 Biography: Joel Harrison
As guitarist, composer and vocalist, Washington D.C. native Joel Harrison resists categorization: jazz, African and Indian, contemporary classical, blues and Appalachian songs all have a place in his unique approach. He is equally at home writing songs and complex chamber music, playing modern jazz and bar blues.
Harrison graduated from Bard College with a BA in composition and performance in 1980, studying with Joan Tower; in the ensuing years he worked privately with Allaudin Mathieu, Ran Blake, Charlie Banacos, Ali Akbar Khan and others. While living in the San Francisco area in the 1990’s Harrison released two CD’s of original works for jazz octet and sextet, Range of Motion and Transience, as well as 3+3=7, works for three guitars and three percussionists featuring Nels Cline. After moving to New York City in 1999, he continued his headlong rush into ever-inventive bands and projects including: Free Country: ACT (radical renditions of old country and Appalachian music); Harrison on Harrison (re-composed improvisations of the music of George Harrison featuring Dave Liebman), String Choir (string quartet and two guitars play music of Paul Motian). In 2007 he released a new CD for Highnote Records entitled Harbor with renowned guitarist Nguyên Lê.
Harrison’s latest projects are being released on the Intuition Records in May 2008: The Wheel, an extended suite for String quartet and jazz quartet plus guitar, and Passing Train, a collection of original songs produced by Ben Wittman.
Harrison is best known for his composing and arranging skills. He has twice been selected as the winner of the Jazz Composer’s Alliance Julius Hemphill Composition Competition, and has been the recipient of commissions from Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, the Cary Trust, NYSCA, Jerome Foundation, and others. His solo for marimba recently took first prize in the Percussive Arts Society’s worldwide competition. Other recent chamber works include a two movement work for four percussion and piano, a violin solo, and a commission from the group Mosaic (fl.,vc.,pn.,perc.). Harrison has been a guest of the MacDowell and VCCA artist colonies. His allies in his various projects have included Dave Liebman, Norah Jones, David Binney, Jamey Haddad, Dan Weiss, Dewey Redman, Uri Caine, Todd Reynolds, Wendy Sutter, Christian Howes, and Caleb Burhans.
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