How cool is Eddie Harris?

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I was unpacking some of my records after moving and came across my Eddie Harris LPs. It strikes me that no-one really talks about his awesome early to mid-seventies material.

All of his albums wander into some sonically pretty interesting waters, with Eddie singing through his sax and some marvelously clanky (but funky) rhythmns.

Is it just me?

― Braces Tower, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

no - Instant Death and Is It In albums are both tops!
which record is that hilarious later funk track "It's Alright Now" on?

samplespotters may recognise "Superfluous" off Instant Death as a Digable's source

― Paul, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eddie harris r0x0r

my fave album is excursions, for the tracks 'drunk man' - really good electric sax stuff and the funky groove of which you speak, and 'fragmentary apparitions' which is very beautiful

― Ron, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

how could i forget to mention the lp 'bad luck is all i have'!! the title track is great, also ' get on up and dance'

and his most popular song is v. good also 'compared to what' with les mccann on the swiss movement lp

― Ron, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have the "Instant Death" single and it rules.

― Mark, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There's a very cool minute and a half instrumental version of It's Alright Now (called Bumble bee something I think) on his (mostly spoken word) album - The Reason Why I'm Talking Shit.

And Get On Up And Dance is one of my favourite EH tunes - nine or so minutes of funky bliss.

― Braces Tower, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

four years pass...

Carry on Brother (I believe it's from Live at Newport) is my new jam.

Otherwise I only have the In Sound/Mean Greens twofer, which is mainly good for Freedom Jazz Dance and Mean Greens. What else should I check out?

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 8 February 2007 05:01 (nineteen years ago)

(I'm also pretty sure I've heard the Carry on Brother drums in a DJ Shadow sample - one of the tracks on Preemptive Strike)

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 8 February 2007 05:01 (nineteen years ago)

that twofer^^ and the les McCann live at Montreux thing are classic, otherwise his electrified sax always sounds odd to my ears. Harris' 70s albums on Atlantic are way eclectic, not so much jazz-fusion as straightup funky soul instrumentals w/jivey "humorous" vocals. The one album from this period I really like: I Need Some Money.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:10 (nineteen years ago)

to answer the q: Eddie Harris is cool because he'd try anything and maintained high spirits doing so but his albums are inconsistent.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:12 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I remember listening to some other stuff in college and finding the electric sax got in the way and giving up on his other stuff. But I hadn't realized until recently what a huge catalog he has, and I figure there must be some chestnuts in there.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 8 February 2007 14:34 (nineteen years ago)

Is it In is dope, very early experiments with primitive drum machines (well, early for a jazz guy).

― the kwisatz bacharach (sanskrit), Thursday, 8 February 2007 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

Is that Eddie in drag on the cover of "Excursions"?

― kwhitehead (stephen schmidt), Thursday, 8 February 2007 19:02 (nineteen years ago)

no praise for Silver Cycles? Love the title track. Echoplex!!!

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 8 February 2007 20:32 (nineteen years ago)

If you ever find "Eddie Harris Sings The Blues", pick that shit up and play it on a rainy day.

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Thursday, 8 February 2007 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

I Need Some Money is great! "Get on Down" is pretty much a "Chameleon" rip-off, but it's a great rip-off, and worth hearing for his ridiculous scatting and, er, yodelling. And the singing-through-an-electric-sax trick sounds almost like a vocoder.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 8 February 2007 22:13 (nineteen years ago)

"Is that Eddie in drag on the cover of "Excursions"?"

WHOO! I think that may be his wife...on the cover of one of his other albums (titled something like FREE SPEECH?), he's shown posing with her.

You gotta admire Harris for being more adventurous than the typical soul-jazz guy...the albums I have by him are uneven, but when he was on, he was on.

His comedy album (THE REASON WHY I'M TALKING S--T) isn't bad in and of itself...

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Friday, 9 February 2007 03:28 (nineteen years ago)

I think that may be his wife

Damn. Sorry Eddie.

― kwhitehead (stephen schmidt), Friday, 9 February 2007 04:02 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

plug me in is a such a winner!! best album I've bought in months

― El Tomboto, Saturday, 10 May 2008 19:17 (eighteen years ago)

(extremely careful evaluation has been employed to reach this conclusion)

― El Tomboto, Saturday, 10 May 2008 19:17 (eighteen years ago)

nine months pass...

just DYING the other day listening to this. DYING. found this pristine vinyl copy and i played it loud and was so in love it was all i could play all day:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31991XD7Q9L._SS500_.jpg

― scott seward, Monday, 9 March 2009 23:34 (seventeen years ago)

"i don't want nobody" might have to be my official jam of the year. (i thought it was gonna be brothers johnson dubbed-out cover of "come together", but i think i gotta go with eddie...)

― scott seward, Monday, 9 March 2009 23:36 (seventeen years ago)

wow, and I thought I had all the Eddie Harris I needed (I own like ten of his albums) ( but I don't have that one!)

― Stormy Davis, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 04:42 (seventeen years ago)

on the want list

― Stormy Davis, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 04:43 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wLSlaP8MOQ

I mentioned this upthread. one of my favorite jazz tracks ever, and yet nothing else on the album (or anything else I've heard from Harris) sounds remotely like it

― ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 21 January 2011 18:02 (fifteen years ago)

Eddie who?

― thank you based jättegod (forksclovetofu), Friday, 21 January 2011 18:17 (fifteen years ago)

that recording is amazing...so minimal, and the effects are so central to the playing (not at all tacked on)

― bows don't kill people, arrows do (Jordan), Friday, 21 January 2011 18:23 (fifteen years ago)

I know right? it's such a great marriage of riffs and effects, really hypnotic, beautifully constructed

― ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 21 January 2011 18:31 (fifteen years ago)

eight months pass...

getting blazed with this record and a pair of headphones = FYM ASMD, no better way to spend a Friday night.

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Saturday, 24 September 2011 01:18 (fourteen years ago)

Oh by "this record" I meant Live At Newport.. Like I said, blazed.

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Saturday, 24 September 2011 01:19 (fourteen years ago)

one year passes...

yeah, Live at Newport. So hard to track down for some reason. Was it ever reissued?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFHkVXt47fI

― huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Friday, 26 April 2013 03:41 (thirteen years ago)

one year passes...

Man, "I Need Some Money" is such a great album. I mean not like grab you by the shirt and shake you great, just a relaxed, funky gem.

"i don't want nobody" might have to be my official jam of the year.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YWDsZrIV_A

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I mean, goddamn what a song. Almost sounds like something Robert Wyatt could've been involved with.

― ^^^ NOT METAL (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 15 April 2015 07:25 (eleven years ago)

bloody hell i enjoyed that.
a perfect feel good sunny morning groove.
a few weeks ago i spotted the 'silver cycles' reissue in the racks, very tempted to get it if its still there.
ta.

― mark e, Wednesday, 15 April 2015 09:00 (eleven years ago)

Silver Cycles is worth having just for the title track

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 15 April 2015 15:47 (eleven years ago)

wasn't in the racks today, but wil keep an eye out for it.
(think my local fopp may have it .. off to check tomorrow)

― mark e, Wednesday, 15 April 2015 15:53 (eleven years ago)

This record is a stunner too.

http://www.discogs.com/Eddie-Harris-Les-McCann-Second-Movement/release/1026558

― kwhitehead, Thursday, 16 April 2015 14:19 (eleven years ago)

Yeah that and Swiss Movement are both cool (their version of "Compared to What" is fucking great). As is Silver Cycles! Title track is almost Terry Riley-esque delay experiment...

BTW glad you liked that track, mark!

― ^^^ NOT METAL (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 16 April 2015 19:53 (eleven years ago)

@hawkwindz : that track totally put me back into the groove this week.
after weeks of misery and black mood music i needed a kick.
ta muchly.
hence the newfound love for byrd etc

― mark e, Thursday, 16 April 2015 20:00 (eleven years ago)

five years pass...

Gorgeous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N1mPWwxgRI

― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 10 December 2020 22:29 (five years ago)

literally every time this thread comes up i go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoi6hdATm_Q

― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Friday, 11 December 2020 05:00 (five years ago)

lol

― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 11 December 2020 05:19 (five years ago)

one year passes...

if you ever wondered what karen dalton would sound like guesting on an eddie harris track, well ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msoqcn5crgQ

― budo jeru, Sunday, 4 September 2022 05:22 (three years ago)

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