Billy Harper to perform at Luna Bar this Saturday, April 26

This just in: Tenor saxophonist Billy Harper will be in St. Louis this Saturday, April 26 for a performance at Luna Bar, 13 Maryland Avenue (next to Bar Italia) in the Central West End. Harper is a veteran of the NYC scene who, in addition to his work as a bandleader, composer and teacher, has played with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Elvin Jones, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, Gil Evans and Max Roach.

Despite that stellar resume and his considerable skills, Harper is a bit underappreciated, perhaps in part because he draws on a unusually wide range of influences, from gospel and blues to bop and swing to post-Coltrane modernism and free jazz, and thus is hard to pigeonhole. He first caught my ear on a couple of Gil Evans' recordings in the late 1970s, showing off an aggressive tenor sound and an adventurous sensibility that seemed a good fit with Evans' arranging style.

Harper will be joined Saturday night by trumpeter and former St. Louisan Marlon Bonds, plus Ptah Williams on piano, Darrell Mixon on bass and Jerome "Scrooge" Harris on drums. He'll perform at 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., and admission is $25.00, with a $5.00 discount if you dine at Bar Italia.

The performance is being presented by the Nu-Art Series, the brainchild of trumpeter, arts administrator and entrepreneur George Sams, and for more information you can call the Nu-Art Series office at 314-535-6500. You can see and hear a brief sample of Harper's playing in the embedded video window below, which contains an excerpt from the song "Cry of Hunger" on the Arkadia DVD release Billy Harper in Concert: Live from Poland.



(Edited after posting to correct the performance time.)