NO COVER 5:30pm Show
Chicago-based pianist Harry James will play a very special hour of solo piano compositions from his upcoming album, Halcyon and Xiomara. This contemporary jazz show is best suited for fans of Erik Satie, Alice Coltrane, and/or Madlib.
Born in New Jersey and bred in Chicago’s underground music community, Harry James Brenner, Jr., has built a catalog of self-recorded music using analog tools and techniques under the name Harry James. As a longtime member of several Chicago bands—including Killer Whales, Chandeliers, and Songs For Gods—Harry has worked in a wide range of formats and styles, from experimental electronic music to punky Afrobeat to jazz-inflected post-rock.
Though Harry is trained as a percussionist, his first three solo LPs (released by Potions Music out of Queens, NY) focused on piano. This dual vantage point enabled him to explore musical composition from synchronous angles, approach beats from a tonal perspective, and highlight the rhythmic potentials of melody. Playing solely upright piano and percussion, Harry used his own unique cassette recording process to create his compositions. These techniques helped create warm, welcoming audible environments that perpetuate ghostly memories and familiar-sounding strangers gliding through time and space.
In keeping with Harry’s diverse resume, his songs vary greatly in both mood and points of reference. While upbeat tracks like “The Strut” and “Bars for Freddie” merge cycling melodic patterns with urgent kit work and skittering percussion (think Mulatu Astatke meets Jaki Liebezeit), more mellow cuts like “Dapper” and “Alice Runs the High Life” evoke figures ranging from Erik Satie and Mamão Conti to Alice Coltrane and Rashied Ali, unfolding as if the arpeggiated flourishes of Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou were set to Madlib’s subtly off-kilter timing.
Now, returning to post-pandemic performance, Harry has chosen solo piano as his primary offering. His forthcoming LP, Halcyon and Xiomara, to be released in November by Handsmade Records, in Oakland, CA, is composed primarily of solo piano compositions. A sentimental curation of songs that are vulnerable, contemplative, and invoking a time seemingly gone, but yet to be experienced.
