Harlem Jazz Series - Craig Harris & the Harlem Nightsongs Big Band

Craig Harris brings the Harlem Nightsongs Big Band to Mount Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church for Thursday Night Rhythms of Resistance, a new Harlem Jazz Series program. The evening centers on Harris’s large-ensemble writing and improvisation, with the band billed for a set in the church’s resonant sanctuary. Harris curates the long-running series, and this performance places his own Harlem-based ensemble at its heart.

Born in Hempstead on Long Island, Harris made Harlem his musical home and has presented concerts there for decades. A trombonist, composer and bandleader, he has worked with Sun Ra, Abdullah Ibrahim, David Murray, Lester Bowie, Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers, Muhal Richard Abrams and Charlie Haden; his musical journey began touring with Sun Ra. Harlem Nightsongs pursues extended large-group compositions while retaining “the spontaneity and flexibility of a small group.” Harris’s work draws on Black and African diasporic music and Harlem history, and has addressed social injustice and humanity through projects incorporating spoken word and visual projections. Reviewing his 1983 Harlem Night Song, The New York Times called the music “propulsive” and “unpredictable,” writing that “the whole band roared.”