photo by Sophie Leroux






Blue Note Records

A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH STEFON HARRIS


Stefon Harris is not a good vibe player, he is a great vibe player. The kicker is that he is younger than I am. Various jazz writers think he is the next coming. But Harris seems to take it all in stride. That is a good thing because my ego is big enough for the world. Another would mean Armageddon. May I present unto you, Stefon Harris. Young? Yes. Brilliant? Yes. Hell of a player? Of course. Unedited and in his own words? Ain't it always?


FRED JUNG: Let's start from the beginning.

STEFON HARRIS: I am originally from upstate New York, not exactly the jazz capitol of the world, so I wasn't really exposed to a lot of jazz there. My background is primarily in classical. I was exposed to jazz when I got to college. I went to go to the Eastman School of Music in Manhattan. So coming up, I taught myself how to play the piano around the age of six or something like that. I taught myself how to play the piano and also how to read music. So I got an early start on a lot of other kids. And when I got to school, they gave me different instruments. I would start on percussion and I could read the music already and so I learned a little bit faster than the other kids and so they would give me a clarinet or string bass, saxophone, so I ended up playing a whole bunch of the band instruments when I was very young. I settled on percussion, of course, when I got to college. In high school, I started to focus more on percussion.


FJ: Why percussion? There is nothing wrong with the clarinet.

STEFON HARRIS: It is funny, Fred. I don't really have a specific love of any one instrument. It doesn't really matter to me. I took an audition for orchestra when I was in the eighth grade or ninth grade. I auditioned on clarinet and I auditioned on percussion. Those were my two best instruments and I got in on percussion and I got alternate on clarinet and so I decided to be a percussionist (laughing). It was really that type of decision. And it is really cool being a percussionist because you get to play more than one instrument.


FJ: You are a self-described percussionist, but better known for your vibe playing.

STEFON HARRIS: Well, I don't do too much of that (referring to percussion), although, on my next record, I plan on playing some percussion. Then occasionally, I will play some hand percussion or something when we are on stage, but my primary focus right now is the vibraphone and the marimba.


FJ: How is the vibraphone different from the marimba?

STEFON HARRIS: OK, well, the vibraphone has a middle plate, a bar in the middle and then it also has a pedal, a sustaining pedal, which functions much like a piano sustain pedal. So when you start the play, the note can actually ring long like a voice. Whereas, the marimba is considerably larger than a vibraphone and the bars are actually made of rosewood and so it is a completely different sound between the medal and the wood. They also have the shorter sound and so often times to get a sustained note, you have to roll, play several notes in a row very quickly to create the illusion of a sustained note. But the wood has a very, very organic sound. Whereas, the vibraphone is glassy.


FJ: Do you have a preference?

STEFON HARRIS: You know, Fred, I think when I am on stage, I really like to play melodies on the vibraphone. But when I start to solo, the way my improvising, my style has changed into a more cell oriented, rhythmic style and I think it is articulated better at the marimbas. So most of the time I do my soloing at the marimbas. I play a lot of the melodies on the vibraphone.


FJ: Let's touch on your maturation between your Blue Note debut and your latest, Black Action Figure.

STEFON HARRIS: Well, I think the main area of improvement for me is my improvisations. The basis of my style is there on A Cloud of Red Dust (debut), but I focused more on composition on my first record because I was not comfortable in totally coming out and having this record be all about my improvisational style. I felt that I could cover the music well and that is why I felt like I was ready to do a record. But by the time I did Black Action Figure, I had considated a lot of my ideas about improvisation and really made up my mind that it was OK if I did something different. If I play something totally off the wall, if I heard it, it is fine that I record that and play that well. I had confidence when I went into Black Action Figure and my playing sounds much more liberated and just free. I was just running all over the place and having a great time on that record. So I think the improvisational thing and then it was just age and experience. That really helped. And also, after playing with Joe Henderson, I was playing with him in between those two records, I had to comp playing with Joe Henderson. There was no piano or guitar. So some of the comping things that I learned playing with him are present on Black Action Figure, the way I sort of linger around other instruments without getting in the way and try to create this sound like a ghost on the vibraphone and sort of hinting at the harmony and just sliding around in the background. Again, I think that is something that is more individual that come with more experience out on the road and having the confidence to say that it doesn't matter what everybody else is doing and I hear this, so I am going to write this and I am going to record it.


FJ: Have you started preparing for the follow up to Black Action Figure?

STEFON HARRIS: Yeah, I am doing it right now (laughing). I'm about ninety percent done with the compositions themselves. Then I want to arrange them and so that is going to take another month or two just figuring out the correct horns to assign to the parts. This next record is a suite. I think A Cloud of Red Dust and Black Action Figure both were hinting in that direction in the way I like to tie the compositions together. I always prepare a record as if someone is listening to it from beginning to end and so I am always taking into account their emotions and that type of idea. So I have decided to just consolidate all of that and go ahead and write a suite with a common theme, not only musically, but also philosophically in terms of a story that's involved. I don't have a set title, but right now, I am thinking of a title like The Grand Unification Theory, that sort of unifies all things that I have developed that I have in my life. I felt that for the past year and a half or so, I have been a little, I have been drifting a lot. I started studying physics a little. I started studying poetry a little bit. I started reading all types of crap, all over the place. I wanted to find a way to bring it all together and the idium that I feel most natural with is music. So I am trying to bring all of those ideologies together into one piece of music that represents who I am, not just this is what I can do with my hands or this is some trick that I can do. I am trying to really put all that I am into a piece of music.


FJ: Have you figured out the instrumentation?

STEFON HARRIS: Well, my imagination is bigger than my budget. I definitely want it to be a bigger record. It is ironic because on my first record, A Cloud of Red Dust, I really thought that I was going to hide behind the compositions. I thought I was really into composing and I still am. I definitely consider myself a composer. I was really trying to bury myself in there a little bit because I didn't feel ready. On Black Action Figure, I did the opposite. I made some more simple tunes that were funky and grooving where I could just jump right out and play. Now, I am finding that again, writing is most important to me. Improvisation is getting, I feel like it is overrated. Everybody can improvise. Basically, you go around and everybody does it. So what is the story being told? I find that my interest is mainly in the songs that are being presented and how the musicians can interact with one another. So in writing a suite, I think that I am going to have a little less improvisation, as far as grandstanding solos. I really want to focus on having my soloing articulate the emotion that is supposed to be coming across in the song. Just asking myself simple questions like, "What am I doing right now and why?" That is one of the things that I practice musicially. A lot of times, when you see me perform, there will be times I stop in the middle of something and I will take a few steps back from my instrument and if I notice that I am playing something that I can't really justify, I just stop. I will step back and go, "OK, let me keep my focus on what I am trying to do musically."


FJ: Which is?

STEFON HARRIS: I am trying to capture emotions and translate them into organized sound.


FJ: A daunting task.

STEFON HARRIS: Yeah, it is very difficult. The way that I am doing this is a challenge for me because in the past, the way I have composed is that I would sit and I would strike one note and I would let the rest of it just come to me. If I come up two notes, that is an interval, the distance between those two notes, and then I hear the third note. I don't have any rhythms or any chords or anything. I just have these collection of notes. And when I hear those collection of notes together, I can understand what is supposed to fit in between. So my philosophy is that all the music already exists and all I am doing is learning how to hear it and that is what I have to study. I have to train my ears so I can hear what is inside of me and know how to write it down and articulate that. Whereas, with this record, this is the first time that I have conceived something from beginning to end. When I thought of this record, I knew what it was going to be before I had a single note down on the page. I had titles for the different movements. For example, the one that I am writing right now is called "States of Quiet Desperation." It is about drug use. So I would sit down and I would write my song about someone using heroin and what might be going through their head and how desperate this person becomes very slowly. It is not like you are being hit by a truck and you see it and it is shocking. It sort of creeps up on you in a whisper. I am literally writing down all of these things I am saying and then I would think about the emotion and try to find that in music. So it is a different approach and it has been a challenge.


FJ: Don't you fear that the old guard will frown on your perceived arrogance and lack of apprenticeship?

STEFON HARRIS: Well, actually, Fred, I don't think so. I have seen it happen to other people.


FJ: Didn't happen to you?

STEFON HARRIS: Not really. I mean, I have always respected the tradition of jazz, which I am still studying now. I'm sure I will always be studying. That means late John Coltrane's playing. He said he was listening to Sidney Bechet. That is who he said he was studying late in his career. There is all this great information that you would be a fool not to always be checking that out. So I think I always had a healthy respect for my elders and the music and I always did whatever I could to be in a position to perform it. As a matter of fact, Fred, A Cloud of Red Dust, I delayed the release of that record for like a year so that I could work with Joe Henderson. I said that I would prefer to be on the road with Joe Henderson than to be a leader right now. Also, in the way I presented myself initially, in terms of my music, I didn't come out with a quartet record or a trio record, playing a bunch of standards. I wanted to set the expectation right away that this is who I am and this is what I do. I'm not going to really play a whole bunch of games. I just wanted to come out and honestly present who I am and hopefully, people will accept that. I think by doing that, the expectation of me is to always be who I am. I don't feel pressure at all to do a theme record or anything like that.


FJ: So your head isn't getting bigger from the fanfare?

STEFON HARRIS: (Laughing) Well, you know, Fred, I am focused on the music. The music is really, it is killing me. When I think about all the things that I don't know and how much I have to learn, not only in music, but just in life in general, I don't see where there is much room to have an attitude. Never mind that. Let's look at the great musicians, the John Coltranes, Ahmad Jamals. Until I can stand next to those guys on the bandstand, figuratively of course, I don't think I have the right to have a big head (laughing).


FJ: So how do you keep the swelling down?

STEFON HARRIS: Spirituality comes first in my life. Music is very secondary. Music is just one part of the puzzle. It does not define who I am and a lot of musicians, I think, let the music consume them and they start to believe that because you can move your fingers really fast on the piano, it makes you a better human being or because I can move my hands really quickly across the vibes or strike a note a certain way, that doesn't say very much of anything about me as a human being other than the fact that I have the discipline to sit down and practice. But outside of that, that doesn't make a statement about who I am. That is always at the forefront.


FJ: You are a lone reed.

STEFON HARRIS: (Laughing) Thanks. Well, I need a challenge always. I really don't feel like it is my choice. This is what I am hearing right now. I would say for myself, personally, I tend to be shy and so a lot of times when something new presents itself, I get a little nervous. I have never had that confidence where the world is mine. I think it has been enforced that I have a good team of people working with me on my career, who create opportunities that I have never experienced and through me having to deal with that, I have grown a lot as a musician. The challenges have been essential to my growth. Like I was happy about A Cloud of Red Dust because I feel like I made a lot of mistakes on that record.


FJ: That goes against conventional wisdom.

STEFON HARRIS: But it is not. How else can you learn without making mistakes? I didn't have everyone telling me what to do or how to get around a studio. But I really focused and I took notes and wrote down the things that I didn't like and could improve on next time and when I did Black Action Figure, I took much better steps and I was much more efficient in the studio. I was much more relaxed and so I am glad made all those mistakes. I have learned now and it is a part of me. I understand how to focus in the studio and how not to do a million takes of the same thing (laughing). You really need to experience. It is not enough to have someone in there telling you what to do. When they are gone, what do you do? As far as having a good record, sound quality is important. I think that is very important and also the writing. I think that improvisation is a lot of times overrated. Writing is very important. These three elements, the writing, the sound quality, the musicians, you really have to have musicians on a very high level. They bring a lot of imagination with them. It is never the leader who creates all that magic. Well, Sonny Rollins can do it and Joe Henderson. He can play with the worst rhythm section in the country and still sound great.


FJ: Can't argue with that logic.

STEFON HARRIS: Yeah, it is a lot of life lessons in being a leader, Fred. You have to know when to cut off friendships and separate. "I need this and this person is really going to capture this in music." It is a lot of big decisions that have to be made.


FJ: One would be better off being a sideman.

STEFON HARRIS: It is much easier. I would definitely have to admit that. I really like being a sideman and I still do it on occasion. Last year, I didn't have a chance to do it so much because we were focusing on my career as a leader a lot, and then this year, I have made sure that I would be available and take some calls and do some gigs with other people.


FJ: Such as?

STEFON HARRIS: I am going to be with Buster again. He has been a mentor of mine, Buster Williams. I was with him as one of my first gigs in New York, first time at Sweet Basil and one of my early recordings was with Buster. I am doing something with Cyrus Chestnut coming up at the Blue Note. I did perform with Dianne Reeves a couple of days ago at the Chicago Jazz Festival. I have been trying to play with a variety of people, just trying to stay out there.


Fred Jung is Jazz Weekly's Editor-In-Chief and is an action figure himself. Comments?  Email Fred.