The Allan Harris Band
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The Allan Harris Band

New York City, New York, United States | INDIE

New York City, New York, United States | INDIE
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"Music Review: Ample Optimism, Defiant Dreams By STEPHEN HOLDEN Published: April 6, 2010"

The headwaters of the protean talent that is Allan Harris, a baritone crooner with a husky edge, may be Nat King Cole and his trio. But to describe this pop-jazz singer, composer and guitarist as a gifted Cole acolyte doesn’t take into account the winding tributaries that bring in the blues, folk, pop-soul, light funk, Americana and Broadway flavors. Together they flow into a fertile musical delta that reflects Mr. Harris’s unfashionably hopeful vision of multicultural America.
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Richard Termine for The New York Times

Allan Harris, a composer, singer and guitarist, performing in his show on Monday.
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On Monday evening Mr. Harris began an extended engagement at the Metropolitan Room with a show, “Just Me,” that explores all those tributaries. It began conventionally enough with “On the Street Where You Live,” the stentorian Lerner and Loewe standard from “My Fair Lady,” reinvented by Mr. Harris and his band (Dan Kaufman on piano, Paul Beaudry on bass and Jerome Jennings on drums) as an intimate, medium-light swinger.

The performance was typical of the way Mr. Harris removes show tunes from their quasi-operatic pedestals and warms them up with an easygoing approach that is not about flaunting the size and range of his voice but about humanizing them with jazz rhythms and a friendly narrative approach. “I’ve Never Been in Love Before” (from “Guys and Dolls”), “When Will the Bells Ring For Me?” (a Tony Bennett signature song, usually done by Mr. Bennett with grand emotional flourishes) and the Cole hit “Too Young” were heated up and served with the same home-cooked affability.

The set’s most unpromising show tune, the starchy “Bring Him Home” (from “Les Misérables”) yielded the most surprises, as Mr. Harris used the various layers of his voice to convey the tension of a desperate man holding back tears.

A change of direction was signaled by Mr. Harris’s strapping on a guitar to perform songs from his show “Cross That River,” a theatrical song cycle about a runaway slave named Blue who flees to Texas in the 1860s to become one of the first black cowboys. As the rougher edges of Mr. Harris’s voice came to the fore, he slipped into the persona of an itinerant folk-blues yarn spinner. His special guest, the jazz violinist Alan Grubner, supplied a thread of wild, antic fiddling. At one point Mr. Harris’s scrubby guitar evoked a softened Bo Diddley sound that seemed miles away from the unfailingly suave Cole. But was it really?

The attitude of these songs, even the one titled “Blue Was Angry,” isn’t bitter or hard-bitten. You never had the sense of listening to a troubadour who had traveled thousands of miles on foot over dirt roads. It was the voice of a benign storyteller, a deeply romantic true believer with a heroic vision of American history and the African-American contribution.

That vision coalesced in Mr. Harris’s original anthem “I Do Believe,” a hymn to American unity and cooperation as stalwartly upbeat as “The House I Live In,” Frank Sinatra’s ode to harmony in diversity. In Mr. Harris’s music, the dream lives on. - NY TImes


Discography

Cross That River - Americana
Cry of the Thunderbird - Americana
Setting the Standard - Jazz
The Songs of Strayhorn - Jazz
Long Live the King - Jazz

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Bio

Allan Harris is a world-class singer, guitarist and songwriter. Perhaps best known for his interpretations of jazz standards, Allan’s smooth vocals and guitar-styling easily cross genres, from jazz to rock to blues.

Tony Bennett calls Allan "my favorite singer" and The New York Times' Stephen Holden raves about "the protean talent that is Allan Harris." Allan has cultivated a global following, playing for packed audiences and receiving outstanding reviews throughout the United States, Europe, Russia and the Far East. A three-time winner of the New York Nightlife Award for "Outstanding Jazz Vocalist,” Allan is regularly featured at the world’s great music festivals, e.g. Jazz Aspen, Wien Jazz Festival in Austria and the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy.

Allan’s artistry transcends his diverse vocal performances. He has composed “Cross That River,” a full-scale musical celebrating the Old West as told through the words and music of a black cowboy, and has received a prestigious Chamber Music America Grant for that work. The theatrical production of “Cross That River” played to rave reviews during the 2009 New York Musical Theater Festival and is currently in pre-production for a long-term run in early 2011. Several original songs from “Cross That River” are also frequently featured in The Allan Harris Band’s concert performances.

In addition to music, Allan is passionate about giving back. He is a long-time supporter of the Children’s Miracle Network (helping to raise funds for children’s hospitals), and has performed many times alongside Vince Gill and Amy Grant at the Challenge Aspen Gala, an annual charity concert/golf tournament to benefit military service people who have sustained disabilities.

As a Gibson Guitar featured artist, Allan and Ruby (his constant 4 lb. canine companion and the first dog music critic) can frequently be found rehearsing at the Gibson Hit Factory, and along with The Allan Harris Band, enjoy playing the top music clubs in his hometown of New York City.