Beaver Harris
Encyclopedia
William Godvin "Beaver" Harris (b. Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, April 20, 1936; d. New York, New York, December 22, 1991) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

, who worked extensively with Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...

.

Biography

Harris was born in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. Harris came from an athletic family. He played baseball as a teenager for the Kansas City Monarchs (then part of the Negro American League) and was scouted by major league teams Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants.

It was only after he was in the army that he began playing drums. After his national service ended in 1963 he moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and was encouraged to pursue a musical career by Max Roach
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...

. While in New York he worked and/or toured with Marion Brown
Marion Brown
Marion Brown was a jazz alto saxophonist and ethnomusicologist. He is most well known as a member of the 1960s avant-garde jazz scene in New York City, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai...

, Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...

, Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...

, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...

, Clifford Jordan
Clifford Jordan
Clifford Laconia Jordan was a jazz saxophone player. While in Chicago, he performed with Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, and some rhythm and blues groups. He moved to New York City in 1957, after which he recorded three albums for Blue Note. He also recorded with Horace Silver, J.J. Johnson, Kenny...

, Howard Johnson
Howard Johnson
Howard Johnson may refer to:*Howard Johnson's, a chain of hotels and restaurants*Howard Deering Johnson , founder of Howard Johnson's restaurants* Howard David Johnson, , American painter...

, Sheila Jordan
Sheila Jordan
Sheila Jordan is an American jazz singer and songwriter. Jordan has recorded as a session musician with an array of critically acclaimed artists in addition to a notable solo career....

, Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...

, Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...

, Roswell Rudd
Roswell Rudd
Roswell Rudd is a Grammy Award-nominated American jazz trombonist and composer....

, Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...

, McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.-Early life:...

, Sonny Stitt
Sonny Stitt
Edward "Sonny" Stitt was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was also one of the best-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums in his lifetime...

, Clark Terry
Clark Terry
Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...

, Chet Baker
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...

, Doc Cheatham and Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...

 among other musicians.

In addition, Harris founded a "world music" band and called it "The 360 Degree Music Experience
The 360 Degree Music Experience
The 360 Degree Music Experience was an Ameican band that performed both traditional and experimental jazz. Active during the 1970s and 1980s, the group was initially co-led by drummer Beaver Harris and the pianist Dave Burrell. After Burrell left the group, pianist Don Pullen replaced him...

". The band included some of the most significant artists of the time, including Buster Williams
Buster Williams
Charles Anthony Williams is an American jazz bassist.-Biography:Williams has gained prestige among jazz musicians as a solid supportive player. Since the early 1960s, he has made subtle swing, a precise rhythm and superb technique the landmark of his playing...

, Hamiet Bluett, Don Pullen
Don Pullen
Don Pullen was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed masterworks ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz...

, Jimmy Garrison
Jimmy Garrison
Jimmy Garrison was an American jazz double bassist born in Miami, Florida. He was best known through his long association with John Coltrane from 1961–1967.-Biography:...

, Ron Carter
Ron Carter
Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...

, Ricky Ford
Ricky Ford
Ricky Ford is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Ford was born in Boston and studied at the New England Conservatory. In 1974 he recorded with Gunther Schuller and then played in the Duke Ellington Orchestra under Mercer Ellington from 1974 to 1976...

, Titos Sampa and many others.

Harris died of prostate cancer at the age of 55.

As leader

  • 1975: From Ragtime to No Time
  • 1976: In: Sanity
    In: Sanity
    In: Sanity is an album by American jazz group The 360 Degree Music Experience led by drummer Beaver Harris and pianist Dave Burrell recorded in 1976 for the Italian Black Saint label.-Reception:...

    (Black Saint, 1976)
  • 1979: Beautiful Africa (Soul Note)
  • 1979: Negcaumongus - with Don Pullen
    Don Pullen
    Don Pullen was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed masterworks ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz...

    , Hamiet Bluiett
    Hamiet Bluiett
    Hamiet Bluiett is an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. His primary instrument is the baritone saxophone, and he is considered one of the finest living players of this instrument...

    , Ricky Ford
    Ricky Ford
    Ricky Ford is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Ford was born in Boston and studied at the New England Conservatory. In 1974 he recorded with Gunther Schuller and then played in the Duke Ellington Orchestra under Mercer Ellington from 1974 to 1976...

    , Francis Haynes, Ken McIntyre
    Makanda Ken McIntyre
    Makanda Ken McIntyre was an American jazz musician and composer.-Biography:McIntyre was born in Boston, Massachusetts...

    , Cameron Brown
    Cameron Brown
    Cameron Brown is an American jazz double bassist born in Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:Cameron started studying music at age 10, first on piano, later on clarinet. But, drawn to the bass, he found himself playing a tin bass in a student dance band...

  • 1979: Live at Nyon (Cadence Jazz Records
    Cadence Jazz Records
    Cadence Jazz is an American record label specializing in noncommercial jazz music. It is associated with Cadence Magazine.Cadence Jazz was founded by Bob Rusch in Redwood, New York in 1980...

    )
  • 1980: 360° Experience - A Well-Kept Secret - with Don Pullen, Bill Warnick, Greg Williams, Willie Ruff
    Willie Ruff
    Willie Ruff is the hornist and bassist of the Mitchell-Ruff Duo and one of the founders of the W. C. Handy Music Festival. He was born in Florence, Alabama. The duo regularly performs and lectures all over the United States, Asia, Africa and Europe...

    , Candido Camero
    Candido Camero
    Candido de Guerra Camero, also known simply as Candido is a Cuban percussionist who backed many Afro-Cuban jazz and straightforward jazz acts since the 1950s...

    , Sharon Freeman
    Sharon Freeman
    Sharon Freeman is a jazz pianist and French hornist. She also writes musical arrangements.Freeman played French horn for the jazz opera Escalator over the Hill, Gil Evans's 1973 album Svengali, and in 1983 she worked on a piece of jazz Christmas music. Since 1982 she is a member of Charlie Haden's...

    , Hamiet Bluiett
    Hamiet Bluiett
    Hamiet Bluiett is an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. His primary instrument is the baritone saxophone, and he is considered one of the finest living players of this instrument...

    , Ricky Ford
    Ricky Ford
    Ricky Ford is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Ford was born in Boston and studied at the New England Conservatory. In 1974 he recorded with Gunther Schuller and then played in the Duke Ellington Orchestra under Mercer Ellington from 1974 to 1976...

    , Buster Williams
    Buster Williams
    Charles Anthony Williams is an American jazz bassist.-Biography:Williams has gained prestige among jazz musicians as a solid supportive player. Since the early 1960s, he has made subtle swing, a precise rhythm and superb technique the landmark of his playing...

    , Francis Haynes
  • 1983: Beaver Is My Name (Timeless Records
    Timeless Records
    Timeless Records is a jazz record label from The Netherlands.Timeless was founded in Wageningen in 1975 by Wim Wigt. It has specialized in bebop, though it also did a subseries of important releases of Dixieland and swing recordings. As of ca...

    )

As sideman

With Marion Brown
Marion Brown
Marion Brown was a jazz alto saxophonist and ethnomusicologist. He is most well known as a member of the 1960s avant-garde jazz scene in New York City, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai...

  • Three for Shepp
    Three for Shepp
    Three for Shepp is the debut album by American saxophonist Marion Brown featuring performances recorded in 1966 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:...

    (Impulse!, 1966)

With Roswell Rudd
Roswell Rudd
Roswell Rudd is a Grammy Award-nominated American jazz trombonist and composer....

  • Everywhere
    Everywhere (Roswell Rudd album)
    Everywhere is an album by American jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd featuring performances recorded in 1966 for the Impulse! label. The tracks were rereleased on a compilation Mixed in 1998 with performances by the Cecil Taylor Unit originally released as part of Gil Evans' Into the Hot .-Reception:The...

    (1966)
  • Numatik Swing Band
    Numatik Swing Band
    -Track listing:# "Vent" - 4:50# "Breathahoward" - 2:52# "Circulation" - 10:15# "Lullaby For Greg" - 11:10# "Aerosphere" - 14:15-Personnel:*Roswell Rudd - trombone, french horn, producer...

    (1973)

With Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...

  • Archie Shepp Live in San Francisco
    Archie Shepp Live in San Francisco
    Archie Shepp Live in San Francisco is a live album by Archie Shepp released on Impulse! Records in 1966. The album contains a performance recorded by Shepp, Roswell Rudd, Donald Garrett, Lewis Worrell and Beaver Harris at the Both/And Club in San Francisco, CA, on February 19, 1966...

    (1966)
  • Mama Too Tight
    Mama Too Tight
    Mama Too Tight is an album by Archie Shepp released on Impulse! Records in 1966. The album contains tracks recorded by Shepp, Tommy Turrentine, Grachan Moncur III, Roswell Rudd, Howard Johnson, Perry Robinson, Charlie Haden and Beaver Harris in August 1966. The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek states...

    (1966)
  • The Magic of Ju-Ju
    The Magic of Ju-Ju
    The Magic of Ju-Ju is an album by Archie Shepp released on Impulse! Records in 1967. The album contains tracks recorded by Shepp, Martin Banks, Mike Zwerin, Reggie Workman, Norman Connors, Frank Charles, Dennis Charles, Ed Blackwell and Beaver Harris in April 1967...

    (1967)
  • The Way Ahead
    The Way Ahead (album)
    The Way Ahead is an album by Archie Shepp released on Impulse! Records in 1968. The album contains tracks recorded by Shepp, Jimmy Owens, Grachan Moncur III, Walter Davis Jr., Ron Carter, Roy Haynes and Beaver Harris in January 1968 with two additional tracks featuring Charles Davis, Dave Burrell...

    (1968)
  • For Losers
    For Losers
    For Losers is an album by Archie Shepp released on Impulse! in 1970. The album contains tracks recorded from September 1968 to August 1969 by Shepp with three different ensembles...

    (1971)
  • The Cry of My People
    The Cry of My People
    The Cry of My People is an album by avant-garde jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp released in 1972 on the Impulse! label. The album features performances by Shepp with gospel singers, big bands, quintets, sextets, and chamber orchestras...

    (1972)
  • Body and Soul
    Body and Soul (Archie Shepp album)
    Body and Soul is an album by jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded in Rome, Italy on September 28 and October 16, 1975 and released on the Horo Records label.-Track listing:# "Body And Soul"# "Tropical"# "Dogon"...

    (1975)
  • Steam
    Steam (Archie Shepp album)
    Steam is a live album by jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded at the East-West Jazz Festival in Nurnberg, West Germany on May 14, 1976 and released on the Enja label...

    (1976)
  • A Sea of Faces
    A Sea of Faces
    A Sea of Faces is an album by avant-garde jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded in Milan, Italy on August 4 & 5, 1975 and released on the Italian Black Saint label...

    (1975)
  • Montreux Two
    Montreux Two
    Montreux Two is a live album by jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1975 and released on the Arista Freedom label. The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow states "Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp was at a turning point of sorts in 1975...

    (1975)
  • Montreux One
    Montreux One
    Montreux One is a live album by jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1975 and released on the Arista Freedom label...

    (1975)
  • Jazz a Confronto 27
    Jazz a Confronto 27
    Jazz a Confronto 27 is an album by jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded in Rome, Italy, on September 28. 1975, and released on the Horo Records label as part of the "Jazz a Confronto" series.-Track listing:# "Libya"# "My Heart Cries Out to Africa"...

    (1975)
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