Joel Harrison
Harrison on Harrison
© 2005 Highnote Records
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Modern Jazz with Rock and World influences- some vocals
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Guitarist/composer/singer/arranger Joel Harrison occupies a musical space between many worlds. His medium is primarily Jazz, but his music has many influences: Blues shouts and African rhythms, Country melodies and Contemporary Classical, ripping Jazz solos and spare verse all have a place in his unique voice. Of his eclectic approach the Village Voice wrote, “Harrison is a brilliant, take-it-anywhere-guitarist.” He released 3 cd's in the San Francisco Bay Area: 3+3 = 7 (3 guitars, 3 percussionists), Range of Motion (Jazz Octet), Transience (Jazz sextet). Since moving to New York he has released 3 more cd's. His 2003 effort, Free Country (creative Jazz renditions of old Country and Appalachian tunes) received worldwide acclaim and was chosen as one of the top 50 CD’s of 2003 by Jazz Times magazine. The follow up cd, So Long Second Street, further plumbed the emotional terriain of Country and Applachian music in completely novel, inspired ways, and included original compositions as well.His latest is "Harrison on Harrison", Jazz explorations of George Harrison's music. He also continues to write chamber music and film scores.
Harrison received 2 composition grants from Chamber Music America in 2005. He studied composition at Bard College with Joan Tower, and has studied with Ali Akbar Khan, William Mathieu, Henry Threadgill, etc. He is a 2-time winner of the Jazz Composer’s Alliance “Julius Hemphill Composition Competition,” and has written for HBO, History Channel, A&E, etc. He is a recipient of grants from Meet the Composer, Arts International, NYSCA, American Music Center, and is a MacDowell Colony and VCCA Fellow. He may be the only person in the world who composes complex classical music, improvises, plays in Blues Bars, sings and writes pop songs, and doesn't own a dog.