Artist: Billy Harper
Genre(s):
Jazz
Discography:
Destiny Is Yours
Year: 1994
Tracks: 7
Black Saint
Year: 1993
Tracks: 1
Billy Harper is one of a generation of Coltrane-influenced tenor saxophonists wHO really built upon the master's work, kind of than just transcript it. Harper is consummately all-round, able-bodied to play convincingly in any setting, from bop to unloosen. His muscular tone, sylphlike juncture, comprehensive harmonic cognition, and unflagging energy define him as a saxophonist. He's too demoniac of an abundant resourcefulness that connects like a shot to his blue devils and gospel roots. Though not as well-known as he mightiness be, Harper is a jazz improviser of meaning stature. Harper grew up in Houston, TX. By the age of basketball team he was singing in church and at various choral events. At age 11 he was tending a sax for Christmas. In the start he was more often than not self-taught, though he was helped on by his uncle Earl Harper, a old herald world Health Organization had gone to school with boP trumpeter Kenny Dorham. Dorham's 1950s work was a formative influence. In his teens Harper played in R&B bands, and at the long time of 14 formed his have quartette. In the early '60s, Harper studied wind at North Texas State University, where he became (at that meter) the only African-American member of the school's esteemed One O'Clock Lab Band. Harper calibrated from NTSU with a Bachelor of Music degree and also did grad student put to work. In 1966 Harper moved to New York. That year, he light-emitting diode an corps de ballet that was featured on an NBC-TV special, "The Big Apple." Within unretentive time after arriving in New York, Harper started playing with well-known bandleaders. In 1967 he began a durable association with bandleader/arranger Gil Evans. Harper has played with some of jazz's sterling drummers; he served with Blakey's Messengers for two age (1968-1970); he played selfsame in brief with Elvin Jones (1970), and was a member of Max Roach's dance band in the late '70s. Harper as well became a regular appendage of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. In the '70s, Harper began recording under his have nominate for European labels. His album Black Saint (1975) was the first recording issued by the label of the same cite; his In Europe (1979) inaugurated the Soul Note label. Harper recorded relatively infrequently in the '80s and '90s, although he maintained an active acting career, mostly as a drawing card. He's enjoyed a latitude career as a music pedagogue, pedagogy at Livingston College and Rutgers. He's as well standard multiple grants from various arts agencies, including two from the National Endowment of the Arts. Harper's Smuggled Saint LP was named Jazz Record of the Year -- Voice Grand Prix, by the Modern Jazz League of Tokyo.
D.A. Passes On Grass Charges
