The many voices of Tom Harrell

By Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., April 7, 2000)

- There are so many Tom Harrells, it's hard to get a bead on him. And that's not only because he is a well-known schizophrenic.

There is Harrell, trumpeter. Trumpeter of the year, in fact, according to the readers of Downbeat, who gave the nod to the 54-year-old trumpeter last year (and the year before and the year before and the year before that!), his lyrical, laconic style edging out hot competition provided by Dave Douglas, Nicholas Payton and some guy named Marsalis, who'll also be in the area this weekend (see accompanying article).

There is Harrell, sideman. The Tom Harrell who has played with everyone from Stan Kenton to Woody Herman, Jon Hendricks, Horace Silver, Sam Jones, Bill Evans, Lee Konitz, George Russell, Phil Woods and Joe Lovano.

There is Harrell, the big-band leader and arranger, heard on last fall's "Time's Mirror" (RCA Victor), on which he pulls off the seemingly impossible and makes a big-band sound like the highly-personal mouthpiece of an individual voice, even when covering such well-worn standards as "Autumn Leaves," "Chasin' the Bird" and Johnny Mercer's "Dream."

Perhaps most notably, there is Tom Harrell the composer and small-group leader, as heard on the intoxicating 1998 album, "The Art of Rhythm" (RCA Victor). Full of surprising left turns, genre-hopping from Latin to Balkan to blues, unusual instrumentation, concise soloing, group improvisation and carefully arranged compositions.

Fortunately for local audiences, that's the Tom Harrell who will be performing tomorrow night at 9:30 p.m. in Chapin Hall at Williams College, when Harrell fronts his quintet as part of the week-long JazzTown '00 festivities. For ticket information, call 458-9077.

Performing in Harrell's quintet will be pianist Xavier Davis, guitarist Freddie Bryant, bassist Ugonna Okegwo, and drummer Leon Parker.

In a recent phone interview from his New York City home, Harrell spoke about the different qualities of small-group versus big-band ensembles, innovation in jazz and the future of the music. "In a quintet, sometimes there's more room for more group interplay, individual to individual," said the trumpeter, who was born in Illinois in 1946 and who grew up in Northern California, where his father was a Stanford University professor and his mother was a statistician. "In a big band sometimes it's more structured, or pre-structured, but you can still have a lot of freedom in a big band."

The different ways of structuring compositions is perhaps what most interests Harrell as a composer. "Searching for different avenues of composition, where for example you have something that's out of tempo, or out of meter - that can be a way of creating interest in a composition....a way of creating variety and unity.

"I guess that's the central focus in music, or in all art....a way of creating interest through a unified statement, but also creating interest through contrasting elements.
"It's kind of the focal point of the jazz tradition, and the tradition offers a lot of ways and approaches to doing that. I'm always trying to make myself think of ways of doing things that haven't been done before. There are different ways, different influences that can be added to the jazz tradition. Jazz has always been drawn from different elements, from European classical music and from Latin American music, and it's a reflection of America and also the world, too, because you can find jazz all over the world where people are integrating the jazz tradition with elements of world music.

"Music is a statement of humanity and it shows the unity of humanity, because there's always at the core of music the cry of the human. That's the basis of music - the sadness we all experience, as well as the joy."

In his 20s, Harrell began exhibiting symptoms of schizo-affective disorder. In spite of the crippling illness, he has waged a courageous battle, and with the help of strong medication he is able to function as a musician and performer.

"The great thing about jazz is it's a natural of music, continually rejuvenated by younger musicians," said Harrell. "Louis Armstrong created so many great innovations that are a continual source of wonder and that can be drawn upon. And Wynton Marsalis has really made a great contribution in focusing on earlier music and showing the ongoing validity of all the music of the tradition.

"I am fortunate that other people that I respect have given me the encouragement to try to push myself, to push to try to do things that haven't been done before. And there's a lot of interest in original music now. Creative music is becoming more and more popular in terms of music that goes beyond the tradition.

"Sometimes something that seems revolutionary is really kind of a gradual process. Bebop seems like a very revolutionary music, but you can see where historically it's very well-grounded in the tradition. And you can see that happening now, too. There are currents of music that are emerging that....I guess because the world is coming closer together there's more interest in world music, which is really great because there's so much to work with.

"Plus, the implications of the music of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, their melodic, rhythmic and harmonic directions, are still being developed, and it's an awe-inspiring search. The newer players are doing wonders with melody and harmony and rhythm. It's fantastic - the level of music keeps rising.

"But one thing that intrigues me about the earlier music, about Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. It's still very modern music. It sounds very fresh today. And the forms that they used could be incorporated more. They were using varieties of forms, such as different bar lengths, for different sections, and that can be one thing that could be further assimilated in the music of today."

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on April 7, 2000. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]

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[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on March 10, 2000. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]