Barry Harris.
Bull's Eye (1968). I like to torment myself by reading the jazz listings in
The New Yorker to see who is playing in the City even though I live 3000 miles away in the Bay Area. Last week's issue was a particularly tortuous exercise as three legendary jazz pianists were all performing at the same time -- and I could see none of them.
McCoy Tyner was at the Blue Note, while Cedar Walton played at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Lincoln Center. I've been lucky to have seen both of these jazz giants before, and more than once. But I've never seen Barry Harris, who was performing at the Village Vanguard. Barry Harris has been described as a "
hardcore bebopper" who "is great at what he does." As
The New Yorker put it, Harris is "the last man standing when it comes to leading second-generation beboppers;" he "traffics in a nimbly swinging style that honors the music's elegance but side-steps its freneticism." I couldn't see Harris last week, but I can still listen to him. Harris recorded
Bull's Eye in 1968, more than two decades after the advent of bebop. As
one reviewer put it,
Bull's Eye is "h
ardly groundbreaking," but with its impressive "quality and skillful musicianship," "die-hard bop enthusiasts can't go wrong." Bull's Eye includes an All Star supporting cast, with
Charles McPherson on sax,
Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Pepper Adams on baritone sax, Paul Chambers on bass and Billy Higgins on drums.
[Related posts:
Great Jazz Albums #1 (Hank Mobley), #2 (Horace Silver), #3 (Sonny Rollins), #4 (Sonny Clark), #5 (Dexter Gordon), #6 (Cannonball Adderley); #7 (Bill Evans), #8 (McCoy Tyner), #9 (Clifford Brown), #10 (Sinatra), #11 (Monk), #12 (Kenny Dorham), #13 (Coltrane), #14 (Duke Ellington), #15 (Miles Davis), #16 (Wayne Shorter), #17 (Dinah Washington); #18 (Sarah Vaughan); #19 (Stan Getz); #20 (Blue Mitchell); #21 (Gene Ammons); #22 (Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers);
#23 (Red Garland);
#24 (Ella Fitzgerald);
#25 (Charlie Parker);
#26 (Art Pepper);
#27 (Bud Powell);
#28 (John Hicks);
#29 (Kenny Barron);
#30 (Coleman Hawkins);
#31 (Count Basie);
#32 (Benny Carter w/ Ben Webster and Barney Bigard);
#33 (Chet Baker);
#34 (Thad Jones);
#35 (The Great Jazz Trio);
#36 (Ahmad Jamal);
#37 (Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond);
#38 (Johnny Griffin and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis);
#39 (Charles McPherson);
#40 (Harold Land);
#41 Booker Little);
#42 (Elis Regina & Antonio Carlos Jobim);
#43 (Art Farmer & Benny Golson);
#44 (Wynton Kelly);
#45 (Tony Bennett/Bill Evans)]
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