Harrell, Tom

▪ 1997

      Tall, lean Tom Harrell stands hunched forward on the bandstand, head bowed, a private man seemingly lost in a world of his own. Until, that is, he raises his trumpet to his lips—and then the lines of bright, sophisticated melody pour out with full confidence. The 1996 album Labyrinth, his first for a major label (RCA Victor), featured his compositions for quintet and nonet. There were songs with the standard chord changes as well as "Cheetah," a free jazz experiment with a spontaneous harmonic structure and shifting tempi. Through it all, there was Harrell's vibratoless, uninflected trumpet improvisation, a wholly lyrical art accomplished with warmth and sweetness. The collection also included a one-man duet, "Darn That Dream," with Harrell's flügelhorn solo accompanied by himself on piano. Altogether the album was among his most varied and musically successful.

      Harrell's victory as top trumpet player in the 1996 Down Beat critics poll was especially satisfying for three reasons. First, it came as a surprise after more than a decade of well-publicized trumpet wars between Wynton Marsalis, the preeminent jazz conservative, and the influential innovator Lester Bowie. (Harrell, unusually, was a success on jazz's right and left wings as well as in the wide area between.) Second, it climaxed Harrell's daring decision in 1989, after a comfortable career as a well-traveled sideman, to lead his own groups and play his own compositions. Third, it validated the personal bravery of an artist who had refused to succumb to profound emotional illness.

      Born June 16, 1946, in Urbana, Ill., Harrell spent most of his youth in the San Francisco Bay area, where he began playing in jazz groups when he was 13. He graduated from Stanford University in 1969 with a major in composition and also studied with alto saxophonist Lee Konitz. His highly varied résumé included tours with big bands, including Stan Kenton's (1969) and Woody Herman's (1970-71), and work with pianist Bill Evans (1979) and in Konitz's latter-day cool-jazz nonet (1979-81). It was as a trumpet soloist in "hot" hard-bop combos led by Horace Silver (1973-77) and Phil Woods (1983-89), however, that he attracted most attention. All the while, Harrell was composing prolifically and leading his own recordings by the time he left Woods to go out on his own. While leading groups in the 1990s, he also toured the U.S. and Europe as a freelance sideman, most notably with Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra.

      As a young man Harrell was diagnosed as having borderline schizophrenia, and later assessments suggested more serious emotional illness. His problems were manifested as debilitating depression, and he had also suffered from lung problems. Most people who suffered from such illness would be condemned to a marginal existence, but music provided Harrell with a way out. He in turn provided listeners with an example of courage and grace as well as uncommon musical creativity. (JOHN LITWEILER)

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