bette Midler, Lola Falana and Donna
McKechnie, and
some of her songs have been covered by jazz vocalists Anne Marie
Moss, Jackie Paris, Judi
Silvano, Diane Hubka, Bobbe Norris and Sharon McNight.
After college Marilyn worked as a music editor and copyist in New York
City and in the
world of advertising music where she sang, arranged and produced
music for commercials
(Amoco, McDonald's, Kraft, Kellogg's, United Airlines, etc.) in New York
and Chicago. After
moving to Los Angeles, she co-composed, performed and produced
over 200 music cues
for ABC-TV's General Hospital, scored episodes of the animated
Flintstone Kids, and
provided original music scores and themes for such diverse projects as
BBC-5's hit radio
drama Milford-Haven, U.S.A. (Great Britain), Yogurt Variations for
the New Britain
Symphony Orchestra, the theatrical plays Sea Marks and An
American Odyssey, as well
as the audio book music scores to The Hidden Legacy, Stickeen,
and Travels In
Alaska. She's placed her original songs in the Hallmark Hall of Fame
presentation of My
Sister's Keeper, Sesame Street, and the award-winning short feature
film T for Terrorist.
Marilyn's first CD release on Wrightwood Records, the jazz-pop
Between the Lines
(WRCD-1508) featured world-renowned musicians such as
percussionist/drummer Mark
Walker (Paquito D'Rivera & Oregon), guitarist Georg Wadenius (Blood,
Sweat & Tears),
bassist Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny Group), jazz trumpeters Orbert
Davis, Bobby Lewis and
Ron Friedman, saxophonist Steve Eisen (Styx), and Sinatra band
members Mike Smith and
Ron Kolber. In 1998 Marilyn joined Philip Ingram in the vocal duet of her
original song
Like Love on BMG's release of Jim Brickman's Visions of Love.
Marilyn collaborated on 4 CDs of meditation/relaxation music for
Wrightwood Records:
Koto Keys (WRCD-1516) & A Koto Keys Christmas (WRCD-1525)
with kotoist Mara Purl,
Unicorn's Journey with harpist Stephanie Bennett and Winds on
Ivory (WRCD-1521)
with exotic woodwind specialist Phil Feather.
Marilyn's 2004 release Future Street (WRCD-1580) features 11 more
original songs
and wonderful instrumental solos by Wayne Bergeron, Warren Luening,
Pete Christlieb, Dan
Higgins, Bill Liston, Andy Martin, Bob Leatherbarrow, as well as a special
vocal duet with
co-writer on 5 of the songs, Mark Winkler. Liner notes are by jazz
songwriting legend Bob
Dorough.
Marilyn's newest release Round Trip (WRCD-1569) reached the Top
25 on JazzWeek's
chart and features 10 great new original songs (and 2 fabulous covers)
- backed by the L.
A. Jazz All-Stars Big Band led by producer/arranger Mark Wolfram.
More terrific
instrumental solos by Bill Watrous, Pete Christlieb, Jim Fox, Dan
Higgins, Warren
Luening, Andy Martin, Don Shelton, as well as a special vocal duet with
the ever-wonderful
Bob Dorough. Liner notes are by jazz DJ and journalist Neil Tesser.
Marilyn has given service to many music industry organizations over
the years (Board of
Governors @ N.A.R.A.S., Songwriters Guild, L.A.Women In Music and
the Jazz Vocal
Coalition. In 2004 she moderated a songwriting panel @ IAJE entitled
BEYOND THE GREAT
AMERICAN SONGBOOK, and has performed at Birdland, Don't Tell
Mama, Danny's and
Cornelia St. Cafe (NYC), and The Jazz Bakery, Spazio and The
Catalina Bar & Grill (Los
Angeles), among many other venues.