GetOut Magazine

Musician Stefon Harris trying to take jazz
where he wants it to go
By HELENA ELLING
Get Out
April 24, 2003

It is, after all, an expression of the soul.

Jazz can be expressed from inside a small, smoky club on the wrong side of town, or from a polite, well-lit concert stage. Where it truly comes from is the musician, and the chemistry that cooks between two or more.

When Stefon Harris brings his quartet to Scottsdale Center for the Arts on Friday, he'll prove just that.

The 30-year-old Eastman School of Music and Manhattan School of Music-trained vibraphonist and marimbist comes from a classical background that includes piano and wind instruments.

His influences were greats like Lionel Hampton and Milt Jackson, but he had other, unexpected, models: singers. "I absolutely love Shirley Horn. She had absolute control and patience in music. She knew how to hold back until you were on the edge of the seat, and then give you the note," he says.

The nightclub world was the original and only spawning ground of jazz musicians until sometime in the 60s, when jazz programs sprang up in university music schools. Harris and his contemporaries are proof that the more formal background can yield fine results.

And he loves teaching. He believes in some ways it's more creative than composing.

"A teacher has to customize their teaching to the individual. I have tremendous respect for educators," Harris says. He gives clinics and lectures all over the country.

What he sees happening out there makes him believe this new, younger world of jazz is thriving. "I think there are a lot of venues opening up to the form; a lot of the performing arts centers that didn't have jazz before are doing that now," he says.

"I get the feeling that this generation of musicians is really owning the music, as opposed to playing music from the past. We're all trying to say, 'This is our music.' We're trying to take it where we want it to go."

"That's a nice space for the music to be in," he adds.

Stefon Harris

Where: Virginia G. Piper Theater at Scottsdale Center for the Arts, 7380 E. Second St.
When: 8 p.m. Friday
How much: $32
Info: or www.scottsdale arts.org, or go to www.tickets.com or call

Some of Stefon Harris' accolades and awards
Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award
Two Grammy nominations for best jazz album
Jazziz Magazine's 1999-2000 reader's poll best vibraphonist
Named best mallet player by the Jazz Journalist Association (2000 and 2001)