ALBUM:
Rendezvous
TAYLOR USED:
AB-1 bass
SONG CLIPS:
Hand by Hand
28k | 56K
Sway Low
28k | 56K
CONTACT INFO:
Rendezvous can be ordered via Stereophile magazine's website. Click on the "Recordings" button.
Web:
www. jerome harris .com
www. stereophile .com
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Brooklyn, New York-based bassist Jerome Harris was the subject of the inaugural "Bassics" feature in the Spring '98 issue of Taylor's quarterly
newsletter, Wood&Steel. Shortly thereafter, Harris, multi-reedist Ned Rothenberg, and percussionist Samir Chatterjee released the self-titled
Sync,
a CD that fused the strengths of these disparate players into a sometimes hypnotic, always engaging, beautifully recorded hyphenate of avant-world-
jazz-improv. Harris' Taylor bass shines in this clean, aurally spacious context, no more so than on "Lost in a Blue Forest," on which bandleader
Rothenberg had him play the AB-1with a bottleneck and a pick, with delightful results.
Among the honors bestowed on the jazz bassist extraordinaire since then was being chosen by Stereophile magazine to compose and record the
publication's first non-classical CD, Rendezvous. Harris wrote all but one of the seven cuts (Duke Ellington's "The Mooche"), and brought
the jazz opus to a boil with supple support from the Jerome Harris Quintet (alto saxophonist Marty Ehrlich, trombonist Art Baron, vibraphonist
Steve Nelson, and drummer Billy Drummond). Harris used his Taylor AB-1 throughout (it gets center-stage on the intro to the last cut, "Hand by Hand").
On July 1, 1999, Harris participated in an extraordinary concert in Manhattan's Central Park. Under the musical direction of Living
Colour's Vernon Reid, an all-star lineup that included Chaka Khan, Jane Siberry, Joe Jackson and Joy Askew, Duncan Sheik, Eric Anderson,
and Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross performed a tribute to Joni Mitchell. The set list of 26 songs was drawn from such middle-period Mitchell
releases as Court and Spark, The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter,
and Mingus, and included the entire Hejira album.
Harris was responsible for most of the transcriptions and band arrangements and prepped two-thirds of the rhythm-section charts. He was
featured on the Taylor AB-1 bass during Erin Hamilton's version of Mitchell's "Blue Motel Room", from Hejira.
"I've become fascinated by the Taylor bass. It has a deep, sonorous tone that is quite organic, dark, and woody. You're hearing the sound of
the instrument really - in a very different way from a conventional electric bass."
— Jerome Harris
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