Donald Harrison
Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant Recipient
Recipient Information
Location
New Orleans, Louisiana
Year of Award
2021
Grant or Fellowship
Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant
Grant Amount
$40,000
About the Project
As a Big Chief in Afro-New Orleans culture, Harrison and the band will work with the Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultural Group and Guardians Institute for community outreach. Harrison wants to write, rehearse, record, and perform new music. He will conduct workshops, lead discussions, host Q&As in the upper ninth ward at the Donald Harrison Sr Museum and Congo Square.
Residency Location
New Orleans, LA
About the Artist
.New Orleans-born saxophonist Big Chief Donald Harrison is a musician/composer whom master musicians consider a master of every era of jazz, soul, funk, and a master composer of orchestral classical music. He is also a genius, according to geniuses like Eddie Palmieri and Mike Clark. In the HBO drama Treme, Emmy-winning director David Simon created two characters to portray how Harrison innovated new styles of music. He appeared as an actor/musician in nine episodes of “Treme.” He also appeared as an actor in Oscar-winning director Johnathon Demme’s film “Rachel Getting Married,” in Spike Lee’s “When The Levee’s Broke” documentary, and Marvel’s “Luke Cage.” This talented artist is the recognized Big Chief of Congo Square in Afro-New Orleans culture and was made a Chief in 2019 by Queen Diambi Kabatusuila in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa.
Harrison honed his experiences playing with Roy Haynes, Art Blakey, Eddie Palmieri, Dr. John, Lena Horne, Dr. Eddie Henderson, Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, Chuck Loeb, The Headhunters, hip-hop greats Digable Planets, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and many others into a personal style. He has performed with over 200 jazz masters and has created three influential styles of jazz. At the age of nineteen, Harrison started a modern jazz take on the New Orleans second-line tradition by introducing his composition, “New York Second-Line,” to the jazz world in 1979. By the mid-80s, he created “Nouveau Swing,” a distinctive sound that blended the swing beat of modern jazz with hip-hop, funk, and soul music. In the ’90s, Harrison recorded hits in the smooth jazz genre. With quantum jazz, Harrison moved music from a two-dimensional state into a four-dimensional state and added the idea of multiverse music. Harrison has nurtured the diverse talents of iconic artists like Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, The Notorious BIG, Jonathon Batiste, Deezle, Trombone Shorty, and Esperanza Spaulding.
Harrison received an Honorary Doctorate in 2021 and will become an NEA Jazz Masters in 2022. He will perform Charlie Parker with strings for his centennial. Harrison is also composing orchestral classical, developing his multi-genre music concept, and seeking funding to furtherance his idea of blending ancient and modern cultures and music. He is developing software and content for his patented new concept for recorded music.'