Trombonist Craig Harris was an aspiring student in the early Seventies when he encountered Charles Mingus’s then-current quintet. Mingus had a trio of young incendiary devices— pianist Don Pullen, tenor man George Adams and baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett— playing with him and his stalwart drummer, Dannie Richmond. This did not sound like Goodbye Pork Pie Hat! What happened on stage was unprecedented free improvisation with all of the craft and imagination of Mingus’s greatest bands. Craig Harris was hooked: he knew what he needed to do and he has been doing it ever since. He waited for that band to make a record but they never did. Craig has been waiting for the emergence of that music for 40 years.
It’s time. This Monday April 15, Craig Harris joins me in a Deep Focus https://mitchgoldman.com/category/deep-focus/on this critical and under-documented period in Mingus’s career, only on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.
We’ll see you on the radio –