Barry Harris to Kick Off Jazz Series : Music: Celebrated pianist is known for looking deep inside for inspiration, instead of concentrating purely on technique.

Just playing piano has never been enough for jazzman Barry Harris.

Since the 1950s, Harris, a devout be-bopper and founding father of the bop scene in Detroit, has developed his own theories of jazz and passed the music on to younger generations through a variety of educational efforts.

One of his original pupils was San Diego saxman Charles McPherson, who teams with Harris tonight for a tribute to legendary bop pianist Bud Powell at the Lyceum Stage Theatre downtown, the first of the San Diego Jazz Society’s Jazz Masters Series. The pair will be joined by bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Larance Marable.

“What I’m trying to do with the series is bring some of the great jazz pianists and other jazz masters into San Diego, especially people who have not been here for a long time and who deserve wider recognition,” said Jim Merod, a devoted local jazz fan and writer who booked the musicians for the series.

Harris definitely qualifies.

Despite being a favorite sideman of Sonny Criss, Cannonball Adderley, James Moody, Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon, Red Rodney, Coleman Hawkins and a leader with several albums of his own, Harris has never received attention equal to that accorded other jazz pianists of his generation.

He recorded his first album in 1950 as a sideman to Detroit tenor saxophonist Wild Bill Moore, and has since played on more than 65 albums. His last release was the 1989 “The Bird of Red and Gold.” A new solo piano album is due on the Concord label within the next few weeks.

At 61, Harris still takes piano lessons, most recently with classical pianist Sophia Rosoff in New York.

“I don’t think there’s one jazz musician in this world who has worked enough to know what he can do, his real abilities,” said Harris, who moved to Manhattan during the 1960s and now lives nearby in New Jersey. “I’ve got tapes of (pianist Thelonious) Monk practicing. He didn’t just practice, he played. He played one piece for 90 minutes by himself. The whole thing is we really don’t play enough.”

Besides dedicated practicing, Harris’ philosophy of jazz includes the belief that musicians, including pianists, must look deep within themselves for inspiration, instead of concentrating purely on technique.

“Most people, when they approach the piano, their fingers are the first thing to react. I believe more in the body playing the piano than the fingers. This method puts you into your body, right below your navel, where you really play and feel everything.”

Apparently his methods have connected with students, almost from the start.

“Barry’s the whole reason why I really started playing,” said McPherson, who first studied jazz in earnest under Harris’ tutelage in Detroit in the 1940s. “Barry was my mentor. I started studying with him when I was about 15. At that time, I knew some scales, but I had no idea of harmony or theory, some of the technical things involved with music. He’s the guy who showed me how to think about improvising.”

In developing his sort of Inner Piano approach, Harris learned something from saxophonist Hawkins during their association in the late 1960s (Hawkins died in 1969).

“I think that was one of my best periods. I think he was the greatest improviser, really,” Harris said. “One thing he told me: ‘I don’t play chords, I play movements.’ And I do understand, more now than ever before.

“Music is movements, not chords. When you listen to one of the great composers, you don’t think of what chords he plays, it’s just some beautiful music flowing.”

As a teacher, Harris’ best-known educational effort was the Jazz Cultural Theatre, a multidisciplinary education center he founded and directed in Manhattan from 1982-87. Today, his annual concerts combining professionals with Detroit’s student musicians are legend in his old hometown. Last September’s show included both Harris and McPherson, plus tens of young musicians.

When Harris was honing his talent in the 1940s, Detroit was a heady place for an aspiring jazzman.

“Oh man, it was unbelievable, really beautiful,” he said. “Young people today listen to music with their ears plugged up with these Walkmans. What we did, we made music. All the young kids learned to play an instrument of some kind, and we were all trying to play jazz. “The Big Bands were coming through, and we went every week to listen.

“In Detroit, we had people like Will Davis, Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Burrell, a guy we called Cokie--an alto player who played so good, man, he played like Bird (saxophonist Charlie Parker).”

In fact, Harris played with Parker a few times as a teen-ager, and said he knew even then that the saxophonist would have a lasting impact.

“Yes, goodness, of course. We fell in love with Bird.”

Although Saturday’s concert is billed as a tribute to Powell, who died in 1966, Harris will play other music.

“I’ll do some Bud and some Bird, that’s what I’d do anyway. I’m going to play what I want to play.”