Saxophonist Donald Harrison is often associated with tradition. And for good reason.
He comes out of New Orleans, where he carries the title of Big Chief in the Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultural Group. He’s a product of lineage, shaped by the elders from his time with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, to his collaborations with Terence Blanchard, and more recently with The Cookers.
Over the years, he’s become something of an elder statesman himself, recognized as an NEA Jazz Master, a designation reserved for artists who have shaped the music at the highest level.
But Harrison’s story isn’t only about preservation. It’s also about expansion.
For decades, he’s been exploring what he calls “multi-genre music.” It’s a concept born out of playing with hundreds of innovators across jazz and beyond. The concept is simple, but ambitious: that a single musical idea can live in many different stylistic worlds at once.
On his new album The Magic Touch, Harrison takes that idea even further by presenting the same composition in ten different genres, from hard bop to hip-hop, reggae to Afrobeat, and finally blending them into what he calls “nouveau swing.”
WBGO’s Pat Prescott recently spoke with Donald Harrison about how that concept came to life.
Harrison is appearing at Jazz Forum Arts in Tarrytown Friday April 17th & Saturday April 18th.
