Artist info

Something like a decade years ago the Los Angeles Times called vibraphonist/marimba player Stefon Harris "one of the most important young artists in jazz." They were right. Harris, an Albany, N.Y., native -- and still only in his mid-30s -- has since gone on to carve out a measurable career, releasing one interesting and different record after another. His latest, Urbanas [Concord], hits in late August 2009 and it marks his seventh title as a leader.

Harris started to play the piano at age 6 and knew how to read music when he began elementary school. In high school, after seeing the Empire State Youth Orchestra on television, he auditioned for the ensemble and was accepted as the principal percussionist. A few years later, he earned a full merit scholarship to attend Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. This is where the classically trained Harris first became enamored with jazz so much so that he moved to New York. Eventually he received both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Manhattan School of Music -- and has become an accomplished educator himself.

For the past five years Harris has called his group Blackout with the ensemble -- usually a quintet -- being equally comfortable playing in a multitude of modern jazz styles that incorporate a variety of rhythmic elements as well as melodies and soundscapes associated with R&B, pop, hip-hop and funk -- though all placed in a jazz context.

A multi GRAMMY®-nominated musician, Harris has, in addition to his own projects, worked with some of jazz's best-known and most important present-day artists including, among others: Kenny Barron, Steve Turre, Kurt Elling, Ron Carter and Lewis Nash. We're pleased to welcome Harris and his group back to Murry's as part of our 15th Anniversary Season.