Busy with multiple bands, curating jazz series, and teaching guitar, Zacc Harris finally brought his latest project, The Zacc Harris Group, into the recording studio, yielding the very fine The Garden. Tending The Garden is leader/guitarist Harris, pianist Bryan Nichols, bassist Chris Bates, drummer JT Bates, and special guest, saxophonist Brandon Wozniak.
A California native raised in Virginia, Zacc Harris graduated from Southern Illinois University and has studied with Fareed Haque, Jonathan Kreisberg, Adam Rogers and Clay Moore. After moving to the Twin Cities about 7 years ago, he formed the Luminessence Trio (now Zacc Harris Trio), with ongoing weekly gigs (Sundays) at the Riverview Wine Bar with Matt Peterson and Pete Hennig. Zacc has played with Babatunde Lea, Nancy Harms, Bruce Henry, Debbie Duncan, and most of the area's top singers and instrumentalists, and leads the Atlantis Quartet (named “Best Jazz Band” of 2011 by City Pages), Monk in Motian, Clockwise, and Vital Organ in addition to the Zacc Harris Group and Trio. As well as composing, performing, and directing the Jazz at Studio Z series, Zacc is dedicated to teaching; he is an adjunct faculty at Hamline University and has taught guitar privately for the past 15 years.
The Zacc Harris Group first performed about three years ago, and Harris describes The Garden as “an ending harvest of the last few years of playing with these great musicians…a marker of the music we created together, shaped together… the result of hard work, creative collaboration, and the amazing support of community…” That community includes the individuals who contributed to the recording project through Kickstarter, which allows emerging as well as veteran artists to raise funds to support projects for which there are too few opportunities through commercial means.
The title track swings lightly as Wozniak and Nichols introduce the theme, sax taking over in an updated bebop construction; Harris, then Chris Bates, solo convincingly in the same vein with articulate single-line twists and turns. “Edge of Reason” starts in ambient mode, guitar and Rhodes creating a wave of low pressure across a starry moonscape, pleasantly carrying the listener to that outer edge (“of reason”?) without losing our aural balance. Bryan Nichols takes us on a lyrical, abstract journey in his introduction to “Softly As [In] a Morning Sunrise.” The gentle opening yields to a harder, swinging theme from Wozniak, then chromatic explorations in double time from Harris, buoyed by Chris and JT, the latter providing nonstop spin and splash. In high gear, Wozniak returns – by now this is neither “softly” nor “sunrise” but the full energy of high noon.
“After the Fall” perhaps provides the best opportunity to appreciate the inventive improvising of Bryan Nichols, as well as the subtle genius of Chris Bates who “haunts” this track with some very low commentary; Wozniak and Harris also provide some sterling harmonies and JT ranges from laid back to in-your-face assertive. Brandon’s magical bass clarinet vamp sets the stage for the closing celestial funk of “Undercurrent.” The Rhodes/guitar/clarinet/bass/drum conversation can quickly slip into the subconscious ear… perhaps resulting in some interesting dreams? It’s a dramatic finale to a recording that should stay long in the conscious ear.
Visit Zacc Harris at http://zaccharris.com
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