Blue Notes from a Native Son: The Uptown Artistry of Allan Harris

The jukebox – that Promethean precursor to the present-day playlist where, for a few cents, you could hear your favorite 45’s regardless of genre – was one of the most ubiquitous devices that adorned many African-American barbershops, beauty salons, lodges and restaurants throughout the many waypoints of the Great Migration of the early to mid-Twentieth Century.  

The infinite musical inventions and dimensions emanating from jukeboxes back in the day form the conceptual core of the Brooklyn-born, Harlem-based vocalist/guitarist/composer/bandleader Allan Harris’ incredible CD, Black Bar Jukebox; his heartfelt tribute to that world-famous section of upper Manhattan that still shines in the afterglow of the Renaissance it birthed in the 1920’s.

“Harlem is what made me as an artist, vocalist, and a guitarist. My attitude on the world was formed in Harlem,” Harris says. “It gave me verve, panache and a sense of self.  Growing in that time, in New York City, in Harlem, the music you listened to was America’s music: from Sarah Vaughan and Duke Ellington to The Temptations and The Everly Brothers. Everything was a melting pot of sounds … And I grew up listening to all of that.”

For Harris, his immersion in Harlem’s musical culture was early and genetic: His mother, Johanna Chemina Ingram-Harris, was a concert pianist, and was a member of the first graduating class of New York’s legendary High School for the Performing Arts. His aunt, Theodosia Ingram, won the Apollo Theater Talent Competition, sang under the stage name, “Phoebe,” and sired a child with Clarence Williams: the pianist, composer, and manager of Louis Armstrong, who babysat Harris. Another aunt, Kate Ingram, was the owner of a Harlem luncheonette (seen on the cover of organist Jimmy Smith’s 1960 Home Cookin’ Blue Note LP) located behind the Apollo Theater, where Harris had a ringside seat to the stars. 

“They had a little section for us kids,” Harris says. “You’d look up and some of the performers from the Apollo would come in: Marvin Gaye, and Clyde McPhatter and Louis Armstrong [to name a few]. And you would sit there and listen to these incredible artists. It had a big influence on my psyche as an artist.”

The impact of the precious jazz heritage Harris grew up with is evident in his personal amalgamation of Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett heard on his previous CDs as a leader. But on Black Bar Jukebox, Harris enlisted the ebullient and eclectic producer Brian Bacchus (Norah Jones, Gregory Porter), to take his jazz roots and expand upon them to show the full-flowering of his artistry, with a number of self-penned compositions, standards and selections by Kenny Rankin, Elton John and John Mayer.

“Some of the songs have an R&B beat, along with the chordal structure and rhythms of jazz,” Harris says. “There are songs that talk about love and romance without anger; songs that have a lyrical value to them that talk about not just pain, but wanting love. And that’s what we tried to give them on this CD. And we also wanted the songs to remind people of sitting in a saloon, or a bar, where people could not only drink and eat, but also hear some great music in a comfortable environment.”

Buoyed by his stupendous band: drummer Jake Goldbas, bassist Leon Boykins, and pianist/keyboardist Pascal Le Boeuf; with special guests, percussionist Samuel Torres and guitarist Yotam Silberstein, The CD displays the wide range of Harris’ mellow madness bari-tenor voice that was forged in various vistas; Harlem, Pittsburgh, California, and Florida. “You Make Me Feel So Young,” Acker Bilk’s “Stranger By The Shore,” “A Little Bit Scared,” the Eddie Jefferson-style vocalize workout “I Got The Blues,” and the Hammond B-3 organ-fueled “My Funny Valentine,” are all ingeniously arranged, mid and uptempo 4/4 selections. 

The Ahmad Jamal, “Poinciana”-pulsated “Miami” and Kenny Rankin’s cunningly lingual, naughty nugget, “Cat Fish,” dance with a Latin lilt. While Harris’ rendition of Elton John’s “Take Me to the Pilot” swings like the driving, Eddie Harris/Les McCann jazz classic, “Compared to What,” contrasted by his take on John Mayer’s countrified, father anthem, “Daughters.” “We kept it close to what [John] did,” Harris said, “but I put a little more jukin’ soul on it.”

And so here we stand: aural witnesses to these sonic pieces of a man – Allan Harris; A native son of Harlem who, on this delightful and dynamic disc, pays tribute to the infinite variety of the Sepia Panorama Citadel that gave artistic birth to him. “On any given Sunday matinee, you could see anybody, from Motown, to jazz to R&B and bop sharing the bill together. Music was one. It was created by People of Color under the guise of America. That’s what Black Bar Jukebox is all about.”

Eugene Holley, Jr. 6/16/14

Publishers Weekly, Wax Poetics, NewMusicBox.org, Purejazzmagazine.com