* En anglais uniquement
Best known of this trumpeter's collaborative songwriting credits is "Cloudburst," a snazzy big-band instrumental eventually vamped into an impressive feature for vocal groups such as Lambert, Hendricks & Ross and the Pointer Sisters. Jimmy Harris played and recorded with the band of Erskine Hawkins during the '40s, showing up on a couple of dozen recording sessions between then and the late '50s.
Harris' supple riffs provided chewing handles for a series of effective if not particularly distinctive R&B instrumentals, favored by honking soloists such as Sam "The Man" Taylor, sometimes as appetizing as a "Fish Roll," at other times as grand as "The Big Beat" or the "High Winds" would promise. The trumpeter's peers in the Hawkins band included (of course) the boss, himself a trumpeter, as well as Matthew Gee, Sammy Lowe, and Wilbur Bascomb.
© Eugene Chadbourne /TiVo