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Jazz Articles about Joe Harriott
Will The Real Joe Harriott Please Stand Up?
by Duncan Heining
The Jamaican saxophhonist Joe Harriott was, without doubt, one of the most important and innovative jazz musicians to emerge in Britain in the fifties and early sixties. He arrived in Britain in 1951 with Ozzie Da Costa's band, which was en route for an engagement in Germany playing US army bases. Much to his erstwhile boss's dismay, Harriott chose to stay in the UK beginning an association with British jazz that was to prove of mutual benefit, creatively though never ...
read moreJoe Harriott: The Joe Harriott Story
by Bruce Lindsay
Almost 40 years after his death in 1973 at just 44 years of age, Joe Harriott's talent, imagination and impact on the development of jazz in Britain are gaining greater recognition than ever. Indeed, The Joe Harriott Story, an exceptional 4-disc box set of music from the alto saxophonist, is both a reflection of this belated recognition and, hopefully, another step towards increasing his reputation as a master musician. Harriott spent his formative years in Jamaica's famed ...
read moreJoe Harriott: Killer Joe!
by Nic Jones
Jamaican-born alto saxophonist, bandleader and composer Joe Harriott was destined to become a seminal figure in the evolution of British jazz in the 1960s. This two-disc collection of his earlier work in Britain is a primer in just what a gifted instrumentalist he was, covering as it does a range of his work from the mid-1950s--he arrived in Britain from his place of birth in May, 1951--under his own name as well as those of other leaders. ...
read moreJoe Harriott: A Restless Soul
by Bobby Hancock
Jazz music is not unused to firebrands who push the music on in the face of adversity or mere ignorance. In fact they have been invaluable in ensuring that the music stays fresh and new. Emphasis on innovations in the music has been on Afro-Americans, and it is true that they have played the largest part. However, it is easy to overlook the contribution of others in advancing the music, players with a unique voice of their own and with ...
read moreJoe Harriott: Free Form and Abstract
by Nic Jones
A certain view of jazz history has us believe that responsibility for the evolution of the music lies exclusively in American hands. This is both too deterministic and a slight upon the music's power to move and to influence. As early as the late 1930s European players were making innovations of their own at the same time as some Europeans were regarding jazz as akin to the spawn of Satan; the guitarist Django Reinhardt for example was contributing greatly to ...
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