Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bill Harris was born on April 14, 1925 in Nashville, North Carolina He studied guitar in Washington, D.C. at the Columbia School of Music and in 1950 began playing with the R&B vocal group The Clovers. He remained with the group through 1958, playing on many of their most successful hit records.

During this time he also recorded as a jazz musician, including two LPs for EmArcy Records, his 1956 self-titled Bill Harris and The Harris Touch In 1957. Through the Sixties, he played in the DC area and in the 1970s taught music, and published several books on guitar technique.

He was awarded a compositional fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1972. Moving to France he performed there for much of 1972-1973, and after returning to the States, Harris began managing his own jazz club, Pigfoot, in the DC, but by 1981 the club was repossessed by the Internal Revenue Service due to back taxes.

Guitarist Bill Harris worked as an impresario late in life, organizing and presenting concerts in a variety of genres until passing away on December 6, 1988, Washington, D.C.

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