Results for "Craig S. Harris"

Craig S. Harris

When Craig Harris exploded onto the jazz scene in 1976, he brought the entire history of the jazz trombone with him. From the growling gutbucket intensity of early New Orleans music through the refined, articulate improvisation of the modern era set forth by J.J. Johnson, and into the confrontational expressionism of the ‘60s avant-garde, Craig handled the total vernacular the way a skilled orator utilizes the spoken word. But the contemporary music world quickly realized that his talents went far beyond his superb skills as a trombonist. While he performed with a veritable Who’s Who of progressive jazz’ most important figures �" including Sun Ra, Sam Rivers, Lester Bowie, Abdullah Ibrahim, Makanda Ken McIntyre, Jaki Byard, Cecil Taylor, Muhal Richard Abrams, and the list goes on and on -- his own projects displayed both a unique sense of concept and a total command of the sweeping expanse of African-American musical expression. And it’s those two qualities that have dominated Craig’s past 15 years of activity, bringing him far beyond the confines of the jazz world and into the sphere of multimedia and performance art as composer, performer, conceptualist, curator and artistic director. Sensing the increasing economic constrictions and diminishing opportunities that would soon place a stranglehold on the more adventurous aspects of music in the jazz tradition, Craig began to devote his energies to a broader realm of artistic realization back in 1988