Welcome to The Three Sounds Month!

[I've decided to dedicate this month on the blog to one of the most underrated and unfairly maligned groups in jazz history - The Three Sounds!  They were one of the Blue Note's biggest sellers in the early 60s, but today their recordings are all out of print and  difficult to obtain domestically as the jazz gatekeepers-hard boppers have conspired to erase The Three Sounds from jazz history.... To get us going, I've decided to ask my friend, Dan Gould (aka 'The Gene Harris Fanatic and expert on the group),  to write something about the heart of The Three Sounds: Gene Harris - prestontw]

Gene Harris

by

Dan Gould AKA Gene Harris Fanatic

The Three Sounds.  Aside from perhaps Bobbi Humphrey, is there any Blue Note recording artist that triggers such disparate reactions?  Great swinging trio or boring ‘cocktail’ jazz?  The group was one of Blue Note’s top sellers through two different tenures with the company, yet today, their domestic CD releases are difficult to track down, and Michael Cuscuna has stated that the potential sales of any Mosaic release, ‘big box’ or Select, are not sufficient to merit production.

For someone whose first online handle was Gene Harris Fanatic, it’s a situation that’s difficult to comprehend.  Its easy to recall my first exposure to Gene Harris – it came in 1989 when I purchased a copy of Stanley Turrentine and The Three Sounds, Blue Hour.  At that point in my still-early exposure to jazz, I had heard a few of Mr. T’s Blue Note recordings and so I figured that regardless of the unknown trio backing him, I knew I’d like the saxophonist.  Before the first song was over, I decided there was only one way to listen to this album:  Through headphones, in total darkness.  If you haven’t done it, I heartily recommend it.  Block out everything but the music and bask in the deep blue feelings these musicians express.  If you think Blue Hour is a snooze, you’ve got a hole in your soul.

I saw Gene in person only once, but it is a memory that will never fade.  Gene came out of semi-retirement in the mid-1980s to join the Ray Brown Trio, and in the summer of 1990 I drove in to New York City to catch them at the Blue Note.  At this time, Gene’s piano feature was “Summertime” and Gene’s performance released on the Ray Brown Trio, Bam Bam Bam (Concord) is widely known.  Well on this night, Gene played it just like he did on the CD, only raised to the N^th degree.  He hit those roof-shaking powerful  chords and tremolos, and then dialed the intensity back down, before raising it up again, over and over with each peak higher and more intense than the last one.  When he finally brought the tune to a close, the audience exploded in the loudest sustained ovation I’ve ever heard.

When the crowd finally quieted down again, Ray Brown looked over at Gene and said, “You keep playing that piano like that, it’s gonna follow you home!”  Bedlam.  Ever since, I’ve wanted to commission a single-panel comic showing Gene walking away from the Blue Note, with a piano walking behind him saying “Play me again, Mr. Harris!” 

I like to believe that every piano Gene Harris touched felt the same way.