Donald Harrison Jr. (born June 23, 1960)[1] is an African-American jazz saxophonist and the Big Chief of The Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultural Group from New Orleans, Louisiana.
The foundation of Harrison's music comes from his lifelong participation in New Orleans culture. He started in New Orleans second-line culture and studied New Orleans secret tribal culture, under his father, Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr.[2] He began participating as a masked Mardi Gras Indian at the age of two years, with the title "Little Chief of the Creole Wild West."[3] Whereas, Harrison Jr. is currently the Chief of Congo Square in Afro-New Orleans Culture.
As a professional musician, Harrison worked with Roy Haynes and Jack McDuff, before joining Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers with Terence Blanchard and recorded albums in a quintet until 1989.[1] Two years later, Harrison released a tribute album to Blakey, For Art's Sake.[4] This was followed by an album that reached into Harrison's New Orleans heritage, with guest appearances by Dr. John and Cyrus Chestnut and chants by the Guardians of the Flame Mardi Gras Indians.[5] He devoted half the album, Nouveau Swing (1997), to mixing the swing beat of modern acoustic jazz, with modern dance music and half to mixing the swing beat with Caribbean-influenced music.[6] On the next album, his experiments continued by mixing modern jazz's swing beat with hip hop, Latin music, R&B, and smooth jazz.[7][8]
His albums, 3D Vols. I, II, and III, present him in three different musical genres. On Vol. I he writes, plays, and produces smooth jazz and R&B style.[2] On Vol. II he writes, produces and plays in the classic jazz style. On Vol. III he writes plays and produces hip hop.
His group, Donald Harrison Electric Band, has recorded popular radio hits and has charted in the top ten of Billboard magazine. He performs as a producer, singer, and rapper in traditional New Orleans jazz and hip hop genres with his group, The New Sounds of Mardi Gras.[2] The group, which has recorded two albums, was started in 2001 and has made appearances worldwide.
In 1999, Harrison was named the Big Chief of the Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultural Group, which keeps alive the secret traditions of Congo Square.[2] Commenting on his choice for the group's name, Harrison has said, "I have a lot of respect for the guys who consider themselves to be Mardi Gras Indians, but I moved into describing what I do culturally in New Orleans to be Afro-New Orleans music from traveling all over the world. Going to places like Cuba and Brazil, they always put Afro in front of things that are from their country but are a derivative of African culture. For instance, Eddie Palmieri always says Afro-Caribbean when describing his music."[3]
In 2016, Harrison recorded his first orchestral work with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. He followed up the piece for the MSO by writing classical orchestral works for the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, The New York Chamber Orchestra, and The Jalapa Symphony Orchestra in 2017.
He is married to Mary Alicė Spears-Harrison and the father of Victoria Harrison.
Awards and honors
National Endowment for the Arts
In 2022, the National Endowment for the Arts recognized Harrison with the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy. Harrison is "known for his hard-swinging improvisational style and the creation of 'Nouveau Swing,' a blend of jazz with R&B, hip-hop, rock, and soul. And his dedication to preserving the music and culture of New Orleans has been crucial to assuring its important legacy survives."[11]
