AS OF JANUARY 13, 2023 FIVE HUNDRED MUSICAL ARTISTS HAVE BEEN FEATURED IN THE SOUND PROJECTIONS MAGAZINE THAT BEGAN ITS ONLINE PUBLICATION ON NOVEMBER 1, 2014.
ACCESS TO EACH ARTIST CAN BE FOUND IN THE 'BLOG ARCHIVE' (ARTISTS LISTED IN WEEKLY CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER) AND IN THE ‘LABELS’ SECTION (ARTIST NAMES, TOPICS, ETC.) ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE HOME PAGE. CLICK ON THESE RESPECTIVE LINKS TO ACCESS THEIR CONTENT:
https://soundprojections.blogspot.com/
https://soundprojections.blogspot.com/2022/12/savannah-harris-b-1993-outstanding.html
PHOTO: SAVANNAH HARRIS (b. 1993)
https://ybca.org/artist/savannah-harris/
Savannah Harris
Savannah Harris is a New York City-based drummer, composer, and producer. Raised in Oakland, California by musician parents, she gravitated towards the drums at age two. Steeped in a jazz tradition, Savannah’s more recent work reflects her versatility. She’s recorded with indie and experimental artists Helado Negro, Kate Davis, Justin Allen, and Standing on the Corner. Her jazz recordings include releases from Peter Evans, María Grand, and Or Bareket. She’s performed with Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Kenny Barron, Terence Blanchard, Billy Childs, Christian Scott, José James, and Georgia Anne Muldrow. Currently, she’s been working extensively with Nick Hakim and Roy Nathanson, Aaron Parks, Melanie Charles, Or Bareket, Peter Evans, and Joel Ross. In 2019, Savannah was awarded the Harlem Stage Emerging Artist Award, and she received her master’s in jazz performance from Manhattan School of Music. She was featured twice in the January 2021 issue of Modern Drummer as both a featured artist and a contributing writer. In October of 2021, she debuted her solo piece “With Inner Sound, Truth” commissioned by Issue Project Room as a tribute to composer Ruth Anderson. Savannah was also featured in Sixteen Journal’s “JAZZ” edition, with portraits shot by photographer James Brodribb.
https://www.barlunatico.com/calendar/2022/3/21/savannah-harris-trio
Savannah Harris Trio
Or Bareket ~ Bass
Jeremy Corren ~ Piano
Currently, she’s been working extensively with Nick Hakim and Roy Nathanson, Aaron Parks, Melanie Charles, Or Bareket, Peter Evans, and Joel Ross. In 2019, Savannah was awarded the Harlem Stage Emerging Artist Award, and she received her master’s in jazz performance from Manhattan School of Music. She was featured twice in the January 2021 issue of Modern Drummer as both a featured artist and a contributing writer. In October of 2021, she debuted her solo piece “With Inner Sound, Truth” commissioned by Issue Project Room as a tribute to composer Ruth Anderson. Savannah was also featured in Sixteen Journal’s “JAZZ” edition, with portraits shot by photographer James Brodribb.
The Jazz Gallery Mentoring Series
Vol. 6: Savannah Harris Speaks
The purpose of the Jazz Gallery’s Mentoring Program is to provide aspiring musicians with the chance to learn under the guidance of their contemporary heroes. What they learn, and how they learn it, becomes a unique product of the relationship cultivated over a series of collaborative performances and workshops.
This Tuesday, the second mentor/mentee pair of our sixth Mentoring season—mentor drummer Kendrick Scott and mentee bassist Kanoa Mendenhall—kick off their experience with a performance at The Jazz Museum in Harlem. But before you head uptown to hear Scott & Mendenhall, check out our conversation with drummer Savannah Harris about her experience with mentor bassist Harish Raghavan.
Over the course of four performances, the focus of Raghavan's mentorship became the discussion of freedom within the musical roles dined by your instrument. In our first interview with Harris and Raghavan, topics that arose were performance anxiety, preoccupation while on the bandstand, and the paradox of providing supportive accompaniment while maintaining expressive freedom.
After performances at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, Owl Music Parlor in Brooklyn, and Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, we spoke with Harris again to discover how her thoughts had expanded and evolved throughout the performance and workshopping experience. According to Harris, the final gig at Dartmouth (which culminating in a full day of teaching and performance) encouraged her to ask some challenging yet exciting questions about what’s next for her own career.
The Jazz Gallery: You did four shows over the course of this mentorship at The Jazz Gallery, the Jazz Museum, the Owl, and Dartmouth. The Jazz Gallery space is such an incubator, a little laboratory of discovery: Did the Jazz Museum feel a little more real-world? Did those shows feel different to you?
Savannah Harris: I’ve played at The Jazz Museum a bunch of times, so it was interesting to play this kind of music at The Jazz Museum. Usually, the times I’ve played there, the music has been much more traditional, if I can use that word, or at least coming from that language. It was interesting to play the out shit there, and it was really fun. In terms of my own performance, that show felt the worst for me… I was least at ease at that show than at any of the other four.
It had to do with something useful that Harish told me. Basically, whatever energy you’re bringing in to the gig, you need to discover how to neutralize it, so that you can be musically open. To be honest, I felt a bit closed off at that show. I got in my head. That space is an interesting room. You can’t play loudly in that space, because the instruments are already so loud, so you have to navigate your volume control while maintaining intensity, which is a lot to consider. So if you’re also coming into it with a personal blockage, it makes it hard to let loose at the gig.
TJG: That plays into a lot of the things we were talking about after the first gig, in terms of preoccupation. Seems like it all came out that second show.
SH: It did. So we worked through it. The shows after that were killing. The third and fourth shows were the real shit. Everyone was on point, the listening opened up, it gelled. We figured out how to play together on this music. The Dartmouth show, for me… I’ve been excited about it since it happened. It was a strong performance, and in terms of interpreting the music, I felt like we were able to create the most.
TJG: Tell me about that day leading up to the show.
SH: We drove to New Hampshire the night before our big teaching day: In the morning, Harish and I went to Dartmouth and met with their director, a super cool guy, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum. He’s awesome. After, Harish took two bass players and I took two drummers, and we did a 90-minute lesson with them, which was killing. The improvement for the students in that one day was deep.
TJG: What were you working on?
SH: I had two students, economics and engineering majors of some kind, totally in that other world, but love to play drums, love to play jazz, so they’re in this band as a way of staying connected to the music. I got my bachelors in something outside of music, and it was important for me to still be playing, so I can relate. We worked on some fundamental stuff around the kit, then worked on the two of them playing together. I didn’t know this beforehand, but in the music that they’re currently performing, a bunch of Carla Bley’s big band music, they’re doing it with two drummers! I had no idea that they were playing together in the ensemble. I had them working on getting their sound together and blending: It’s so rare that you play with another drummer at the same time. We rarely work on blend, articulation, things like that, and it turned out that they were going to be doing it in the band.
By the time we got to the band rehearsal–which was a rehearsal/masterclass–Morgan and Eden had joined us, so we played a little for them. They started rehearsing, and we offered notes on what we were hearing. In that rehearsal, there were so many things that were shared, and I feel like everyone perked up and got into the vibe. At the concert that evening, the big band played, we did a 45 minute set, then the big band played again. It was night and day. Honestly. And it wasn’t about us at all: It was so interesting to watch how they received all this new information, absorbed it, and were able to execute it like that. That was tight. It was such a gratifying experience. I have a little teaching experience, but not much with collegiate-level students, and I felt great.
TJG: You’ve been doing a lot of your own growing, overcoming your own stuff, opening up in new ways: Did you hear some of that language and advice coming out when you were teaching these students?
SH: Definitely. Plus, Kendrick Scott is Kanoa Mendenhall’s mentor this season, but Kendrick has been my teacher for the last two years: There was so much from my lessons with Kendrick that was coming out in my teaching with these students, and that was tripping me out for sure. Harish and I have talked about so much over this process, which also came out.
When you’re teaching people you’ve never heard before, first you listen to them play, so I had them trade on a blues. I could hear so much! It was surprising for me to feel like I knew what specifically to help them with, because both Harish and Kendrick have been helping me understand what are really the most important components to making something sound and feel good, no matter what it is you’re playing. What must be there? From that place, I was able to tap into that and help them with that. That was something beautiful. These Dartmouth students might not be interested in being professional musicians, but they are interested in playing the drums, and they love music. They want to sound good and feel good about what they’re doing. I felt like I could help them reach that goal.
TJG: You said this Dartmouth show gave you a lot of your own excitement in general. Going forward, what does that mean for you? Any ideas about your direction going forward?
SH: There are two things coming up for me right now. I have to learn how to stay focused on being a great sideman, and simultaneously conquer my own doubt about my own ability to lead a project, or to put out the ideas that are coming to fruition in my head.
TJG: What are some of those ideas that you may now have a leg up on?
SH: A lot of stuff. Interdisciplinary projects that I want to do, stuff that combines music in journalism, stuff that’s simply me putting out music that I’ve written and worked on. There are a few things that I want to prioritize in 2020, alongside continuing to grow and become a better drummer. This fall, have this great opportunity where I’m going to be on the road for the next few months. It’s great to have a big chance to develop as a sideman, to turn it up a notch in these different playing environments. As I’m doing that, I want to be thinking deeply about the projects I’d like to launch next year. I feel more focused, more organized, and a little more clear.
The Jazz Gallery Mentoring Series, vol. 6, continues at The Jazz Museum in Harlem on Tuesday, October 29, 2019. The group features Kendrick Scott on drums, Kanoa Mendenhall on bass, Dayna Stephens on on saxophones, and Marquis Hill on trumpet. One set at 7 P.M.
A Walk Through Time with Jack DeJohnette
There is a hard line between good and great in jazz. Many cats can play well, with a deep knowledge of the language, but a only a handful can step outside genre lines and be recognized as a true innovator in the field. Jack DeJohnette is one of the greats.
The drummer/ pianist/ composer is widely known for his work on Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, and his extensive partnerships with Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland, and Charles Lloyd. With an inimitable style characterized by his melodious approach to drums and an astute musicality, DeJohnette was the first choice for bandleaders ranging from Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) founder Muhal Richard Abrams to Bill Evans and Freddie Hubbard.
As a bandleader himself, DeJohnette, 72, has yet to decelerate: he’s recorded over 35 projects between 1969 and the present. His most recent release Made In Chicago is a collaboration with AACM heavyweights Abrams, Larry Gray, Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill. It was recorded live at the 35th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival in Millennium Park. DeJohnette will make an appearance at The Hamilton for the DC Jazz Festival this Saturday with his powerhouse trio. Tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and bassist Matthew Garrison will join him.
DeJohnette gave us a break down of his work with the AACM; time travel and the spiritual watering trough; and how he’s made his entire life a heightened period of creativity.
CapitalBop: You have been working together with
key players in the AACM now since your 20s. After 50 years of life, what
is it like coming together now?
Jack DeJohnette: First let me clarify the AACM. I wasn’t actually a member of the AACM but I was part of Muhal Richard Abrams Experimental Band, and Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill were all around at the same time. That was up in ’63 or ’64—just a year before Muhal started the AACM. I’m part of that line of musical thinking, so there is a connection, especially musically. Those connections are fresh; its like we picked up where we left off. Everybody’s been making their own marks and creating their own musical legacies with their directions in music as composers and improvisers. We put that together collectively: the five of us with the addition of incredible composer and bassist Larry Gray, who I worked with in Chicago a few times. It was great to go to Chicago and be honored and play out in Millennium Park to an audience of 11,000 people who really dug the music. It’s been received surprisingly well—I kind of expected it would be. It’s quality music made by music masters who actually defy genres. It gets classified with avant-garde, which some people get confused with free jazz. What we are playing is music—it’s spontaneous improvisation and written composition on a high level. It’s not just fooling around, and because everyone is quite developed as an improviser and composer, when we do improvise, there are always structures and compositions being developed in real time.
CB: Tell me a little bit about your composition
Museum of Time. I’m interested in what experiences and energies you were
drawing from while writing that piece.
JD: I’m glad you asked. That’s inspired by a series of books written by Jane Roberts called Seth Speaks about the metaphysical aspects and multi-dimensions. One of the books was called the Museum of Time. The concept of time can be looked at like a spiral, and multi-dimensions are going around in a circle counterclockwise, and sometimes you have bleed-through. So sometimes something from another time, the future or the past, bleed through and come into the present. That [DeJohnette’s composition] was a musical interpretation of what that might do. Like if you go somewhere before, and you come to a place you’ve never been to before but yet you say ‘Oh I’ve been here before, this looks familiar to me.’ It might be from a past life that bled through. On one hand you know you’ve never been there before in this life, but it feels very familiar to you.
CB: Many of your albums and projects have a strong meditative component. Is music a primarily spiritual device?
JD: It’s in the eye, ear, and soul of the beholder. The term ‘spiritual’ represents that which is hard to describe, but it’s a feeling of being one with everything. Music and meditation sort of bring us back into the connectedness that we really are in in the first place. We know our environment has kind of taken a beating from our lack of being tuned into nature; it’s karmic stuff that we have to face. People, not only the artists, need to have somewhere—like a spiritual watering trough that they can go to charge up their batteries. That’s what music gives me and the other players like Coltrane, and the guys in my trio Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison.
CB: Do you ever get to a place where you feel like your ideas aren’t as fresh? How do you work through that?
JD: My process is endless. I have a saying—and this is not just for music, this is for everybody. The whole universe is creative; that’s what we are a part of. It’s endless! The many dimensions, like galaxies and stars—it’s awesome! You can think ‘I’m part of that tree, I’m part of that flower.’ We are all part of the same creative consciousness essence. What happens when we become creative after writing a book, painting, or trying to come up with an idea for something that’s got you stuck—I just open myself up and tap into the source and the library of creative consciousness, and there are endless ideas. Just open yourself up to that channel; its like a radio, you just switch the channel. You and universal consciousness kind of work together. We’re always talking,‘Me! Me! Me! I did that!’ Well, not necessarily so. We have angels, guides and energies around us that are always there. When we open up and need help, they’re there to help us. I never worry about running out of ideas. Once I’ve tapped into that space I know I’m going to play something I’ll never play again. We all have that capacity.
CB: Tell me about choosing Ravi Coltrane and Matt Garrison as partners in this trio.
JD: They’re like family because I worked with Ravi’s mom and dad in the mid 60s. It was John [Coltrane], Alice [Coltrane], Pharaoh Sanders, Rashied Ali and Jimmy Garrison on bass. Matthew actually lived with us when he was a teenager. He finished high school studies here and then went on to Berklee, so he’s like a godchild. Then I worked with Ravi and Alice after John passed, so there’s a big family connection. There’s also a spiritual connection between the three of us. I put this trio together about 20 years ago when we played a concert at the Brooklyn Museum on a Sunday afternoon. That was the first time we got together, and then I got the idea for us to get together again, and we’ve been doing that for a couple of years. We’ll be in the studio recording an album for ESM records in October, and that’ll be coming out April of next year.
CB: Sometimes it seems as though the progression
of jazz in academia has weakened the community element of workshops,
loft shows, and other instances where people came together simply to
play and learn from each other. Do you feel like the increase of jazz in
school is leading to a demise of jazz in the streets?
JD: It’s kind of a catch 22. I think it’s harder now
for young musicians to make a living at it. The problem is that there
are more practitioners than there is work. It’s like everything else;
you have to learn how to improvise. You have to adapt to the changes.
One has to think, ‘how do I see myself in music? As an innovator? As a
free musician, manager or entrepreneur?’ You have to be able to wear a
few hats.
You’ve got to do social networking, you’ve got to figure out how to get people to come to your site, and find venues where you have to work for the door to build up your visibility. There aren’t a lot of main groups that musicians can get apprenticeships with like there were 20 years ago. How do you survive as an artist in this overcrowded world? Music should be a joy, as well as what you do for a living, as well as your art. But it’s easier said than done.
CB: Did you ever think that you were going to be
Jack DeJohnette, one of the world’s greatest drummers? Did you see
yourself at the beginning of your trajectory getting to the level that
you’re at now?
JD: I had a strong sense of that, but I also came up at a time when you had to learn from the streets, listen to records, and go into clubs. I put myself in challenging musical situations with players that helped me grow to my fullest potential. When I was a teenager, I looked out the window and said ‘this is what I want to do. I’m going to see the world and I’m rich in creativity.’ And I put myself in those positions that best served the level of my creativity. I came to New York and got to play. Everybody came to New York to network with the best musicians at that time, and that’s what I did. I soaked it up with people like Coltrane, Miles [Davis], Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Charles Lloyd, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, and Jackie McLean. That’s where I felt I was supposed to be.
CB: For young musicians who are on the fence
about whether this lifestyle is really for them, is there a rights of
passage or a point of assurance that allows musicians to realize
themselves?
JD: Sometimes you don’t choose a profession; it chooses you. Once you get bitten by that bug nothing’s going to stop you. You just find a way. You ask the universe for guidance in that. You don’t always get what you expected but it doesn’t hurt to ask for help. Ask the universe and ask people around, or have a vision. Don’t see limitations! Look outside and not in the obvious places. You have to create the environment. Sometimes the environment doesn’t exist and you have to create it. Like that saying from Field of Dreams ‘Build it and they will come.’ But you have to be tenacious; there are no guarantees. Sometimes you might get weary and say, ‘I’m gonna do something else and come back to it.’ But stay with it. For me, it never occurred to me that I would want to do anything else but play music.
https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Savannah_Harris
Savannah Harris
Savannah Harris (born 1993) is an American jazz musician (drums).
Harris, who grew up in Oakland , California, learned drums from an early age with her father, Fred Harris, and stepfather, Khalil Shaheed (1949–2012). She completed a double major ( journalism and jazz) at Howard University in 2015 . There she was a member of the Howard University Jazz Ensemble [1] and appeared in the Fred Foss Quartet at the DC Jazz Fest . She then moved to New York, where she completed her master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music with Stefon Harris in 2019. [2]
In recent years, Harris has performed with Jason Moran , Kenny Barron , Aaron Parks , Terence Blanchard , Geri Allen , Marcus Belgrave and Georgia Anne Muldrow . Alongside this, she has toured with Etienne Charles ' Creole Soul , José James , Peter Evans ( Being + Becoming ), Maria Grand ( Reciprocity ), Or Bareket and the avant-garde band Standing on the Corner featuring Gio Escobar. She was also involved in interdisciplinary work with the improvisation groupThe Second City , Vail Dance Festival Artistic Director Damian Woetzel, and visual artist Mark Fox. [2]
As a band leader, she led her own trio, which performed at the Wine and Bowties' Feels V Festival in Oakland and the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage . She is also a teaching artist for the Jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz for Young People programs . In 2019 she received the Harlem Stage Emerging Artist Award . [2]
Web links:
https://vimeo.com/456709410
Drums: Justin Allen with Savannah Harris
LIVE
This event ended at 8:38 PM on October 15, 2020
Thursday, October 15th, writer and performer Justin Allen continues his 2020 ISSUE residency with the premiere of Drums, a performance stemming from ongoing research into how to emulate, experiment with, and better understand the performance practices of punk singers. This performance is co-presented with The Chocolate Factory Theater, and will be streamed from their theater in Long Island City, New York.
Building on his work Explain Totality (version 4) in which he performs as a singer of a four-piece punk band, Allen is preparing a series of performances in which he sings and experiments with screaming vocal techniques, accompanied by three isolated instruments: electric guitar, electric bass, and drums. The performances focus on the individual instruments, incorporating both rehearsed and improvised material as well as movement. The third performance of the series, Drums, will feature drumming by drummer, composer and producer Savannah Harris.
Justin Allen experiments with performance and writing. His work focuses on the ways aesthetic, structural, and conceptual features in art and language communicate social histories. He has performed at Performance Space New York and Brooklyn Museum with frequent collaborator Devin Kenny, and performed solo work at Movement Research at the Judson Church, BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, and ISSUE Project Room, among other venues. He has read his poetry, fiction, and nonfiction at venues such as The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, Kampnagel (Hamburg, Germany), and Artists Space. His work has received support from Franklin Furnace, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and The Shed. He is from Northern Virginia and lives and works in New York City.
Savannah Harris is a New York City-based drummer, composer and producer. She has performed alongside Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran, Kenny Barron, Aaron Parks, Terence Blanchard, Geri Allen, and Georgia Anne Muldrow. She currently tours with Etienne Charles’ Creole Soul, José James, Peter Evans' Being + Becoming, the María Grand Trio, Or Bareket, and avant-garde art collective Standing on the Corner. Savannah is an active collaborator creating interdisciplinary works with The Second City improv group, Vail Dance Festival Artistic Director Damian Woetzel, and visual artist Mark Fox. As a bandleader, Savannah has taken her trio to Wine and Bowties' Feels V festival as well as the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. She was awarded the Harlem Stage Emerging Artist Award in 2019, and holds her master's degree from Manhattan School of Music, under former program director Stefon Harris. She is also a teaching artist for Jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz For Young People programs.
This performance will be audio described.
https://issueprojectroom-org.translate.goog/event/drums-justin-allen-savannah-harris
Thursday, October 15th , writer and performer Justin Allen continues his 2020 ISSUE residency with the premiere of Drums , a performance stemming from ongoing research into how to emulate, experiment with, and better understand the performance practices of punk singers. This performance is co-presented with The Chocolate Factory Theater , and will be streamed from their theater in Long Island City, New York.
Building on his work Explain Totality (version 4) in which he performs as a singer of a four-piece punk band, Allen is preparing a series of performances in which he sings and experiments with screaming vocal techniques, accompanied by three isolated instruments: electric guitar, electric bass, and drums. The performances focus on the individual instruments, incorporating both rehearsed and improvised material as well as movement. The third performance of the series, Drums , will feature drumming by drummer, composer and producer Savannah Harris .
Justin Allen experiments with performance and writing. His work focuses on the ways aesthetic, structural, and conceptual features in art and language communicate social histories. He has performed at Performance Space New York and Brooklyn Museum with frequent collaborator Devin Kenny, and performed solo work at Movement Research at the Judson Church, BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, and ISSUE Project Room, among other venues. He has read his poetry, fiction, and nonfiction at venues such as The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church, Kampnagel (Hamburg, Germany), and Artists Space. His work has received support from Franklin Furnace, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and The Shed. He is from Northern Virginia and lives and works in New York City.
Savannah Harrisis a New York City-based drummer, composer and producer. She has performed alongside Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran, Kenny Barron, Aaron Parks, Terence Blanchard, Geri Allen, and Georgia Anne Muldrow. She currently tours with Etienne Charles' Creole Soul, José James, Peter Evans' Being + Becoming, the María Grand Trio, Or Bareket, and avant-garde art collective Standing on the Corner. Savannah is an active collaborator creating interdisciplinary works with The Second City improv group, Vail Dance Festival Artistic Director Damian Woetzel, and visual artist Mark Fox. As a bandleader, Savannah has taken her trio to Wine and Bowties' Feels V festival as well as the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. She was awarded the Harlem Stage Emerging Artist Award in 2019, and holds her master' s degree from Manhattan School of Music, under former program director Stefon Harris. She is also a teaching artist for jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz For Young People programs.
Audio description by Azure D. Osborne-Lee, captions by LC Interpreting Services.
[Image description: Justin, a Black person wearing black gym shorts, a gray t-shirt, and black socks stands in a wide stance with his back to the camera, throwing one arm upwards and the other downwards simultaneously. Sepia performance lighting casts his shadow onto an adjacent wall].
ISSUE Project Room's annual Artist-in-Residence program provides New York-based emerging artists with a year of support, offering artists access to facilities, equipment, documentation, pr/marketing, curatorial and technical expertise to develop and present significant new works, reach the next stage in their artistic development, and gain exposure to a broad public audience.
ISSUE Project Room's Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. ISSUE gratefully acknowledges additional 2020 Season support from The Golden Rule Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Metabolic Studio (a direct charitable activity of the Annenberg Foundation), NOKIA Bell Labs, and the TD Charitable Foundation.January 19, 2020 / 3 – 11 pm / Eaton Washington DC / 1201 K St NW, Washington, DC 20005
Savannah G. Harris
Up and coming drummer Savannah Harris, journalism major at Howard University, is a student of the music. She is known for her upbeat spirit, her time, and her wide beat that has made her first call for many band leaders in the DC metro area. Hailing from Oakland, CA, she played with Geri Allen at the All-Female Jazz Residency through the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Montclair State University during the summer of 2014.
Friday October 21, 2022
Episode 9 | Give the Drummer Some! - Special Guest Savannah Harris
In this episode, Melanie and Yunie catch up with their friend who happens to be one of the most in-demand drummers on the scene, Savannah Harris! These ladies get into so many key topics around being a musician in today’s ever changing times. From the importance of mentorship, touring as a drummer, fashion, femininity as a musician and even dating. Savannah shares the impactful mentorship she’s had with the late great Geri Allen, the process of being in Christian McBride’s band, and of course… a round of Trill Trivia!
Presented with support from Winter Jazz Fest
Follow Melanie Charles:
@melaniecharlesisdflower | melaniecharles.com
Follow Yunie Mojica: @yuniemo
Follow Savannah Harris: @savvyknows
https://issueprojectroom.org/video/womens-work-savannah-harris-inner-sound-truth
ISSUE is pleased to stream With Inner Sound, Truth, a new work by drummer and composer Savannah Harris. The piece, curated by Sami Hopkins (ISSUE’s 2021 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow), is a continuation of the With Womens Work series, commissioning artists to interpret and respond to scores included in Womens Work, a magazine first edited and self-published in 1975 by Alison Knowles and Annea Lockwood. The piece will also be performed live at ISSUE’s 2021 Benefit event.
For the commission, Savannah Harris takes cues from Ruth Anderson’s composition Silent sound (1976-77), published in Womens Work #2, to create With Inner Sound, Truth. Here, Harris uses the drum set to direct her attention to "inner sound" and "intuitive voice," responding to Anderson’s earlier considerations of how silence might be held in the body or experienced through felt sense.
Savannah Harris is a New York City-based drummer, composer and producer. Raised in Oakland, California by musician parents, she gravitated towards the drums at age 2. Through the Bay Area music community, Savannah grew familiar with a wide variety of styles, developing a deep love for music as a global language. While at Howard University completing her bachelor’s degree in journalism, she met Geri Allen and made her New York debut playing with Geri Allen, Linda May Han Oh, and Tia Fuller at The Stone. Since then, Savannah has become one of the foremost young drummers in the scene today touring with Kenny Barron, Etienne Charles, Peter Evans, Or Bareket, and María Grand. She’s worked alongside Jason Moran on a collaboration with Second City Improv as well as Between the World and Me at the Apollo Theater. She’s performed with Terence Blanchard, Billy Childs, Christian Scott, Linda May Han Oh and Fabian Almazan, Aaron Parks, José James, and avant-garde art collective Standing on the Corner. In 2019, Savannah was awarded the Harlem Stage Emerging Artist Award, and she received her master’s in jazz performance from Manhattan School of Music. She was featured twice in the January 2021 issue of Modern Drummer. Savannah Harris collaborated with 2020 Artist-In-Residence Justin Allen for DRUMS, which premiered at The Chocolate Factory.
Recorded live 20 October 2021
https://jmih.org/past_event/jazz-is-now-a-joel-ross-curation/
Jazz Is: Now – Savannah Harris 4 – A Joel Ross Curation
National Jazz Museum in Harlem
Mike King, piano
Nick Pennington, guitar
Savannah Harris is a New York City-based drummer, composer and producer. Raised in Oakland, California by musician parents, she gravitated towards the drums at age 2. Steeped in a jazz tradition, Savannah’s more recent work reflects her versatility. She’s performed and recorded with indie and experimental artists Helado Negro, Nick Hakim, Kate Davis, Justin Allen, and Standing on the Corner. Her jazz recordings include releases from Peter Evans, María Grand, and Or Bareket.
She’s performed with Jason Moran, Kenny Barron, Terence Blanchard, Billy Childs, Christian Scott, José James, and Georgia Anne Muldrow. Currently, she’s been working extensively with Christian McBride in his newest ensemble, Aaron Parks, Melanie Charles, and Or Bareket. In 2019, Savannah was awarded the Harlem Stage Emerging Artist Award, and she received her master’s in jazz performance from Manhattan School of Music. She was featured twice in the January 2021 issue of Modern Drummer as both a featured artist and a contributing writer. In October of 2021, she debuted her solo piece “With Inner Sound, Truth” commissioned by Issue Project Room as a tribute to composer Ruth Anderson. Savannah was also featured in Sixteen Journal’s “JAZZ” edition, with portraits shot by photographer James Brodribb.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/beyond-dragons-angelika-niescier-tomeka-reid-and-savannah-harris-intakt-records
Angelika Niescier, Tomeka Reid and Savannah Harris: Beyond Dragonsby Troy Dostert
October 24, 2023
AllAboutJazz
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Niescier's intricate compositions have always been one of her greatest assets, and there is plenty of proof of that here. The bounding energy of the opener, "Hic Svnt Dracones," animated by an arduous ostinato from Reid, pulses with life, as Niescier's cascading torrents come crashing in a seemingly limitless supply. Reid's nimble maneuverings are always a marvel, while Harris has an especially punchy snare attack that she uses to spur the music forward. But the piece takes a turn midway through, reducing the heat to a simmer as Niescier teases out brief fragments of phrases, and sometimes just a repeated note; she then cedes some ground to her partners, as Reid's and Harris' own volubility emerges and the trio generate some suspenseful excitement through a gradual crescendo of intensity, with Niescier riding a staccato, single-note attack to the finish, and Reid and Harris in lock-step with her all the way to the thrilling end. It is a master class in demonstrating how to build, release and recreate tension over the course of the piece's eleven-plus minutes.
The trio is at its best in its most vigorous moments, but Niescier has a darker, more mysterious aspect as well, revealed in "Oscillating Madness," which gives Reid a chance to trace the nuances of the track with her superlative arco playing while Niescier stays in a ruminative, slightly tremulous vein and Harris provides color and texture. But even here, the trio's barely-contained energy seethes just below the surface. "Tannhauser Gate" is a spare, haunting track, with Niescier's breathy lower register offering the ideal complement to Reid's imaginative, often luminous arco. On pieces like "Risse," or "Morphoizm," however, the trio once again lets loose fully, with Niescier's astonishing stamina and range catalyzing the vitality of her colleagues. And sometimes it is when Niescier strips the music down to its essence that it carries the most power. Her rhythmic dexterity allows her to make a single, repeated note speak volumes, and with Harris and Reid attuned to her every move, it is the three musicians acting as one that gives this music its potency.
Track Listing:
Hic Svnt Dracones; Oscillating Madness; Risse; Morphoizm; Tannhauser Gate; A Dance, to Never End; Blue Line.
Angelika Niescier
saxophoneSavannah Harris
drums
Savannah Harris Trio
June 4, 2022
SAVANNAH HARRIS TRIO:
Savannah Harris - Drum Compilation (2019-2020)
Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival: Savannah Harris Trio
Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival: Savannah Harris Trio Millennium Stage (May 14, 2016)
The Kennedy Center
Cologne Jazzweek | Savannah Harris Trio
On Healing
Host Bianca Vivion sits down with Grammy Award-winning jazz artist esperanza spalding and up and coming drummer Savannah Harris to discuss the regenerative power of music in our personal and collective healing journeys.
Video has closed captioning.
Aired: 11/29/22
10 Questions With Savannah Harris
Episode 19 | 49s
Drummer Savannah Harris answers 10 questions from "Generational Anxiety" host Bianca Vivion.
Aired: 02/13/23
Tomeka Reid
Savannah Harris
Tomeka Reid - more than a household name in Chicago, Savannah Harris - the versatile and much-in-demand drummer from NYC, and Angelika Niescier - a fierce saxophonist from Germany form this group, which openly approaches iescier´s compositions.
8:30 PM : REID/NIESCIER/HARRIS TRIO
Tomeka Reid - cello
Angelika Niescier - alto saxophone
Savannah Harris - drums
$15 - Tickets Available at the Door
ABOUT THE BAND:
This Trio blasts itself and the audience with a breathtaking pace which is a real joy to witness.
They explore every possible aspect of the interplay, sometimes chamber-music fine and transparent, sometimes explosively bold and dense, always charged with tension until the last note and the last break.
