jazz trigger alert

by

by russell

Barry Harris is a jazz pianist who came up in bop era.  He was one of a cohort of brilliant players who came up in Detroit, and over the years he's played with everybody.  He's 90 now, and is kind of one of the last guys standing from that time and generation.

Harris is probably best known as a teacher.  He has, for decades, run regular teaching sessions from a storefront in NYC.  They're basically open to anyone who wants to show up and study.  He runs a community choir, including a children's choir, that is open to folks with really no musical background, and he painstakingly teaches the choristers fairly complicated arrangements by ear.  He's still playing and teaching, now into his 90th year.

He is, briefly, a beautiful player and a beautiful person.

There's a pretty good film profiling Harris, and you for the month of October you can watch it for free on his website.  It's about an hour, but it goes by pretty fast.  If the weirdness and stress of daily life under Trump and COVID are getting to you, and you need a refreshing dose of lightness, love, and beauty, you can check it out here.

I don't think you even have to be a jazz fan to enjoy it.  🙂

Art rewards love and devotion with beauty and an uplifted spirit.  If you don't think the jazz part will put you off, check it out and treat yourself to an hour in the company of a humble and humorous master.

Dig it if you can dig it!!

26 thoughts on “jazz trigger alert”

  1. Thanks for the recommendation, russell. I started to watch it and was mesmerized by his hands, only to have him start talking and say that it’s not about the hands, it’s about the whole body! 😉
    (I do love watching people’s hands, though, even on computer keyboards. Or chopping onions. Or cutting wood. Or whatever.)
    Seriously, the video as great, even for a non-jazz-lover. I’m not done, but will finish this evening. It is truly a blessing to have something else to think about.

  2. Thanks for the recommendation, russell. I started to watch it and was mesmerized by his hands, only to have him start talking and say that it’s not about the hands, it’s about the whole body! 😉
    (I do love watching people’s hands, though, even on computer keyboards. Or chopping onions. Or cutting wood. Or whatever.)
    Seriously, the video as great, even for a non-jazz-lover. I’m not done, but will finish this evening. It is truly a blessing to have something else to think about.

  3. If you don’t think the jazz part will put you off…
    I don’t understand what this series of words is supposed to mean. ;^)

  4. If you don’t think the jazz part will put you off…
    I don’t understand what this series of words is supposed to mean. ;^)

  5. It means that epidemiology is not the only field where massive ignorance, and inability to comprehend reality, exists.

  6. It means that epidemiology is not the only field where massive ignorance, and inability to comprehend reality, exists.

  13. I refuse to believe this.
    I think you underestimate the ability to people to learn to like and dislike things. After all, think how many people learned to love Trump. (Sorry to allude to politics here. But it is a prime case of people learning to love the unlovable.)

  14. I refuse to believe this.
    I think you underestimate the ability to people to learn to like and dislike things. After all, think how many people learned to love Trump. (Sorry to allude to politics here. But it is a prime case of people learning to love the unlovable.)

  15. People who don’t like jazz just haven’t listened to enough jazz to find the sort they like.
    Which is a totally different thing from people who like bad jazz.
    Cool video.

  16. People who don’t like jazz just haven’t listened to enough jazz to find the sort they like.
    Which is a totally different thing from people who like bad jazz.
    Cool video.

  19. I refuse to believe this.
    A popular COVID-related joke among some jazz-playing friends of mine:
    “I’ve been playing to 20% of club capacity for years!”
    ba-dum-crash!!
    🙂

  20. I refuse to believe this.
    A popular COVID-related joke among some jazz-playing friends of mine:
    “I’ve been playing to 20% of club capacity for years!”
    ba-dum-crash!!
    🙂

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