PURCHASE TICKETS

The grand finale of the Charleston Jazz Festival is presented in partnership with Spoleto Festival USA and will feature the incomparable Big Chief Donald Harrison Quartet from New Orleans. A National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master and cultural ambassador, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison masterfully blends traditional New Orleans sounds with modern jazz, funk and more, creating a style as vibrant and dynamic as the city he calls home and as broad as jazz gets. 

After an early stint in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Harrison has gone on to be among the most distinctive and wide-ranging of jazz bandleaders and among the most sought-after band members, working regularly with the likes of Ron Carter, The Headhunters and The Cookers. His high-energy grooves, fluid improvisation, and soulful melodies move from bebop to soul to funk and have entranced audiences around the world. In his hometown, New Orleans, he is known as “Big Chief” for his pivotal role in preserving and promoting a tradition of Afro-New Orleans Cultural Groups he inherited from his father, and that is a vital element of community organization. Don’t miss this spectacular closing concert, where the Big Chief and his quartet will capture the spirit of New Orleans, celebrating the legacy and future of jazz in an unforgettable performance.

This performance and the related education programs are made possible by the Oliver S. and Jennie R. Donaldson Charitable Trust and Hilton C. Smith Jr., and the Byron Fellowship Educational Foundation.

In-School Performance & Masterclass:

Donald Harrison will inspire students with an in-school performance at a local public school and lead a masterclass for Charleston Jazz Academy youth combo students.  

Public Talk + Performance:

Join us on Tuesday, April 29, for an engaging evening featuring music and a conversation between Larry Blumenfeld, Jazz Curator at Spoleto Festival USA, and Donald Harrison about jazz tradition and building community through culture. More details to come.

As a saxophonist, Donald Harrison, Jr.—recipient of the 2022 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy—is known for his hard-swinging improvisational style and the creation of “Nouveau Swing,” a blend of jazz with R&B, hip-hop, rock, and soul. And his dedication to preserving the music and culture of New Orleans has been crucial to assuring its important legacy survive. Following the devastation resulting from levee failures after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Harrison increased his activism, creating employment opportunities in his own bands for young musicians who had remained in the city when many others had left. He also mentored now world-renowned jazz artists from New Orleans and beyond, including Jon Batiste, Christian Scott a Tunde Adjuah, Trombone Shorty, and Esperanza Spalding. 

Harrison is the son of the late New Orleans folklorist Donald Harrison, Sr., who was known for his involvement in local Afro-New Orleans Cultural Groups. Like his father, Harrison devoted himself to the Crescent City’s multifaceted cultural heritage, founding the Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultural Group to honor the historic place where Black residents, free and enslaved, could sing and dance in public. “The incredible part to me is, even though the players today don’t have a consciousness of that, some of those things are still at the root of what we call jazz music,” Harrison noted in a 2021 Tennessean story. 

He also has served as artistic director and educator for Tipitina’s Foundation’s Internship Program, a nonprofit after-school program for New Orleans high school students interested in music business careers. The program allowed them to perform at New Orleans-based festivals and gave them opportunities to travel to Los Angeles, Memphis, New York, and even to Japan for performances, cultural exchange, and master class experiences. 

Harrison studied at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts with Ellis Marsalis, Jr. before attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Playing professionally during his high school years, Harrison soon was noticed for his talent on both the alto and tenor horns, playing in the bands of Roy Haynes, Jack McDuff, as well as in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, along with fellow New Orleans native, trumpeter Terence Blanchard. 

Harrison also performs in the traditional New Orleans jazz and hip-hop genres with his group the New Sounds of Mardi Gras and has performed and recorded with distinguished musicians such as Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, Miles Davis, Lena Horne, Eddie Palmieri, the Notorious B.I.G., as well as with the powerhouse jazz group the Cookers. As part of his dedication to preserving New Orleans traditions, Harrison appeared in Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, a documentary about the devastation on the city after Hurricane Katrina hit, and also in the post-hurricane New Orleans HBO series Treme. He continues to celebrate and promote the culture and music he loves. 

Learn more here: https://donaldharrison.com/big-chief-donald-harrison 

And here: https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/donald-harrison-jr

See you at the show!