Jazzmobile Sessions – Winter Season Kicks off With Winard Harper
An extraordinary drummer, composer, educator and band leader, Winard Harper was the last drummer to play with NEA Jazz Master Dr. Billy Taylor and his Trio. Winard is a longtime “Jazzmobile Artist.”
Harper’s first major gig was with Dexter Gordon in 1982, and shortly thereafter with Johnny Griffin. It wasn’t long before his drumming skills captured the attention of Betty Carter. He spent four years as drummer with Ms. Carter’s band, also working as a sideman to such jazz legends as Ray Bryant, Abdullah Ibrahim, Pharoah Sanders and Clifford Jordan, yet still keeping his own band working on his days off . This was the early days of The Harper Brothers. “With Betty I learned consistency and persistence” Harper recalls. “Working with her prepared me to become a bandleader; I learned a lot about the business from her”. By 1988 Winard’s hard work and dedication to jazz paid dividends with a Harper Brother record deal from PolyGram.
Constantly in reverence of his predecessors while remaining innovative in his own right, Harper has been among the celebrated drummers in jazz for many years. He is a virtuoso on the drum set and the balafon, the West African equivalent of the marimba, he is a sought after collaborator at home and abroad, a band leader of his quartet, his quintet and his exciting band the Jeli Posse, a regular with the legendary New York clubs, an educator of future jazz professionals, an educator through his kids programs, an events organizer – successfully running the weekly Fish Fry Jazz Jam and the Sunday “Meet the Artist” Series at Moore’s Lounge in Jersey City. Bringing Jazz to the community from which it originated, relating the story of The Great American Art Form, the only music that is 100% “made in America”, spreading the joy that Jazz brings is the quest to which Winard Harper is dedicating himself.
