Published: 2014-07-15
In an interview from 1989, during which he discussed “the cultural aesthetics of black jazz,” the Pulitzer Prize winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa referenced his poem “Blue Light Lounge Sutra For The Performance Poets At Harold Park Hotel” to make the point that “… music is serious business in the African-American community because it is so intricately interwoven with our identity.
” Jazz musicians in particular, he added, “…have to have that need to take risks and these come to us in varied patterns and intensities.” That statement cogently sums up Darryl Harper’s approach to creating and performing music and it is fitting the clarinetist, composer and bandleader adapted the opening words of Komunyakaa’s poem for the title of his new recording “The Need’s Got To Be So Deep” (Hipnotic Records HR-10012) that he released in July 2014.
Both a retrospective documentation of the continuum of this multifaceted creative musician’s canon and a milestone in his development as a visionary improviser and composer, the double-CD presents Harper performing original and commissioned pieces in duet, trio, quartet, quintet and octet settings. Works by modern jazz masters Jimmy Giuffre, Carla Bley and Yusef Lateef, important influences and inspirations, round out the wide-ranging program of music.
A noteworthy addition to Harper’s discography, the recording not only makes crystal clear what his perspective on jazz is and what he feels its possibilities are, but also showcases the versatility and virtuosity he has developed as an instrumentalist over the course of a 30-year career playing music spanning the stylistic spectrum from jazz and classical chamber music to funk and gospel.
“I see this recording as both a culmination of my work to date as a writer and player and as a retrospective spotlighting the various composers, musicians and ensembles I’ve worked with over the years,” Harper said when asked about the project.
In addition to featuring the Onus Trio that Harper formed with bassist Matthew Parrish and drummer Harry “Butch” Reed in the late-‘90s, and the C-3 Project octet he formed in 2005, he plays duets with guitarist Freddie Bryant and pianist Helen Sung, as well as works for quartet and quintet. Violinist and MacArthur Fellow Regina Carter, with whom Harper toured for two years between 2006 and 2008, performs Harper’s composition ‘Dances For Outcasts,’ a two- movement piece he wrote for violin and marimba.
Read more: http://news.allaboutjazz.com/clarinetist-composer-bandleader-darryl-harper-releases-the-needs-got-to-be-so-deep-on-hipnotic-records.php#.U8m97Vadp3g
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