2019.04.15 Craig Harris on Charles Mingus 1 of 2

Trombonist Craig Harris was an aspiring student in the early Seventies when he encountered Charles Mingus’s then-current quintet.  Mingus had a trio of young incendiary devices— pianist Don Pullen, tenor man George Adams and baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett— playing with him and his stalwart drummer, Dannie Richmond.   This did not sound like Goodbye Pork Pie Hat!  What happened on stage was unprecedented free improvisation with all of the craft and imagination of Mingus’s greatest bands.  Craig Harris was hooked: he knew what he needed to do and he has been doing it ever since.  He waited for that band to make a record but they never did.  Craig has been waiting for the emergence of that music for 40 years.  

It’s time.