Barry Harris

[relyles]

I realized that I shamefully have no Barry Harris recordings as a leader in my collection. What is the collective wisdom on his best recordings to start with?

[Niko]

I realized that I shamefully have no Barry Harris recordings as a leader in my collection. What is the collective wisdom on his best recordings to start with?

i only have two ojcs, bull's eye with kenny dorham, charles mcpherson and (iirc) cecil payne and newer than new with mcpherson and lonnie hillyer and i would definitely recommend both (maybe bull's eye first, newer than new is a little more polished somehow)

[John Tapscott]

"Live in Tokyo" on Xanadu. (I have the LP, don't know whether it's on CD). There are others, but I think this is a good one to start with.

[thomastreichler]

"Preminado" and "Chasin' The Bird", both on OJC, rec. 1960/61 and 1962 respectively are both solid and swingin' be-bop piano trio dates. Highly recommended.

[J.A.W.]

These are my Barry Harris CDs - I recommend them all:

Breakin' It Up - Argo (1958)

Barry Harris at the Jazz Workshop - Riverside/OJC (1960)

Listen to Barry Harris... Solo Piano - Riverside/OJC (1960)

Preminado - Riverside/OJC (1961)

Newer Than New - Riverside/OJC (1961)

Chasin' the Bird - Riverside/OJC (1962)

Luminescence! - Prestige/OJC (1967)

Bull's Eye! - Prestige/OJC (1968)

Magnificent! - Prestige/OJC (1969)

Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron - Xanadu (1975)

Tokyo: 1976 - Xanadu

I haven't listed the albums with Harris as a sideman.

Edited July 10, 2007 by J.A.W.

[Guest donald petersen]

yes-magificent! would get my vote. v nice trio session.

[paul secor]

I'll throw in a second (third?) recommendation for Newer Than New.

[Chuck Nessa]

No mention of the Uptown cd "For the Moment" available from me (like all Uptown cds).

It is an interesting trio date recorded "live" at his space with Rufus Reid and Leroy Williams.

FWIW, I edited the cd.

You might remember this as an avatar of one of our members.

[T.D.]

Some CDs I own and can recommend:

At the Jazz Workshop

Magnificent!

Plays Tadd Dameron

The Bird of Red and Gold

Listen to Barry Harris

First Time Ever

Chasin' the Bird

Newer than New

Live at Maybeck

I have a bit of a problem with Bull's Eye, because the CD sound quality, especially the piano (unfortunately) is really bad, with the trio selections most affected. The original engineer was the hapless Richard Alderson, who's likely to blame (he mars some other Harris recordings, but not as badly...).

Edited July 11, 2007 by T.D.

[Chuck Nessa]

I have a bit of a problem with Bull's Eye, because the CD sound quality, especially the piano (unfortunately) is really bad, with the trio selections most affected. The original producer was the hapless Richard Alderson, who's likely to blame (he mars some other Harris recordings, but not as badly...).

Frequent problem - the producer was Don Schlitten - Richard Alderson was the engineer. Blame both. You can also blame Prestige/Weinstock for allowing this.

[marcello]

Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron - Xanadu (1975) is very good despite Gene Taylor's awkwardness.

I like this one a lot:

[B. Goren.]

I like this one a lot:

[king ubu]

Ouch, another hurting thread... only have "Newer Than New" from his OJCs so far, and I guess these will all soon be gone, too... "Luminado" seems to be pretty much impossible to find, already - sucks!

[T.D.]

Frequent problem - the producer was Don Schlitten - Richard Alderson was the engineer. Blame both. You can also blame Prestige/Weinstock for allowing this.

OT, but Jaki Byard really suffered at the hands of Schlitten and Alderson...On the otherwise great Jaki Byard Experience, for instance, the piano sounds like it's underwater.

[Shawn]

Who is to blame for the AWFUL piano sound on the Cedar Walton Prestige dates from the late sixties? (Spectrum, Cedar, Electric Boogaloo Song, etc). Not to mention albums like Person's Blue Odyssey (again, Cedar on piano).

[Guest donald petersen]

or pat martino's "east"

[Robert J]

You might remember this as an avatar of one of our members.

I also recommend all the Xanadu's. A great listening experience and nice sound. Of course, I still spend time with Barry every night - http://www.jazzworkshops.com/order.html

[Tom 1960]

Many great recommendations here! Any thoughts on this release? I'm on a big Carmell Jones kick recently.

[Dan Gould]

This is a pretty nice recent recording:

[marcello]

I have that one Dan, but I can't recommend it.

[T.D.]

Yes, I also own Live in New York, but don't rate it nearly as high as the albums I mentioned above.

Re. Jay Hawk Talk, it's good, and definitely worth getting if you like Carmell Jones, but I don't spin it as frequently as the Mosaic Select for some reason...it's a decent but not outstanding sideman appearance by Harris IMO, with the piano having that awful Alderson/Schlitten/Prestige underwater sound. You should check out Charles McPherson's Bebop Revisited (Prestige), also with Jones and Harris, which I like even more!

Edited July 12, 2007 by T.D.

[relyles]

Thanks for the recommendations thus far. I realized tonight that a few of the recordings are available on Rhapsody, which I subscribe to. Therefore, I will be able to audition some of them before making purchasing decisions.

[Peter Friedman]

I have been a huge fan of Barry Harris for about 50 years. I have all of his recordings as leader and probably almost all as a sideman. With rare exceptions, all of his recordings are great favorites of mine. You won't go wrong grabbing any you are able to find.

[Cliff Englewood]

I have been a huge fan of Barry Harris for about 50 years. I have all of his recordings as leader and probably almost all as a sideman. With rare exceptions, all of his recordings are great favorites of mine. You won't go wrong grabbing any you are able to find.

I don't know why but I was looking at getting some more of Harris's work as leader recently, I only have "Newer Than New", but I started looking at some of his sideman dates, he was on quite a few classics, major and minor, throughout the years. Here's a few, as like me, you probably have more Harris in your collection that you think.

[king ubu]

Gee, I could have skipped buying "In New York" if this thread would have been upped a few weeks back... but the other Barry Harris/Charles Davis CD I bought, "Reflections" on Red, is pretty nice: