Donald Harrison, Jr. may have been named a 2022 NEA Jazz Master for his advocacy work, but this hard-swinging improvisational saxophonist is also a brilliant player as evidenced by his performances and recordings with musicians like Ron Carter Terence Blanchard, Miles Davis Lena Horne, Eddie Palmieri the Notorious B.I.G., and the powerhouse jazz group the Cookers. Yet, Harrison’s passion for preserving and celebrating the music and culture of his hometown New Orleans is unmatched. He founded the Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultural Group to honor the cultures brought from Africa that found root in New Orleans and then traveled the world. Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Harrison, who had been a dedicated teacher and mentor for young musicians, increased his activism and worked tirelessly to help musicians remain in the city. An intentional and avid student of some of the jazz greats, Harrison has devoted himself to passing down the lessons he’s learned to younger musicians. And he has mentored some extraordinary jazz artists including Jon Batiste, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Trombone Shorty, and Esperanza Spaulding. And in this podcast, Harrison talks about it all—from the importance of Congo Square to New Orleans and to jazz, to his playing with and learning from Art Blakey and Roy Haynes, his commitment to learning music from all the eras of jazz and passing that knowledge along to his students, and, of course, his thoughts about the music itself.
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