Jazz Articles about Stefon Harris

T.K. Blue: The Tide of Love

by Pierre Giroux
December 15, 2023

T.K. Blue is an artist who is proficient on both the alto saxophone and flute; he has released a striking album entitled The Tide of Love that offers a diverse and engaging musical journey through various genres of the jazz spectrum. In this session, he is accompanied by several superb musicians, including Grammy-nominated Stefon Harris on vibes, along with pianist James Weidman, bassist Gavin Fallow, drummer Lenny Robinson and guitarist Ron Jackson. The group recorded an album of creativity, originality, ...

Christian Sands: Christmas Stories

by Dave Linn
December 1, 2023

Early on, Christian Sands had a passion for music. He was enrolled in music classes at age four and wrote his first composition at age five. He started playing professionally at the age of ten and studied at the Center for the Arts in New Haven, Connecticut before receiving his Bachelor of Arts and Masters degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. A protégé of Dr. Billy Taylor, Sands released his debut album at the age of 12 and came ...

Jotting Down the Notes / The Arrangers: Part 1

by Monk Rowe
August 10, 2023

Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band: Soul Conversations

by Jack Bowers
May 9, 2021

Drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.'s Big Band comes out swinging on its debut recording, Soul Conversations, thundering through Michael Dease's incendiary arrangement of the Dizzy Gillespie/John Lewis flame-thrower, “Two Bass Hit." For more such heat, however, the listener must move forward to Track 5, John Coltrane's impulsive “Giant Steps," thence to Track 9 for Charles Turner III's earnest homage to “Harlem Harlem Harlem," on which he doubles as vocalist. That's not to say that everything in between is ...

Stefon Harris: Sonic Creed

by Angelo Leonardi
March 14, 2019

A distanza di un decennio dalla pubblicazione di Urbanus -l'ultimo disco di Stefon Harris con l'ensemble Blackout -sono cambiate molte cose nel mondo del vibrafono jazz: nel 2016 è scomparso Bobby Hutcherson, l'anno successivo Gary Burton s'è ritirato dalla scena attiva e Mike Mainieri, che ha superato gli ottant'anni, ha ridotto l'attività. Lo scettro del miglior vibrafonista mainstream è ora in mano ad Harris, che non a caso vince regolarmente i referendum internazionali di pubblico e critica.

Stefon Harris: The Tradition of Jazz

by Kevin Press
October 16, 2018

Twenty-two years into his career, Albany, New York's Stefon Harris has fronted seven Blue Note LPs, served as co-lead on two others and recorded with a host of greats including Joshua Redman, Ry Cooder, Courtney Pine and Christian Scott. Because that's not enough for the 45-year-old, he's also a successful educator, public speaker, entrepreneur and an eloquent interview. He and I spoke last week about his upcoming Blackout album, Sonic Creed. All About Jazz: “Dat Dere," ...

Stefon Harris & Joe Locke: Vibes Away!

by Doug Collette
October 15, 2018

Within the realm of modern jazz, the vibraphone has long enticed unusually imaginative musicians to explore the possibilities of the instrument. Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson and Gary Burton have essentially reinvented the vibes for successive generations, while Warren Wolf and Yuhan Su, among others, continue to reconfigure its appeal to entice contemporary audiences. Respective studio works of Stefon Harris and Joe Locke demonstrate how each may also be rightfully numbered among the modern visionaries of the vibes, the records also ...