Bluesman Goes From Boise to Basie to Santa Monica

Idaho somehow does not seem the likeliest state of the union to provide a jazz ambiance, nor the talent or excitement of which this music is capable. Yet it is at the University of Idaho in Moscow that the Lionel Hampton School of Music flourishes, and it is in the lounge of Boise’s Idanha Hotel that one of the greatest living blues pianists, Gene Harris, has been ensconced for most of the last 11 years.

Harris will be leading a big, star-laden orchestra tonight through Sunday at the Loa in Santa Monica, re-creating his surprise hit album “Tribute to Count Basie” (Concord Jazz 4337).

The setting is perfect for Harris, though the music is not directly a Basie imitation. Where the Count might tinkle a sprinkle of notes, Harris is more likely to explode in a shimmering burst of rich blue chords; he has a different and compelling approach to the blues, to stomps and occasional ballads.

The band, for which arrangements have been written by Basie alumni Frank Wess and John Clayton, was recorded a year ago in Burbank after the impresario and bassist Ray Brown, with whom Harris has often left Boise to play in trio settings at home and abroad, convinced him that a full orchestra would be the ideal complement for his next album.

Ironically, Harris says, the original idea was to do it with the actual Basie band.

“I have to be honest with you,” he said in an interview last week during the band’s stint in New York. “They turned us down, so we did it this way, putting our own orchestra together, and I’m afraid they may be a little sorry now. As for me, I’m in seventh heaven! I never had a big band in person before, and where I work regularly in Boise the entire room just seats 45 people.”

The Loa will seat, along with about 140 customers, the likes of Snooky Young, Bobby Bryant, Oscar Brashear and Conte Candoli, trumpet; George Bohanon, Garnett Brown and Maurice Spears in the trombone sections; such saxophonists as Marshal Royal, Jeff Clayton, Pete Christlieb and Jack Nimitz and, along with Harrison, the rhythm contingent of guitarists Herb Ellis, drummer Jeff Hamilton and bassist John Clayton. Ellis is even playing on amplified guitar to come closer to the late Freddie Green’s sound.

Born in 1933 in Benton Harbor, Mich., Harris first established his indigo keyboard coloration through the Three Sounds, a group that flourished in the 1950s and ‘60s, using occasional orchestral settings by Oliver Nelson and others, but always appearing in person with just Andy Simpkins (now Sarah Vaughan’s bassist) and drummer Bill Dowdy.

“After so many years just working solo or with a trio,” Harris said, “this is an amazing experience, to have all these men on the stand knocking you dead every night. I sometimes think how great it would be to keep a band like this together, but of course it costs so much for an orchestra to travel nowadays.”

In any event, the band dates will occasionally spell his regular job. In early July he’ll be back at the Idanha. He speaks warmly of his Idaho home, where he spent a while in semi-retirement, playing golf, fishing, and sailing on his cabin cruiser with his wife, Jane, the daughter of a local banker.

“Jane’s a classical pianist and a jazz fan. She was a schoolteacher and she came to see me shortly after I opened in Boise. We’ve been together ever since, and she’s retired, so that we can go everywhere my job takes me--London, Tokyo, New York.”

But will he ever be able to show off his big band back home in Boise?

“Sure, we’ve talked about it and I’m sure Ray Brown will fix up something for me there--but of course it will be much too big for the hotel room, so we’ll find someplace that will accommodate us.

“It’s wonderful having someone like Ray working with us--everybody respects him, and I just get my kicks playing while he takes care of the business.”

When the band roars its way through “Captain Bill” (dedicated to Basie) and “Blues for Pepper” (Freddie Green’s nickname), it’s a fair bet that the kicks at the Loa tonight will be mutual. The journey from Boise to Basie in the hands of Harris and his Blue Genes is a trip that just can’t miss.