DJ Harrison

Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, and singer Devonne Harris, a member of the band Butcher Brown, records dusty funk and jazz under the name DJ Harrison. Across piles of releases dating back to the late 2000s, the native Viriginian has displayed an encyclopedic and evolving grasp of several decades’ worth of Black music, translating his knowledge to the present with progressive ingenuity by combining live instrumentation and sample-based production techniques. Operating out of his communal Jellowstone Studio in Richmond, Harris made his album debut as DJ Harrison with Monotones (2013), an independent set of mostly brief instrumentals resembling a loose Soulquarians session. Track titles such as “Erykah’s Gun” and “Dilla’s Eclair” put Harris’ inspirations in greater relief on the smoother Stashboxxx (2014), issued through the Ropeadope label. Slyish (2016), bearing the imprint of DJ House Shoes’ Street Corner Music, paid purposefully blurred tribute to Sly Stone. Harris has since formed a bond with Stones Throw Records, home to inspirations Dilla and Madlib, issuing HazyMoods (2017), Tales from the Old Dominion (2021), and the all-covers Shades of Yesterday (2024) on the label. A lifelong Virginia native, Harris was born in Petersburg and got into music as a youngster through his parents, whose record collections provided him with a deep foundation. Harris’ father was a radio DJ, and his mother encouraged his interest throughout his childhood by buying him an assortment of instruments. In his early teens, Harris threw himself into home recording, beginning with a karaoke machine — using its dual cassette deck to multitrack himself on several instruments — before acquiring a four-track recorder. Having performed in his high school drum line, Harris studied percussion at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he met his partners in Butcher Brown. In 2013, as Butcher Brown were making headway, Harris released the first DJ Harrison album, Monotones, on the local 32 Bar label. Apart from a featured verse on one cut and guitar on two, Harris laid down everything by himself. He returned the next year on Ropeadope with Stashboxxx, a generally warmer and more fluid follow-up recorded without samples. For Slyish, released two years later on Street Corner, Harris spotlighted his affinity for Sly Stone, more specifically the musician’s faded early-’70s output. By that point, Harris had become a noted collaborator outside the very active Butcher Brown. He contributed to a variety of recordings that included Mac Miller’s Faces, Nicholas Payton’s Numbers, and Phonte and Eric Roberson’s Tigallerro, played drums on jazz-trio dates led by Marcus Tenney (of Butcher Brown) and Charles Owens, and made even more music yet as one-third of Pace Cadets and one-half of Sons of Frod. In addition to his formal releases, Harris had been using his Bandcamp page to issue a bounty of supplemental solo material. One such deep track, “R2,” was selected by Stones Throw associate Sofie Royer for inclusion on Sofie's SOS Tape, a compilation released in 2016. Early the following year, Harris joined the Stones Throw roster and made his label debut with the largely knocking set HazyMoods. Butcher Brown’s synchronous rise with albums for Gearbox continued with a Concord Jazz deal initiated in 2020 with the full-length #KingButch. That same year, Harris and singer/songwriter Rob Milton released Everlasting under the name Sons of the James. In 2021, Kurt Elling released SuperBlue, a session on which the jazz singer was supported by Harris on keys, Butcher Brown’s Corey Fonville on drums, and Charlie Hunter on guitar. Just before the end of the year, Harris offered his second Stones Throw LP, Tales from the Old Dominion, a relatively song-oriented affair with appearances from label mate Stimulator Jones, Pink Siifu, Billy Mercury, and Nigel Hall. Early the following year, SuperBlue was up for a Grammy in the category of Best Jazz Vocal Album. Elling and the same lineup responded with SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree, a sequel nominated the next year for Best Alternative Jazz Album (in the category’s first year). Amid constant activity with Butcher Brown, Harris in February 2024 delivered third Stones Throw album, Shades of Yesterday. Put together over the course of a few years, it contained covers of childhood favorites, formative influences, and recent discoveries alike, including Vince Guaraldi’s “Little Birdie” (“Lil Birdie”), Donald Fagen’s’s “IGY,” and Eddie Henderson’s “Galaxy.” Label boss Chris Manak joined on a duly trippy version of the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.” ~ Andy Kellman