Jazz Articles about Joel Harrison

Joel Harrison: Harbor

by John Kelman
April 29, 2007

Since his 2003 breakout Free Country (ACT), Joel Harrison has focused largely on liberal and highly unliteral takes of traditional songs, popular country tunes and, on Harrison on Harrison (HighNote, 2005), the music of the late George Harrison. Harbor represents a couple of significant departures from Harrison's recent recorded work. First, it's a return to all-original composition. Second, while it reunites the guitarist with altoist David Binney (a constant companion since Free Country), it's a first and ...

Joel Harrison: If You Have To Ask "Is It Jazz?"... It Is

by Jason Crane
July 10, 2006

Joel Harrison is a busy guy. From his critically acclaimed Free Country (ACT, 2003)--and its resultant commissions and recordings--to his new album of daring arrangements of the music of George Harrison, Harrison On Harrison (High Note, 2005), the 48-year-old guitarist/composer/arranger is constantly looking for news ways to express himself.Harrison sat down after a recent gig at the 2006 Rochester International Jazz Festival to talk about his life, his music, and why it took him so long to make ...

More Music, Less Opportunity?

by AAJ Staff
January 12, 2006

By Joel Harrison We live in extraordinary times. Relatively recently a phenomenal number of types of music have taken form: blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll, country, reggae, soul/r&b, bossa nova, samba, soukous, salsa, gospel, hiphop, free improv (to name a few). Atonalism, noise, electronics, computer language are now a part of many musicians' lexicon. The future is approaching at 1000 times the speed of its counterpart in, say, 1805. As all these models intertwine, giving rise to ...

Joel Harrison: Harrison on Harrison: Jazz Explorations of George Harrison

by Jeff Stockton
December 2, 2005

You have every right to be suspicious of anything that claims to interpret the music of a Beatle. Like symphonic Stones, extra-genre covers of the Beatles are most often a mixture of reverence and awkwardness. I've choked down enough Breakfasts with the Beatles to last a lifetime. But on Harrison on Harrison, guitarist Joel Harrison (no relation) wisely doesn't limit his song choices only to George Harrison's Beatle years.

Half the songs come from George's solo efforts and emphasize his ...

Joel Harrison: Harrison on Harrison: Jazz Explorations of George Harrison

by John Kelman
November 14, 2005

In response to the question “Why continue to retread the Great American Songbook?," some offer the excuse that contemporary pop music doesn't hold the musical interest that pop songs from the Great American Songbook did in their day. But original reimaginings of music by contemporary songsmiths like Beck, Bjork, and Radiohead by Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, and Dave Douglas, among others, have laid waste to that claim. It's a given that the harmonic approach and rhythmic pulse of contemporary pop ...

Joel Harrison: Free Country

by Julian Derry
December 12, 2003

Joel Harrison's Free Country kicks off with a cover version of the late Johnny Cash's “I Walk The Line" in the country style of guest vocalist Norah Jones, but halfway through the first track comes a hint of better, freer things to come, and no doubt the motivation behind the album's title. The album includes several old American country and Appalachian songs, as well as a couple from the Johnny Cash canon. The next traditional cut features Harrison's ...

Joel Harrison: Free Country

by Jim Santella
December 3, 2003

Through his free interpretation of American folk songs and country classics, guitarist Joel Harrison explores the growth patterns that exist under today's expanding jazz umbrella.

As a contemporary blues band, Harrison's ensemble slides and moans characteristically to uphold the tradition of this deep-seated music.

As a backbeat-driven rock band, the guitarist's arrangements exhale emotion through a combination of organ, bass, drums and steely guitar firestorms.

It's as a freewheeling jazz band that Harrison's ensemble ...