Frederick Harris, a virtuoso pianist who is equally at home in the realms of Beethoven and bebop, will perform Lenny Carlson's Earth Tones, a new sixmovement jazz/classical suite. The work is entirely notated, with each movement in a different jazz style, including modern blues, waltz, latin, classic blues, avant-garde, and ragtime. Harris will also perform selected classical repertoire, standards from the golden age of American popular song, and several shorter pieces by Lenny Carlson. A question-and-answer session will follow the concert.
FREDERICK HARRIS, Pianist
Frederick Harris began piano studies at age four, and has earned a reputation as both a superb soloist and a sympathetic accompanist. Over his twenty-year career he has performed throughout the United States and Europe with many great names in the jazz world, including Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Higgins, Barbara Morrison, Regina Carter, and Chico Freeman. He is Music Director of St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, teaches private students at his home studio in San Francisco, and is on the faculty of the Stanford Jazz Workshop.
LENNY CARLSON, Composer
Lenny Carlson is on the music faculty at City College of San Francisco. He has been active professionally since the 1970s as a composer and guitarist, and earned a 1985 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Composition. In 2008, he released two CDs of original music: Seat of the Pants, featuring Eddie Marshall, Rebeca Mauleon, and Barry Green, and Echolocation: Six Movements for String Quartet. His current project is Aluminum Sunset: A Tribute to the Music of Raymond Scott for Jeff Sanford's Cartoon Jazz Orchestra.