Donald Harrison

A celebrated New Orleans-born jazz saxophonist, Donald Harrison is an adept performer known for a hard-swinging improvisational style that touches upon acoustic post-bop, traditional New Orleans jazz, and R&B. He is also Big Chief of the Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans and a member of the Cookers. Harrison initially emerged as a young lion in the ’80s, playing in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers alongside trumpeter Terence Blanchard. Harrison and Blanchard then signed with Columbia Records and issued several highly regarded albums, including 1987′s Crystal Stair and 1988′s Black Pearl. The saxophonist displays an innovative knack for mixing New Orleans second-line rhythms with jazz, hip-hop, funk, and R&B on albums including 1992′s Indian Blues (with Dr. John), and 1997′s Nouveau Swing. Following Hurricane Katrina, he appeared in Spike Lee’s HBO documentary When the Levees Broke, and issued his own homage with 2006′s The Survivor. He recorded 2008′s Two of a Kind with nephew Chief Adjuah (Christian Scott). The live This Is Jazz appeared in 2011, as did the Cookers’ Warriors. He worked with Dr. John on Funky New Orleans, and released his own septet date, Quantum Leap, in 2014. Harrison didn’t release another album under his own name for several years but worked extensively recording and touring with the Cookers, the Headhunters (formally joining for 2018′s Speakers in the House), and Eddie Henderson. Born in New Orleans on June 23, 1960, Harrison is the son of the late Donald Harrison, Sr., a legendary New Orleans folklorist and, during his lifetime, the Big Chief of four different NOLA tribes. The younger Harrison began his education at the prestigious New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts and studied with Ellis Marsalis. After graduation, he attended the Berklee College of Music. Though he began playing as a professional while in high school, Harrison gained recognition for his tone and acumen on both alto and tenor horns, playing in the bands of Roy Haynes, Jack McDuff, and most famously, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers along with trumpeter and future musical partner Terence Blanchard — they succeeded Wynton and Branford Marsalis. The pair left Blakey’s band and began recording as the Terence Blanchard/Donald Harrison Quintet. Between 1983 and 1988, they issued five albums, including New York Second Line (1984) and Discernment (1986), both for Concord, and Nascence (1986), Crystal Stair (1987), and Black Pearl (1988) for Columbia. While with the unit, Harrison also took part in recording sessions in the jazz vanguard: in 1985, he played on the avant The Sixth Sense (Black Saint) with Bobby Battle, Olu Dara, and Fred Hopkins, and in 1986 he recorded with Don Pullen. The Quintet split in 1989. As a bandleader in his own right, Harrison issued the hard bop Blakey tribute album For Art's Sake on Candid in 1991, and followed it with the historic Indian Blues. It was the first time that Harrison actively engaged his New Orleans musical heritage on a large scale. It wedded Mardis Gras Indian tunes and chanting (courtesy of the Guardians of the Flame Mardi Gras Indians, with his father on vocals), to funky Crescent City rhythm & blues and modern jazz. The session featured Dr. John, Cyrus Chestnut, Carl Allen, Phil Bowler, Bruce Cox, and Howard Smiley Ricks. Harrison also recorded the smooth jazz date The Power of Cool, which was released in Germany in 1991, and in the States in 1994. In 1993, he signed to GRP/Impulse. His first release on that label was Nouveau Swing, the album — and concept — that gave Harrison his nickname “the King of Nouveau Swing.” That set employed straight-ahead jazz concepts on half the set, and Caribbean rhythms on the remainder. His follow-up went even further afield, establishing the nouveau swing concept by including Latin rhythms, more rhythm & blues, smooth jazz, and even hip-hop. In 1999, Harrison officially became a Big Chief and founded the Congo Nation Mardi Gras Indians to honor his father and further New Orleans African roots culture. To close out the century, he recorded The New Sounds of Mardi Gras, which merged New Orleans traditional music with hip-hop. In 2000, Harrison issued the landmark Spirits of Congo Square album, recorded with his New Orleans Legacy Ensemble. The album featured parade rhythms — and hard bop solos — whether the tune was a traditional NOLA number or a jazz standard by a modern composer. In 2002, he issued his first collaboration with nephew Christian Scott in a quintet setting of newly arranged jazz standards called Kind of New. In 2003, he recorded a pair of albums for Nagel Heyer Records. The first, Free Style, may have been a thorough jazz date, but it was entirely inspired by hip-hop rhythms. The second, Heroes, with Ron Carter and Billy Cobham, was post-bop. In 2004, Harrison also issued Paradise Found, his second quintet offering with his nephew. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Harrison began to immerse himself in New Orleans’ life as an educator as well as a musician and Big Chief. He began employing high school students in his bands and had them play dates with other professional musicians in order to foster New Orleans’ musical heritage and to give the younger players more professional exposure. Many musicians had left the city in the aftermath of Katrina, and Harrison saw it as his duty to keep the flame alive. In 2006 he issued Survivor on Germany’s Nagel Heyer label. He also released the first of a projected three-album series entitled 3D. Harrison’s first recorded association with Eddie Palmieri appeared that year on the pianist/composer’s Listen Here. Harrison’s The Chosen appeared on Nagel Heyer in 2008, and Henderson played on Esperanza Spalding’s eponymous LP released on Heads Up International. In 2009, he released three titles on Nagel Heyer: The Ballads, The Burners, and Two of a Kind with nephew Christian Scott. In 2010, Harrison became an occasional member of the cast of the HBO television series Treme, playing himself. Further, he joined Dr. John on the Tribal sessions. In late 2010 Harrison replaced Craig Handy in jazz supergroup the Cookers alongside Billy Hart, Billy Harper, Cecil McBee, Eddie Henderson, David Weiss, and George Cables. He made his debut with them on 2011′s Warriors. Further, he reunited with Carter and Cobham for This Is Jazz: Live at the Blue Note, playing originals and standards, and an unissued Harrison composition, “Treme Swagger.” Harrison also contributed to the Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Project’s Simpático and the Curtis Brothers’ Completion of Proof. In 2014, Harrison released Quantum Leap on Don Har Music, leading a sextet that included Headhunters’ percussionist Bill Summers and pianist Sullivan Fortner; he also cut Time & Time Again with the Cookers. In 2014 Harrison released Quantum Leap for Don Har Music, leading a sextet that included Headhunters’ percussionist Bill Summers and pianist Sullivan Fortner. The following year, after touring with the Cookers, he joined a large cast of musical luminaries (Regina Carter, Brian Blade, Bill Frisell, Stanton Moore, Greg Cohen, and Graham Maby among them) to work with Joe Jackson on Fast Forward. The Cookers returned with The Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart in 2016, in an ambitious internationally acclaimed program of originals composed by Harper, Cables, and McBee. He also joined Palmieri on the EP Doin’ It in the Park. In 2018, Harrison released Live at Jazzfest 2018 (and has subsequently issued one for each succeeding year). He replaced saxophonist and composer Bennie Maupin in the Headhunters and played on their acclaimed, self-released Speakers in the House, as well as on trumpeter Eddie Henderson’s Be Cool (Henderson was also in the Cookers). He rejoined Palmieri on Sabiduria in 2012, and played with Henderson on 2019′s Shuffle and Deal and with the Curtis Brothers’ studio band on Algorithm. Following the pandemic, Harrison re-emerged slowly. In October 2020, he joined pianist Clifford Lamb and a stellar cast on Blues & Hues New Orleans, recorded live to two-track and released the following year. In 2022, the Cookers released Look Out! on Gearbox (it had been recorded amid social distancing in August 2020). The year also saw Harrison’s band in a co-billed collaboration with Dr. John on the album Funky New Orleans. The Headhunters returned with Live from Brooklyn Bowl for Ropeadope in 2023, and Harrison joined Henderson’s studio group on Witness to History, as well as on George Porter, Jr. and Eddie Roberts’ Floki Sessions band for Boots in Place. In 2024, Harrison and the Headhunters returned with the studio offering The Stunt Man. That year, Candid remastered and reissued 1992′s Indian Blues with Dr. John and the Mardi Gras Indians. ~ Thom Jurek