People come to New York and we’d end up on different tracks. TP: Back in the day in Detroit, before you came here, you used to play with Elvin Jones. We have to adjust our heartbeat to each other, so I think between Billy Higgins and Leroy we do a better job than most people. But between Billy Higgins and Leroy I’m sort of selfish. Billy Higgins is a very special drummer, too. HARRIS: Well, we have a special relationship.
TP: Well, he knows how to break rhythms without breaking up the flow. HARRIS: Well, Charles McPherson said to me, “Barry, you’ve got to hear this drummer I think you’ll like him.” I said, “Oh, yeah?” So that’s the way it started. TP: What do you think it is that made him so empathetic to you in the beginning? Well, after all those years don’t you think he should? So then I decided, “Well, later on the bass player I’ll use Leroy on drums.” What I found out from that is that Leroy knows me the best. What I found out about Leroy, one time I was working at Bradley’s and I couldn’t find a bass player. HARRIS: That’s been a union of about 30 years.
TP: I’ve heard you with other drummers than Leroy Williams over the years, like Vernell Fournier for a while in the ’80s and Billy Higgins, and there are others, but it’s hard to think of Barry Harris without thinking of Leroy Williams. So this is a first meeting, and I really enjoyed it. HARRIS: He played mostly with Tommy Flanagan. TP: Because you’ve both done your share of playing what Cedar Walton would call the piano saloon emporiums of New York. TP: Have you played with him much over the years. I felt sort of privileged to play with him on this record, because he’s one of the fastest cats! I don’t mean tempo-fast. HARRIS: Well, George Mraz is a very-very special bass player. TP: A few words about this particular group of musicians, and what they do for you in articulating the music. There are also interviews with Tommy Flanagan, his close friend and contemporary Leroy Williams, his drummer of choice for 18 years Don Schlitten, his producer for 20 years or so and Charles McPherson, one of his most distinguished students. Harris’ remarks when he joined me on WKCR in 1999 the other two are transcriptions of phoners that we did after DB assigned me the piece. Harris was awarded his NEA Jazz Mastership.īelow, I’ve appended the interviews that I conducted for the DownBeat piece. Here’s a link to a post I uploaded on his birthday two years ago, with a “director’s cut” DownBeat feature on the maestro from 2000, and an oral history conducted by Aaron Graves for the Smithsonian, after Mr.