Features Jerome “Scrooge” Harris Quartet on Sunday
By Roscoe Crenshaw
For the St. Louis American
The fledgling Institute for the Advancement of Jazz Study and Performance is the newest program of Community Women Against Hardship, Inc. (CWAH). On Sunday, July 24, its 2nd Annual Jazz Benefit/Brunch at Jazz at the Bistro will feature the sounds of the Jerome “Scrooge” Harris Quartet. Master drummer “Scrooge” has been a fixture in St. Louis jazz circles for more than three decades, and he will be leading a group comprised of Freddie Washington, sax and flute, Jeffrey Anderson, bass, and emerging talents Lawrence Fields, piano, and Anita Jackson, vocals.
The institute is aimed at jazz education – including history, performance, composition, sound technology and entrepreneurship – targeting youth in 7th through 12th grades. Harris will announce the official launching of the institute as its artistic director at the benefit/brunch.
Gloria Taylor, project manager of the institute, helped to formulate the concept and see it through to fruition. As she observes, “CWAH was pleased to be able to help develop this education project as part of our youth development programs. Music and other fine arts have proven to improve the self-image of young people, while showing marked improvements in their academics.”
A little back-tracking is required to document the rich resume of the gifted yet humble “Scrooge.” Like so many of St. Louis’ finest musicians, he came out of the American Woodmen Cadets and the Tom Powell Post, two revered military-style drum and bugle corps. There, he says, he learned “the fundamentals of drumming, mainly rudiments. That’s the foundation.”
That foundation was built upon a childhood spent listening to music with his father, Bud, uncles, Lawrence and William, and a recently departed friend, Frank Edwards. Surrounded by the recorded sounds of Charlie Parker, Miles, Billy Eckstine and Diz, Harris said he “got so I could get the cats’ solos down – with my imaginary horn.” Miles and Babs Gonzalez used to visit the family home. “That was a formative time,” he says.
Others who helped to form him as a musician are the late Phillip Wilson, a contemporary and bandmate at Soldan High who later played with the Butterfield Blues Band, tenorist Miller Brisker, organist Sam Lazar, and the Roscoe Mitchell Quartet (which became the Art Ensemble of Chicago).
Harris would play bass to Wilson’s drums. “At that time,” he remembers, “young cats were coming along.” He lists Bensid Thigpen (drums), “Ironhead” James Matthews (piano), Raymond Eldridge (bass), Rick Bolden (piano), Kelton Young (woodwinds), and Bakkaida Yaseen Elbert (trumpet).
Harris, Eldridge and Bolden were even called for gigs by bassist John Mixon and Freddie Washington, and hung out with them frequently, getting “little snippets” of info from these elders.
Other profound influences on Harris’ development were trumpeter Bobby Danze, drummer Chauncey Williams, pianist John “Albino Red” Chapman, and drummer Al St. James. But he reveals his utmost experience: “Being a part of B.A.G. (Black Artists Group) was overall just a good experience – being involved with all the genres of the arts. The quality of musicians was high.”
He said his “second most important experience” was playing with Malachi Favors, renowned bassist for the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Harris had been working on material for a trio with Malachi and reedman Rollo Armstead, commuting back and forth to Chicago, before Favors’ untimely death aborted their plans.
“My preference is straight-ahead,” Harris said of the music, “but I do like to explore inside-out, like you’re merging the two; you can cross the line and come back.” A list of artists he’s played with confirms that statement: John Hicks, Eddie Harris, Bobby Timmons, Jimmy Forrest, Bobby Broom, Regina Carter, Claude “Fiddler” Williams, Sweet Baby Ja’i, Mary Stallings, Bruce Barth, Lester Bowie, Oliver Lake, John Norment and Pablo Also (David Parker).
The former adjunct professor at Webster University and private tutor would now like to venture forth on his greatest quest to enlighten young potential musicians, and the benefit on Sunday is a grand opportunity for local jazz lovers to ensure a successful beginning.
2nd Annual CWAH Jazz Benefit at Jazz at the Bistro, 3536 Washington, Sunday, July 24. Brunch begins at 2 p.m. Music begins at 3 p.m. Call (314) 289-7523 for additional info..
