Due to unforeseen circumstances this performance has been postponed. Tickets will be refunded at original point of purchase. A new date will be announced at a later time.
Emerging from the talent-laden New Orleans jazz scene in the 1980’s along with Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr., and Terrence Blanchard, Donald Harrison has established himself as the preeminent alto saxophonist of the post-bop generation. After recording and performance stints with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Ellis Marsalis, Roy Haynes, Jack McDuff, Larry Coryell, Eddie Palmeieri, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Lenny White, and Tony Williams, Donald Harrison broke out with a number of trend-setting albums in the late-80’s that included fellow Jazz Messenger Terrence Blanchard. Now with dozens of albums, Donald has solidified his role as the leading alto sax player in jazz today.
FEATURING
Donald Harrison – alto sax
Brian Richburg – drums
Dan Kaufman – piano
Nori Naraoka – bass
ABOUT DONALD HARRISON
New Orleans born saxophonist Donald Harrison is a musician/composer who master musicians consider a master of every era of jazz, soul, funk, and a composer of orchestral classical music. He is also a genius, according to geniuses like Eddie Palmieri and Mike Clark. In the HBO drama Treme, Emmy winning director David Simon created two characters to portray how Harrison innovated new styles of music. Harrison has appeared as an actor/musician in 9 episodes of Treme, Oscar-winning director Johnathon Demme’s film Rachel Getting Married, Spike Lee’s When The Levee’s Broke documentary, and Marvel’s Luke Cage. This talented artist is the recognized Big Chief of Congo Square in Afro-New Orleans culture and was made a Chief in 2019 by Queen Diambi Kabatusuila in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa.
Harrison honed his experience playing with Roy Haynes, Art Blakey, Eddie Palmieri, Dr. John, Lena Horne, McCoy Tyner, Dr. Eddie Henderson, Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, Chuck Loeb, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Digable Planets, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, The Headhunters, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and The Notorious BIG. He has performed with over 200 jazz masters and created three influential styles of jazz. At the age of nineteen, Harrison created a modern jazz take on the New Orleans second-line tradition and introduced his composition New York Second-Line to the jazz world in 1979. By the mid-’80s, he created Nouveau Swing, a distinctive sound that blended the swing beat of modern jazz with hip-hop, funk, and soul music. In the ’90s, Harrison recorded hits in the smooth jazz genre. He began exploring music through the lens of quantum physics in 2000. With quantum jazz, Harrison heard how to move music from a two-dimensional state into a four-dimensional state. Harrison has been a mentor to artist as diverse as The Notorious Big, Jonathon Batiste, Christian Scott, Trombone Shorty, and Esperanza Spaulding.
In 2020 look for Harrison performing Charlie Parker with strings in tribute to his centennial. He is composing orchestral classical music for upcoming premiers and adding hip-hop/jazz to his multi-genre recordings and performances.
Presented by The Palladium.
