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Joel Harrison 5: Spirit House
by Troy Collins
Throughout his storied career, Washington DC-born guitarist Joel Harrison has demonstrated an interest in a wide range of musical styles. Since his leadership debut in the mid-1990s, Harrison has explored an array of genres, from pan-global collaborations with North Indian classical musicians to radical rearrangements of Appalachian folk tunes. Spirit House, the premiere of his most recent ensemble, the Joel Harrison 5, features yet another unique configuration, with Harrison joined by trumpeter Cuong Vu, bassoonist Paul Hanson, bassist Kermit Driscoll ...
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by Blaine Fallis
Spirit House is a Joel Harrison original! Original compositions, ideas, instrumentations, and grooves. While jazz sometimes repeats itself (in style, instrumentation, or choice of songs etc.), Harrison creates completely new music worth listening to, “repeatedly." I say this because he wrote the music “specifically for this unique group of individuals," using electric guitar with bassoon (Paul Hanson), and the echoed voicings of trumpeter Cuong Vu. Add in veteran drummer Brian Blade and bassist Kermit Driscoll, and you have ...
Continue ReadingJoel Harrison e il Questionario di Proust
by Paolo Peviani
All About Jazz: Il tratto principale della mia musica. Joel Harrison Non mi si può legare ad un singolo stile. Mi muovo liberamente tra più correnti musicali. AAJ La qualità che desidero nei musicisti che suonano con me. J.H. L'anima, la versatilità, l'apertura mentale. AAJ Come musicista, il momento in cui sono stato più felice. J.H. Sono davvero felice quando sto lavorando ad una nuova composizione e sta venendo ...
Continue ReadingJoel Harrison: Mother Stump
by Dave Wayne
Given his proclivity for wildly eclectic, big-concept musical projects featuring improbable combinations of multi-ethnic instrumentalists, Joel Harrison is about the last guitarist I'd expect to record a funky slab of power-trio jazz-rock-funk fusion. Across the board, his guitaristic skills have taken a back seat to compositional concerns and rich, detailed arrangements. Yet, here is Mother Stump, Harrison's paean to 70s-era jazz-rooted, rock-powered, funked-up guitar-centric instrumental music. Moreover, Harrison has pointedly eschewed all of the studio polish and post-production nonsense that ...
Continue ReadingJoel Harrison: Mother Stump
by Glenn Astarita
Every so often, musicians feel an inner urge to return to their roots and test their acumen with newer techniques and perspectives. Here, guitarist Joel Harrison revitalizes his early persuasions in a trio format, with keyboardist Glenn Patscha appearing on several tracks. Recognized for his heterogeneous projects, including big band, world-jazz, progressive jazz and distinctive style as a guitarist not content to his rest on his laurels, Mother Stump interconnects another phase of his all-embracing faculties. With dreamy volume control ...
Continue ReadingJoel Harrison & Anupam Shobhakar Multiplicity: Leave the Door Open
by Chris M. Slawecki
Leave the Door Open is more than evocative and expertly played music: It heralds the emerging age of global world jazz and the attendant possibilities with which it comes. Jazz and blues guitarist Joel Harrison (from Washington, DC) and sarode player Anupam Shobhakar (from Kolkata, India) first met to work on Harrison's 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship for composing a piece for jazz quintet, classical percussion and sarode. “I have had a lifelong interest in sarode but working with Anupam ...
Continue ReadingJoel Harrison: Mother Stump
by Troy Collins
Guitarist and composer Joel Harrison is well-known for creative cross-cultural collaborations and unique arrangements of works by influential musicians like George Harrison and Paul Motian. A magnanimous bandleader, Harrison rarely dominates his own recording projects, typically soloing with lyrical economy in lieu of pyrotechnic excess. Mother Stump focuses on this underplayed aspect of Harrison's abilities, spotlighting his improvisational prowess on a hand-picked selection of beloved cover tunes and a pair of evocative originals. Inspired in part by the ...
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