Joe Harriott

Joseph Arthurlin Harriott(15 July 1928 – 2 January 1973)was a Jamaicanjazzmusician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone.

Joe Harriott
Born	Joseph Arthurlin Harriott (1928-07-15)15 July 1928 Kingston, Jamaica
Died	2 January 1973(1973-01-02)(aged 44) Southampton,England
Burial place	Bitterne,Southampton
Occupation(s)	Jazz musician and composer

Initially abebopper,he became a pioneer offree-form jazz.Born inKingston,Harriott moved to the United Kingdom as a working musician in 1951 and lived in the country for the rest of his life. He was part of a wave ofCaribbeanjazz musicians who arrived in Britain during the 1950s, includingDizzy Reece,Harold McNair,Harry BeckettandWilton Gaynair.

Background

Born inKingston, Jamaica,Harriott was educated atAlpha Boys School,an orphanage in the city. At Alpha he learned to play the clarinet, the instrument that was assigned to him shortly before his tenth birthday.He took up the baritone and tenor saxophone while performing with local dance bands, before settling on the alto saxophone.Harriott arrived in London in the summer of 1951, aged 23, as a member of Ossie Da Costa's band.British subjectsdid not require work permits or immigration visasat that time.When the band had completed their tour, Harriott decided to stay in London.He caught the attention of London's jazz scene while sitting in at theFeldman ClubonOxford Streeton 26 August 1951.

Like the majority of alto players of his generation, he was deeply influenced byCharlie Parker.Harriott developed a style that fused Parker with his own Jamaican musical sensibility - most notably thementoandcalypso musiche grew up with. Even in his later experiments, Harriott's roots were always audible. However, it was his mastery of bebop that gained him immediate kudos within the British jazz scene upon his arrival in London.

Career

During the 1950s, he had two long spells with drummerTony Kinsey's band, punctuated by membership ofRonnie Scott's short-lived big band,occasional spells leading his own quartet and working in the quartets of drummersPhil SeamenandAllan Ganley.Harriott began recording under his own name in 1954, releasing a handful of EPs forColumbia,Pye/NixaandMelodiscthroughout the 1950s. However, the majority of his 1950s recordings were as a sideman with the musicians previously mentioned, also backing a diverse array of performers, from mainstream vocalistLita Roza,to traditional trombonistGeorge Chisholm,to the West African sounds of Buddy Pipp's Highlifers. Harriott also appeared alongside visiting American musicians during this period, including a "guest artist" slot on theModern Jazz Quartet's 1959 UK tour. He formed his own quintet in 1958, and their style of hard-swinging bebop was noticed in the United States, leading to the release of theSouthern HorizonsandFree Formalbums on the AmericanJazzlandlabel.

On August 3, 1963, the Joe Harriott Quintet featuringMike Falanawas appearing at the Marquee in Oxford Street.

Free-form innovator

By now firmly established as a bebop soloist, in 1960 Harriott turned to what he termed "abstract" or "free-form" music. He had some loose free-form ideas by the mid-1950s, but finally settled upon his conception in 1959, after a protracted spell in hospital withtuberculosis.At first he struggled to recruit other like-minded musicians to his vision. Indeed, two of his core band members,Harry SouthandHank Shaw,left when these ideas surfaced. He finally settled on a line-up ofShake Keane(trumpet,flugelhorn),Pat Smythe(piano),Coleridge Goode(bass) andPhil Seamen(drums).Les Condontemporarily replaced Keane on trumpet in 1961, while Seamen left permanently the same year, his place taken by the return of the quintet's previous drummer,Bobby Orr.Frank Holdertoured with Harriott and contributed to recording projects during this period.

Harriott's free-form music is often compared toOrnette Coleman's roughly contemporary breakthrough in the United States, but even cursory listening reveals deep divisions between their conceptions of "free jazz". Indeed, there were several distinctive models of early free jazz, fromCecil TaylortoSun Ra.Harriott's was another of these. His method demanded more complete group improvisation than displayed in Coleman's music, and often featured no particular soloist. Instead of the steady pulse of Ornette's drummer and bass player, Harriott's model demanded constant dialogue between musicians, which created an ever-shifting soundscape. Tempo, key and meter always free to alter in this music, and often did so. The presence ofBill Evans-inspired pianist Pat Smythe also gave the band a completely different texture to Coleman's, which had dispensed with the need for a pianist early on. Harriott's own playing style underwent some changes during this period, dispensing with orthodox bebop lines in favour of more angular, cut up phrasing. What remained however, was his lyricism, searing tone and sense of attack.

Harriott was always keen to communicate his ideas, be it on stage, in interviews or album liner notes. In 1962, he wrote in the liner notes for hisAbstractalbum, "of the various components comprising jazz today - constant time signatures, a steady four-four tempo, themes and predictable harmonic variations, fixed division of the chorus by bar lines and so on, we aim to retain at least one in each piece. But we may well, if the mood seems to us to demand it, dispense with all the others".

He recorded three albums in this vein:Free Form(Jazzland, 1960),Abstract(Columbia (UK),1962) andMovement(Columbia (UK), 1963).Abstractreceived a five-star review fromHarvey PekarinDownBeat,the first such honour for a British Jazz record.Free FormandAbstracttogether formed a perfect pair of cohesive, trailblazing free jazz sessions. The next album,Movement,featured some of his most fiercely abstract compositions, but these were tempered by some other, morestraight-aheadpieces.

Jazz fusions

Harriott's free-form compositions normally formed only a portion of live gigs. Indeed, the final album recorded by the quintet, 1964'sHigh Spirits(Columbia), was a straight-ahead jazz interpretation of compositions from the musical of that name, which was based on theNoël CowardplayBlithe Spirit.However, the continuing hostility of the older British jazz establishment to free form, and the drying up of recording and performance opportunities, saw Harriott's quintet cease to be sustainable in the changing musical climate of mid-1960s Britain.The quintet effectively broke up when Shake Keane moved to Germany in 1965. From this point onwards, Harriott worked freelance on a number of projects.

He made several albums and EPs with pianist/composerMichael Garrickin the mid-1960s, notablyPromises,October WomanandBlack Marigolds.The latter two were reissued byDutton Vocalionon CD in 2005, and Garrick'sPoetry and Jazz In Concertalbums (which also featured Harriott) were released on CD by the same label in 2006. Another notable recording as a sideman was with the bluesmanSonny Boy Williamson II,on an April 1965 session that also featuredJimmy PageandBrian Auger.

During the late 1960s he and violinistJohn MayerdevelopedIndo-Jazz Fusion- an early attempt at building on music from diverse traditions.This involved a "double quintet" of five Indian and five jazz musicians playing together on a number of compositions largely conceived by Mayer.Opinion is divided on the success of these experiments. At their best, they offered a new and unique fusion of styles, but at times one can also detect a restriction on the freedom of the jazzmen to improvise. Three albums resulted from the collaboration with Mayer:Indo-Jazz Suite(Atlantic, 1966),Indo-Jazz FusionsVolumes I and II (Columbia (UK), 1967 and 1968).

Two other Harriott albums appeared in 1967 and 1968. The first,Swings High(Melodisc), was a strangely retrospective-sounding, but outstanding bebop record featuring old cohorts Seamen, Goode and Smythe; 1968'sPersonal Portrait(Columbia) was a mixed bag of jazz with strings and some affecting work with old bandmate Smythe andStan Tracey.

In 1969, Harriott recorded the albumHum-Donoin collaboration with the Goan guitaristAmancio D'Silva.This was an unqualified success. Also featuring trumpeterIan Carrand vocalistNorma Winstone,this album presented a more subtle and fluid mix of Harriott's signature alto sound, with D'Silva's unique Indo-bebop guitar style.

Also in 1969, Harriott made an appearance at Stan Tracey'sDuke Ellingtontribute concert, which was also released as the albumWe Love You Madlyon Columbia. Harriott contributed a moving solo on "In a Sentimental Mood"that was captured for posterity by TV cameras, thus leaving the only existing footage of him in performance. He also made an important contribution to composerLaurie Johnson's 1970 LP,Synthesis(also Columbia).

Last years

Harriott's work in 1969 was to be the last substantial performances of his career. While he continued to play around Britain wherever he was welcome, no further recording opportunities arose.He was virtually destitute in his last years, and ravaged by illness.He died of cancer on 2 January 1973,and is buried inBitternechurchyard, inSouthampton.On his gravestone, his own oft-quoted words provide his epitaph: "Parker? There's them over here can play a few aces too."

Legacy

Since his death, Harriott's often overlooked contribution to the birth of free jazz has gradually been recognised. While he influenced important European free jazz pioneers such asJohn Stevens,Evan ParkerandAlbert Mangelsdorff,in the States his profile and influence was much smaller, despite the admiration of such figures asCharles Mingus.He also suffered mightily from lazy journalistic comparisons with Ornette Coleman, but more recently his originality has been recognised across the globe. American saxophonistKen Vandermark's CD of Harriott free-form compositions, entitledStraight Lines,has introduced his music to another generation of free jazz fans. British players such asCourtney Pine,Gary Crosbyand more recentlySoweto Kinchhave also acknowledged his influence and played his music on stage.An important biography by Alan Robertson,as well as the publication of Coleridge Goode's poignant reminiscences of him,have helped to make Harriott's story more widely known.

Harriott's profile has also been helped by CD reissues of his most important albums, notablyFree Form,Abstract,MovementandHum-Dono,however other key albums have yet to be reissued. In recent years, other recordings of Harriott in his prime have surfaced.Michael Garrickhas compiled and released a CD on his own Jazz Academy label, entitledGenius.This consists of some early 1960s live performances and home recordings made with a pianist friend, William Haig-Joyce. In 2006, a 1963 live recording made at a small club inLeicesterwas unearthed and issued on CD, entitledLive At Harry's.In early 2007, many of his hard-to-find mid-1950s sessions, both as leader and sideman, were made available on the 2-CD compilationKiller Joe.

A four-CD set entitledThe Joe Harriott Story(Proper Box) was issued in 2011.

Discography

EPs as leader

• Cool Jazz With Joe(Melodisc UK, 1954)
• No Strings(Pye Nixa UK, 1956)
• Joe Harriott Quartet(Columbia UK, 1956)
• Joe Harriott With Strings(Jazz Today UK, 1956)
• Blue Harriott(Columbia UK, 1959)
• A Guy Called Joe(Columbia UK, 1960)

Albums as leader or co-leader

• Southern Horizons(JazzlandUS, 1960)
• Free Form(Jazzland US, 1960)
• Abstract(Columbia UK & Capitol US, 1963)
• Movement(Columbia UK, 1963)
• High Spirits(Columbia UK, 1964)
• Indo-Jazz Suite- with John Mayer (Columbia UK & Atlantic US, 1966)
• Swings High(Melodisc UK, 1967)
• Indo-Jazz Fusions- with John Mayer (Columbia UK & Atlantic US, 1967)
• Indo-Jazz Fusions II- with John Mayer (Columbia UK, 1968)
• Personal Portrait(Columbia UK, 1968)
• Hum-Dono- with Amancio D'Silva (Columbia UK, 1969)
• Live at Harry's 1963(Rare Music UK, 2006)

As sideman

• George Chisholm:Chis(Decca UK, 1956)
• Tony Kinsey:A "Jazz at the Flamingo" Session(Decca UK, 1957)
• Allan Ganley:Gone Ganley(Pye Nixa UK, 1957)
• Lita Roza:Listening in the After-Hours(Decca UK, 1957)
• Al Fairweather:Al's Pals(Columbia UK, 1959)
• Don Carlos:Crazy Latin(Columbia UK 1960)
• Shake Keane:In My Condition(Columbia UK 1961)
• Jeremy Robson:Blues For The Lonely(Columbia UK, 1962)
• Sonny Boy Williamson:Don't Send Me No Flowers(Marmalade UK, 1965 [1968])
• Michael Garrick:Poetry & Jazz In Concert(Argo UK, 1965)
• Michael Garrick:Anthem/Wedding Hymn(Argo UK, 1965)
• Jeremy Robson:Before Night/Day(Argo UK, 1965)
• Michael Garrick:October Woman(Argo UK, 1965)
• Michael Garrick:Promises(Argo UK, 1966)
• Michael Garrick:Black Marigolds(Argo UK, 1966)
• The Nice:Five Bridges(Charisma UK, 1969)
• Stan TraceyBig Brass:We Love You Madly(Columbia UK, 1969)
• Laurie Johnson:Synthesis(Columbia UK, 1970)

Further reading

• Cotterrell, Roger; Tepperman, Barry (1974).Joe Harriott Memorial: A Bio-Discography.Private publication, Ilford, Essex, UK.
• Goode, Coleridge; Cotterrell, Roger (2002).Bass Lines: A Life in Jazz.Northway Publications.ISBN978-0-9928222-3-1.
• McKay, George (2006).Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain.Duke University Press.ISBN978-0-8223-3573-3.
• Robertson, Alan (2011).Joe Harriott: Fire in His Soul(2nd ed.).Northway Publications.ISBN978-0-9557888-5-7.
• Cotterrell, Roger. "Joe Harriott" (biography), in Cotterrell and Tepperman,Joe Harriott Memorial.Reprinted in Chris Blackford (ed.),Joe Harriott: Forgotten Father of European Free Jazz.Special issue, Rubberneck no. 25, 4–12. Basingstoke, 1997.

External links

• Joe HarriottatAllMusic
• Joe Harriottdiscography atDiscogs
• Joe Harriottat the British Bebop website (includes complete sessionography)
• Free Form and Abstract albumsarticle atAll About Jazz
• Alpha Boys School alumni
• Indo-Jazz Fusions