BIG CHIEF DONALD HARRISON

New Orleans born saxophonist and composer Donald Harrison is a master in every era and style of jazz, soul, funk, and as a composer of orchestral classical music.

An NEA Jazz Master, he has appeared as an actor and/or musician in HBO’s Treme, Jonathan Demme’s film Rachel Getting Married, Marvel’s Luke Cage and Spike Lee’s When The Levee Broke.  He’s recorded and performed with jazz artists such as Roy Haynes, Art Blakey, Eddie Palmieri, Lena Horne, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham and Dr. Lonnie Smith.

He has been a mentor to artists as diverse as The Notorious Big, Jon Batiste, Trombone Shorty, and Esperanza Spaulding.  Descending from a long lineage of Afro-New Orleans’ Mardi Gras Indians, he is the official Big Chief of Congo Square and was made a Chief in 2019 by Queen Diambi Kabatusuila in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa.

We guarantee that a show with Chief Harrison won’t just be great music, it will be a highly entertaining educational experience on the roots and journey of American jazz with New Orleans as its cradle and source.