Boy, What a Night

Joe Henderson (tenor sax), Lee Morgan (trumpet), Barry Harris (piano), Bob Cranshaw (bass) and Billy Higgins (drums). From the album The Sidewinder (1964).

Barry Harris is a jazz pianist, composer, arranger and American teacher who plays in the bebop and hard bop styles. His first influences were Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. During the 1950s he lived in Detroit and played with Sonny Stitt, Miles Davis and Thad Jones. In 1956 he toured with Max Roach and in 1958 he recorded his first album as a leader. In 1960 he played with Cannonball Adderley and moved to New York, where he played and recorded with Illinois Jacquet, Hank Mobley, Yusef Lateef and Dexter Gordon.

From 1965 to 1969 he often played with Coleman Hawkins at the Village Vanguard. During the 1970s he lived with Thelonious Monk at the home of Baroness Pannonica of Koenigswarter and in the mid-1970s he performed with his group in Europe and Japan. Since then, he has devoted himself mainly to teaching and in 1989 he appeared in the documentary Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser by Clint Eastwood. He receives invitations from universities and musical centers around the world to give lectures and has recorded 19 albums as a leader.

The introduction is made by the rhythm section at medium-fast tempo and then Henderson and Morgan join in to expose a lively and engaging theme. Henderson begins to make a minimalist solo that he then transforms with short and quick phrases. Morgan follows him with a direct and convincing improvisation that leaves no one indifferent. Then it’s Harris’s turn, with a consistent melodic line and good judgment. At the end, the group re-exposes the theme.