Joe Harriott

Joseph Arthurlin "Joe" Harriott (15 July 1928 in Kingston, Jamaica – 2 January 1973 in Southampton, Hampshire) was a Jamaican jazz musician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone.

Initially a bebopper, he became a pioneer of free-form jazz. He was educated at Kingston's famed Alpha Boys School, which produced a number of prominent Jamaican musicians. He moved to the UK as a working musician in 1951 and lived in the country for the rest of his life. Harriott was part of a wave of Caribbean jazz musicians who arrived in Britain during the 1950s, including Dizzy Reece, Harold McNair, Harry Beckett and Wilton Gaynair.

Early career

Like the majority of alto players of his generation, Harriott was deeply influenced by Charlie Parker. He developed a style that fused Parker with his own Jamaican musical sensibility - most notably the mento and calypso music he grew up with. Even in his later experiments, his roots were always audible. However, it was Harriott's mastery of bebop that gained him immediate kudos within the British jazz scene upon his arrival in London in 1951.

Movement (Joe Harriott album)

Movement is the fourth album by Jamaican saxophonist Joe Harriott recorded in England in 1963 and released on the Columbia label.

Reception

All About Jazz writer, Duncan Heining, stated "Movement is perhaps the best representation of a typical Joe Harriott Quintet gig of the period, combining as it does straight-ahead tracks with his free-form work".

Track listing

All compositions by Joe Harriott except as indicated

Personnel

References