Donald Harrison Free Style Is Bold and Swingin'

Donald's Third Disc For Nagel Heyer Mixes Freedom with Bop And Swing

Feb 27, 2009 Tien Providence

Donald Harrison has been making bold, beautiful and adventurous statements in Jazz for many years and Free Style released in 2005 continues that bold tradition

Despite his obvious talent, Donald , unfortunately, for some unknown reason, does not get the recognition his talents so richly deserve. Sure he makes the occasional jazz magazine cover; writers write about him, but somehow there is no uumph.

A quick listen too many of the recordings on his growing discography, should dispel any misgivings about his musicianship and make the listener realize that he is one of the most criminally underrated musicians in Jazz today.

Terence Blanchard and Art Blakey

Donald rose to prominence in the 80’s after leaving Berklee College. First he teamed up with trumpeter Terence Blanchard, as the front line for Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and then together they led their own band The Harrison-Blanchard quintet.

After that band broke up Donald continued recording as a leader for several labels including CTI and Impulse, working on his goal to be a master jazz musician and creating a new sound one he calls Noveau Swing.

This is how he describes Noveau Swing “Noveau Swing is about bringing elements of today’s music into the world of an acoustic jazz band and all the possibilities that can derive from that: mixing the swing and funk together.”

A New Millennium & A New Label for Donald Harrison

This is a creed that he still lives by and can be heard in full flight on his 2005 CD Free Style. His third for theNagel Heyer Label, a company he joined in 2000.

Free Style has many standout tracks including the opener Hand Jive with its very cool laid back feel a simple bluesy melody over a chugging rhythm section flowing by the title track "Free Style" a very funky track that has throbbing bass line provided by bassist Vicente Archer and some great kit work by drummer John lamkin.

"New Hope" for some reason reminds one of a great Sade tune and just confirms that Donald is a musician with an open mind and great ears. "Rock Song", a composition of the trio starts off slow and then gets a little rock-ish, but does not lose its’ jazz focus.

Other great tracks on this project include the folk classic "Iko Iko", it is a mix of New Orleans and the Caribbean, with American folk locked in. At 3.12 minutes it is much too short, just as the listener get s grooving, it is over. "So What" and "Well You Needn’t" are given a new arrangement that again capture the elements that Donald speaks about in "Noveau Swing". Somewhere out there Miles and Monk should be well pleased with the result.

Free Style is really a continuation of the work he started with Heroes, released in 2004 with Ron Carter on bass, and Billy Cobham on drums. In fact they were recorded at the same time; Free Style was mixed a few months later and features a different trio, with pianist Glen Patscha playing on a few tracks, but it is still a free jam with soul and funk mixed into a boppish gumbo that is sure to please fans' ears.

One more thing - for those with a copy of Heroes, the three bonus tracks on it were taken from the work that is on Free Style, and for those without a copy of Heroes, they can hear what they missed when listening to the two bonus tracks on Free Style.

Fans would be well advise just to pick up both, the music is just too good to be missed.

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Donald Harrison Free Style