Donald Harrison
Donald " Duck" Harrison ( born June 23, 1960 in New Orleans) is an American jazz alto, soprano saxophonist and composer.
Life
Harrison studied in high school in New Orleans with Ellis Marsalis ( who taught him in bebop and post-bop styles), but he also includes drummer Roy Haynes (by 1979 he was working ) and Art Blakey and Jack McDuff to his teachers and the classic New Orleans jazz. His father, Donald Harrison, Sr. was a prominent figure in the local tradition of " Mardi Gras Indians" who look after the African tradition of " call and response " songs ( chants ) in Carnival (Harrison Jr. himself is the Big Chief " Congo nation, "in which he also designed his own costumes ). In the 1980s he played ( as of 1981 ) in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, in the big band of Dino Betti van der Noot and in a band with Terence Blanchard to 1989, who also hails from New Orleans. In the 1990s he played with the newly formed The Headhunters, the tour band of Herbie Hancock.
Harrison can play in almost all jazz styles. He sees himself as the founder and protagonist of a "Nouveau Swing Style ", the swing rhythms with rhythm and blues, hip-hop, Mardi Gras Indian music and reggae mixed. There are also excursions into rap and funk.
He is the uncle of the trumpeter Christian Scott.
Discography (selection)
- Indian Blues ( with Dr. John )
- The Power of Cool, CTI 1993 ( with Larry Coryell )
- Nouveau Swing, Impulse 1997 ( with Christian McBride, bass)
- Free to Be, Impulse 1999
- Spirits of Congo Square, Candid Records 2000 (with Nicholas Payton, Marlon Jordan, Delfeayo Marsalis )
- Free Style, Jamba 2004
- Real Life Stories, Jamba 2004
- Heroes, Jamba 2004 ( with Ron Carter, Billy Cobham )