Sat 12/21@ 8:30PM
Saxophone player Donald Harrison Jr. is yet another of New Orleans’ seemingly endless parade of outstanding jazz musicians, falling in the middle generation with Wynford Marsalis (He’s 53).
Like most of them, he’s well schooled (he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston) and versatile. He plays lively swing jazz, influenced by both traditional New Orleans and contemporary as well as that musical narcotic “smooth jazz.”
And also like most players who sprang from New Orleans’ fertile musical soil, he’s deeply embedded in the culture there, directing education programs and passing along the traditions. His father was Big Chief of the Guardians of the Flame Mardi Gras Indians, and now Harrison himself is carrying on this enduring tradition that unites the city’s African-American community as Big Chief of the Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans cultural group.
When he performs at Nighttown this week, he’ll co-lead a quartet with New York-based jazz/funk drummer Mike Clark, who played with Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters in the ’70s. It also feature San Francisco Hammond B-3 organist Wil Blades and young, up-and-coming Cleveland guitarist Dan Wilson.
Tickets are $25.
Photo by Kiel Scott
Cleveland Heights, OH 44106