Eddie Harris - A Study In Jazz

Still the same base band here, but Harris finally puts the Hollywood themes aside for an album and plays some of his own compositions. The tracks are curiously short (except for the final track), perhaps still seeking to be radio and jukebox friendly I suppose, but still a pretty satisfying album.

Eddie Harris - Breakfast at Tiffiny's

Tenor-saxophonist Eddie Harris's third album features him exploring 11 themes from Henry Mancini's score for Breakfast At Tiffany 's. Harris stretches out the most on "Moon River" and the title cut but he does justice to the nine lesser-known themes. This long out-of-print LP holds one's interest throughout and, although Harris comes up with plenty of fresh ideas, he also never leaves the melody far behind. His unlisted backup group is a septet that includes trombonist Joe Avant, vibraphonist Charles Stepney, pianist Willie Pickens and guitarist Joe Diorio. A fine (if obscure) outing.AMG

Eddie Harris - Mighty Like A Rose

"Mighty Like a Rose was Eddie Harris' follow-up to the smash Exodus to Jazz, and it probably comes as no surprise that it's mightily similar in sound and style. One can hardly blame Harris for taking essentially the same approach; it's not every day that a jazz artist's debut LP makes him a million-selling star overnight. And he struck while the iron was hot, completing the sessions for Mighty Like a Rose a month before the single edit of "Exodus" had even peaked on the pop charts. Perhaps that's why there are only two Harris originals this time around; the rest of the repertoire is mostly standards, plus another movie theme adaptation -- this time of "Spartacus" -- that would prove to be the first of many "Exodus" sequels Harris recorded in his early period (although pop-chart lightning never did strike twice). Harris is once again joined by his regular Chicago backing group of the period -- guitarist Joe Diorio, pianist Willie Pickens, bassist William Yancey, and drummer Harold Jones, who provide solid, appropriately easygoing support. Harris' playing strikes a balance between cool bop and straightforward soul-jazz, though it's possible to hear the influence of Detroiter Yusef Lateef beginning to creep in. It's all well-executed, and Harris' command of the highest ranges of his instrument is as lovely as ever, making this date worthwhile for anyone who loved the sound of Exodus to Jazz." AMG

Eddie Harris - Exodus To Jazz (vinyl rip)

Someone suggested an Eddie Harris series in recent comments so I thought I'd toss this one out for a starter. Harris was a really unusual horn voice at this point in his career - a tone with the airyness of Getz and Desmond but drenched in Chicago Blues.

 I was somewhere around 10 years old when first I heard this one. It was a favorite of my step-father's so it was played often enough that I noticed it even as a kid. I also seem to recall the music showing up on T.V. soundtracks by the mid to late 60's, but I could be wrong there.

Years passed and I forgot the album entirely until a badly re-mastered Collectables two-fer CD reminded me just how good it was. At some point early in the digital ballgame I made a mini-disc rip of a scratchy LP that I think I had borrowed. The mini disc wav files were eventually stored on a CD when I gave up on the medium, and were promptly forgotten. I was going thru a CD wallet with some unmarked discs and tossing most of them out, but these files had been partially tagged on the disc (albeit incorrectly) and I decided to see what I could do with the files.

Isotope RX cleaned up the clicks and pops and resolved the slight clipping issues. A lovely rip emerged after some additional beginning and ending editing on the bit of groove noise there. I'd guess that I had a HiFi Mono version rather than the stereo covers shown here: these I obtained from discogs - it looks like mono in both Audacity and Isotope, and it sounds like High Fidelity Mono to my ears when played. It sounds quite good, but there is no apparent 'sound-stage'. In 1961 the mono version likely sounded better than the stereo anyway.