Connections Beyond Music for Stefon Harris

When vibraphonist Stefon Harris suddenly emerged on the jazz scene in the late ‘90s, he was quickly identified as a potentially important and innovative player. Electing to make sure his jazz dues were paid, Harris--who was originally on a classical path, planning to be a symphonic percussionist--has spent the last couple of years solidifying his skills as a player, a leader and, as it turns out, a thoughtful, still-evolving artist.

Tonight and Saturday, he performs at the Founders Hall Jazz Club in the Orange County Performing Arts Center, fronting a quartet that has achieved the relatively rare accomplishment of working together as a unit for nearly two years. For Harris, 28, the time spent with his musical associates--Xavier Davis, piano; Tarus Mateen, bass; Terrion Gully, drums--has been invaluable, both in terms of creating a musical dialogue and in terms of his own creative progress.

“We’re so relaxed when we walk on stage together,” he says. “We don’t even have a set list. Generally we come out, someone strikes a note and we play an entire set of music from that. Sometimes it turns into a short song, sometimes an entire set of music flows from that starting point. It really helps us to trust one another and respect each other as musicians.”

This sort of spontaneity further reflects an attitude toward music making that reaches well beyond the usual jazz notions of theme and improvisation.

“In my performances I’m extremely spontaneous,” Harris says, “but it’s very difficult to practice spontaneity. It’s not something you can sit at home and develop. I practice, but I don’t do it at my instrument.

“One of the things I do is to sit in a crowded area, close my eyes and try to hear as many sounds as I possibly can at the same time. Whether it’s a car, whether it’s a leaf rustling by, whether it’s two people having a conversation behind me and two others in front of me--I try to keep track of all that information and not lose any of it. That way, when I walk on stage and we begin to play, I hear everything that’s going on, I’m constantly engaged in the community that’s on stage, and I don’t have to worry about just going on automatic pilot.”

Harris has two new albums in the can, one scheduled for release this summer, the other for some time in 2002. In the first, “Kindred,” he teams up with pianist Jacky Terrasson, Mateen and Gully. The second is a full-length concert work for a 12-piece ensemble. A year in the making, it represents an important step into the composition spotlight for Harris.

“I call it,” he says, “ ‘The Grand Unification Theory.’ ”

Asked why a jazz-based artist would choose a concept from physics as the title for a composition, Harris simply chuckles.

“It happened,” he says, “because I was studying a variety of things throughout the past two years. I was learning to speak Spanish, I was studying Buddhism, I started writing poetry and I started studying some physics. As I was trying to figure out what was unifying all those things for me, I came across this theory from physics, the grand unification theory. And the whole concept behind it was exactly what I was searching for--the notion that if you can find the connection between gravitational force, molecular energy and electromagnetic energy, you will basically find the solution to creation.

“I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it’s a beautiful thought. So, along the same lines, I tried to find a way to find what was in common with all these things that I was studying, and bring them together in the idiom in which I’m most comfortable expressing myself. The result was this composition--about two hours long in 11 movements.”

The individualism that Harris brings to his music is inseparable from his continually evolving views of life.

“Music is just a reflection of a person’s inner spirit,” he says. “If I weren’t playing music, I’d still be involved in a variety of different fields of study. I’d always be looking for the linkages I mentioned.

“So music is definitely not the most important thing in my life. When it’s all said and done, when you’re looking at it objectively as an outsider, it’s like, OK, so you can bang some notes on a piano, and you can move your fingers really fast, and that’s great. But what does all that mean?

“I think sometimes what hurts us,” Harris continues, “is we’re thinking just in terms of music. I rarely think in terms of music. Because what you’re really doing when you’re standing on stage--sometimes in front of 5,000 people, sometimes 500, sometimes 50--is communicating with other human beings. And when you’re doing that, it’s very important that you’re conscious of the message that you’re putting out there to people, that you’re aware of the emotions and the feelings that you’re articulating through your music. To me, that’s the real responsibility in going on stage and playing into a microphone.”

Intriguing thoughts from a young artist who continues to impress. If anything, the progress in Harris’ work and ideas that has taken place over the last few years simply affirms the original view of him as one of the significant jazz players (and, now, composers) of the new century.

* The Stefon Harris Quartet performs at the Founders Hall Jazz Club in the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tonight and Saturday at 7:30 and 9:30. Ticket prices $44 for the 7:30 p.m. shows, $38 for the 9:30 p.m. shows. Information: (714) 556-ARTS or on the Web at www.ocpac.org.

Music Outreach: HMI 2001, this year’s installment of the annual Henry Mancini Institute at UCLA, runs from July 21 to Aug. 18, with concerts by HMI ensembles at various venues, including the Hollywood Bowl. Prior to that, however, HMI is implementing its Community Outreach initiative with three free appearances. In the first, trumpeter/educator Bobby Rodriguez and violinist Lesa Terry will celebrate Cinco de Mayo with master classes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Cal State L.A. On May 6, several HMI ensembles, including jazz and brass quintets, perform at the Hollywood Bowl’s “Do the Bowl,” from 10:25 a.m. to 5 p.m. On the same day, the HMI String Trio participates in the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts’ family arts festival at 12:30 p.m. For information, contact Rachelle Romeo at HMI, (310) 845-1900.