UNPLUG ME, PLEASE!

- A deliberately provocative title for a short tribute to a musician whose record releases have been named The electrifying……High voltage………Plug me in

But EDDIE HARRIS for me has always been a consummate tenor saxophonist without any attachments.

I love the rhythmicality of his playing. As Bobby Wellins once said of Zoot Sims, and Andy Cleyndert says of Eddie himself, he doesn’t need a rhythm section!

I love his sound – light, reedy and gravitating naturally to the upper register and to the skilful use of harmonics. In this, he reminds me most of another favourite of mine, JAMES MOODY, particularly Moody’s work in Dizzy Gillespie’s quintet of the 1960s and on the Tubby Hayes recording in New York Return visit.

And whilst Eddie lives most of the time at the top of the instrument, his sudden low note punctuations echo those of the Scot Bobby Wellins.

I love his fluency. His technical mastery is obvious to the listener and is illustrated by an exercise programme he has published called “INTERVALLISTICAL TWO FIVE PHRASING”.  Art Themen, no mean technician of the tenor himself, described this exercise as “finger-busting”.

I love his sense of economy which balances his fluency. This enables him to maximize his contribution to the blues- and soul-drenched contexts in which he found himself more and more performing. Eddie himself wrote memorably on the subject of Constructing a solo of which he was a past master.

I quote:

“Thinking ahead is the cure for repetition in a solo. Set up a simple phrase in your mind while playing the melody or while the other soloists are soloing. When you begin to play solo, play only the phrase you have selected. Make the chord changes but keep within your phrase. When taking your second chorus, add a few more notes to your simple phrase, but keep the basic phrase you started with. Each time you come to the beginning of the song, try using your basic phrase as a pivot to add more ideas.

Eddie added a sombre warning!  - When a soloist finishes a solo and you cannot remember anything he played, HE COULDN’T HAVE PLAYED ANYTHING.

To get what he’s talking about, I suppose you could do worse than allow yourself to be mesmerized by Eddie’s most well known and loved composition FREEDOM JAZZ DANCE.

·        16 bars, usually played in Bflat.

·         No chord changes.

·         Just three phrases building and elaborating upon a phrase of 3rd and 4th intervals jumping up and down by whole or semi-tones.

 It’s perfect. It’s hypnotizing. You can’t get it out of your head……………

Eddie was born in 1934 in Chicago. He started in church singing and playing the piano. When he had become an accomplished tenor saxophonist twenty five or so years later, he made his recording debut for the Chicago label VEE JAY. In 1961, they released Eddie’s album Exodus to jazz and the track Exodus (from the film) became a hit single selling over a million copies.

His career was set. Switching labels several times, he made over sixty albums under his own name and in the 1970s began experimenting with an electric varitone saxophone. In 1978 Bob Moog of Moog synthesisers designed a custom attachment specifically for Eddie which proved very popular. Other gimmicks followed – a reed trumpet and a saxobone (you’ve guessed it: a saxophone with a trombone mouthpiece).

As he got more into churning out electronic soul music, his straight-ahead contributions to the recordings of others (although not numerous) reminded us of what a gifted improviser he was.

Listen to the spellbinding groove he creates on Do like Eddie from John Scofield’s Hand jive album. Listen to his solo on Moanin’ from Bernard Purdie’s Soul to jazz.

Above all, I commend to you the magnificent Horace Silver LP (on his own Silveto label) Spiritualising the senses. Eddie is special guest soloist paired with Horace’s regular tenor player, the excellent Coltrane-influenced Ralph Moore. Every one of Eddie’s solos is a masterpiece. There are one or two harmonically subtle descending phrases which raise the hairs on my back. They are hauntingly similar to the best of Bobby Wellins.

Eddie Harris sadly died in 1996 of heart failure at the age of 62.

As Andy Cleyndert says, he has been neglected or even forgotten of late. I want to put that right and leave you with two pithy “EDDIEISMS”

1.     There are no wrong chords, only wrong progessions

2.     If you are a person who does not like music, you are either beyond psychiatric treatment or are possibly suffering from a hearing defect.