By Janie Harris
with Bob Evancho
ISBN
0-87004-445-1, paperback
10
x 8, 280 color pages, $24.95
Gene Harris, the "Blues
Man From Boise," as the Wall Street Journal once called him, died at
the start of the new millennium, but he left a legacy of music that
will outlive us all. He played on more than 80 recordings and shared
the stage or recording studio with such luminaries as Joe Williams,
Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Benny Carter, BB King, Aretha
Franklin, Herb Ellis, Oscar Peterson and Nancy Wilson. A luminous figure
himself in jazz and blues, Harris was a Grammy Award-nominated pianist
who performed in the world's most famous clubs and festivals.
Gene Harris' signature hard-swinging, soulful, blues-drenched
piano style made him one of the most exciting and accessible pianists
in jazz. He set a high level of musical excellence that was both inspiring
and influential. While in Boise, Harris met and married the love of
his life, Janie Hewitt, who had grown up listening to jazz. Soon after
that, Harris settled into regular performances at a Boise hotel. For
the next twenty years, he became the musical Pied Piper of Idaho. While
his sudden death at age 66 sent a chill through a jazz world already
mourning the loss of such 20th century giants as Frank Sinatra, Mel
Tormé, Charlie Byrd, Joe Williams and Betty Carter, there was consolation:
Concord Jazz had his master tapes from a couple dozen albums. And music,
especially his kind of bluesy grooves, clearly will outlast any test
of time.
In Elegant Soul, Janie Harris gives the reader insight
into Gene Harris the musician and Gene Harris the man. The 280-page
book contains more than 200 photographs, many of them in color.
