A risky project but saxophonist Seamus Blake has pulled it off! A fun and funky celebration of the under-heard and underrated electric adventures of the late Eddie Harris.
The album features Blake on tenor saxophone, EWI, effects, and vocals with organist, pianist, and keyboardist Sam Yahel, electric bassist Tim Lefebvre, drummer Corey Fonville, and guest vocalist Dawn Pemberton.
“I remember hearing Eddie Harris for the first time and just being blown away,” Blake says. “It was funky, it was melodic, and it didn’t sound like anyone else.”
In the liner notes, producer Scott Morin, who co-produced the album with Blake and Weeds, calls Harris “one of the most underrated jazz and soulful music composers and artists of the 20th century,” and writes that “these songs could have easily been written this morning, and not in the 1960s when they were equally as poignant.” The assessment reflects the continued resonance of Harris’s writing across decades and contexts without altering its original force.
This is our Chosen One.