by Tom Benton

When Stefon Harris mentioned that there was a tornado in Austin last time he was here, I had to double-check which one he was talking about. One quite literally touched down just outside of town; its sister storm splintered the stage of the Mercury in the form of the Blue Note New Directions tour, where Harris' vibraphone matched wits with a powerhouse sextet of the venerable jazz label's youngest stars, including such heavyweights as saxophonist Greg Osby and pianist Jason Moran. The group played each other's tunes, standards, and presumably pretty much anything they wanted, storming atypical jazz venues across the nation.

Though sending this group on the road might have been the brainchild of a Blue Note higher-up, assembling the sextet was not. "I pitched it, actually," explains Harris. "I noticed that when Jason would do a gig it was basically the same group and the same thing with Greg so it was a very natural evolution that we work together like that. And I was thinking it would be great to get this group of musicians together in one ensemble because it would actually sound natural. It wouldn't sound like that typical all-star group where a bunch of guys who don't really know each other particularly well get together and play."

Serious words from someone who has seriously been playing jazz for all of four years; raised in Albany, he was enjoying a full merit scholarship at the Eastman School of Music as a classical percussionist when a roommate hipped him to some Charlie Parker records. Harris promptly packed up for New York City and immersed himself in jazz, jamming, gigging, and studying, while at the same time finishing up his B.A. in classical percussion at the Manhattan School of Music. An M.A. in jazz performance followed, as did gigs with Max Roach, Joe Henderson, and Steve Coleman, and Buster Williams, to name but a few. In the midst of this activity, his exponentially burgeoning jazz skills coupled with positive word of mouth from all over soon found Blue Note calling.

The resultant album, A Cloud of Red Dust, is a vibrant yet meditative document, drawing not just from the experiences of a classical virtuoso turned jazzhead, but on a litany of non-musical inspiration as well. "A lot of the songs were written about literature I had read at the time. Some Sufi stories, some Middle Eastern philosophy -- that record was put together during the years that I was in college and it's kind of a document of that whole journey" he explains.

And as if finishing a classical percussion degree while at the same time busily studying and playing jazz weren't enough to keep a person busy, Harris' time in school also found him gigging with a variety of New York Afro-Cuban groups. Late nights of mambos and cumbias were clearly not lost on him, as an undercurrent of percolating Latin and African percussion is perhaps A Cloud of Red Dust's unifying theme, solidifying the groove as the leader and his stellar crew of players soar above.

A Cloud of Red Dust was almost unanimously hailed as one of the finest jazz debuts of last year -- or any year in recent memory, for that matter. Harris' rapid ascension up the ladder of in-demand jazz vibraphonists shifted gears to blistering and it would seem he hasn't had a spare minute since -- The Blue Note New Directions Tour, recording and gigging with Charlie Hunter and Cassandra Wilson, a brief Stravinski tour with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society (just in case you thought those chops were getting rusty), jamming with Milt Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson at the San Francisco Jazz Festival.

In the midst of this flurry of activity, Harris was able to return to the studio to record Black Action Figure. A large portion of the band from his first record re-appears and the new faces are, for the most part, musicians that he had played with in the interim between recordings -- including Harris himself, 5/6 of the New Directions band appears on Black Action Figure -- which gives the album a strong cohesion, though in a decidedly different direction. The dispositions of the players ensure that it is an unmistakably modern record, but in a certain respect Harris is stepping back, lightening up his compositional rigor and just playing, yielding a funky, fun, and completely engrossing album. Latin and African rhythms do not make nearly as overt an appearance as they did on A Cloud of Red Dust, but Harris hopes this album will make you move nonetheless.

"I've always thought of music in terms of physical gestures. I believe you should be able to play a phrase and someone should be able to dance to the theme of that phrase. That sort of concept definitely further developed on this album," he explains.

Stepping back from the mindset of academia was integral in finding inspiration for the album's first composition, "Feline Blues." Based on a dazzling, angular theme that briskly hums along like a well-tuned sports car, Harris insists that the tune is actually deceptively simple, fueled by none other than the primogenitor of jazz himself: "I reached a certain point in my studies where I was checking out Charlie Parker, and I was listening to Red Garland at the time. That's when I met Wynton and I heard everybody talking about this Louis Armstrong guy. So I bought a couple of records and transcribed a couple things and it just amazed me that this guy made so much music with such basic structures. Like if it was a triad, there were three notes in that chord, he didn't need 50,000 chromatic passing tones. He would take those three notes and make so much music out of them."

Harris' playing on Black Action Figure confirms this more minimalist approach; whatever remnants of bebop phrasing that turned up on A Cloud of Red Dust are gone. Now one can almost picture him striking a handful of notes, looking curiously at the tines for a sign or omen, and then skittering up and down his instrument in increasingly unsettling intervals. Harris chuckles when it's suggested that his improvising has taken on more "abstraction" in the space between the two records, but admits it's not an inaccurate description for the whirlwind progression his playing has taken in the course of studying the masters and working towards developing his own voice.

"I'm a late comer to jazz. On my first record, my improvisations...it was cool, you know? But then I was able to spend a lot of time focusing on it and I think there's been a big improvement."

The conceptual motivation for Black Action Figure also provided a nurturing forum for improvising. "On A Cloud of Red Dust I was very focused on documenting the compositions, and on Black Action Figure that of course is still a goal, but I definitely wanted to jump in there in terms of the improvisation and be more experimental. To keep that relaxed, ambiguous feeling, almost like I don't know what's going to happen," he says. Keeping with this sense of spontaneity and thoroughly defying obligations to convention, Harris is continually experimenting with alternate techniques to have at the ready while improvising. "On this record you hear this clicking sound where I flip the stick over and I play holding the mallet head, creating an overtone sound that was kind of nice. I also created this wah-wah sound that I did with my mouth -- I place my mouth over one of my high notes after I strike it and it creates this kind of...I don't know to describe it, really. I've been trying putting coins on the instrument to create a sort of buzzing thing."

Might we see him putting a bow to his instrument (a popular technique in modern classical percussion) any time soon? "It'd be interesting. That's actually a good idea, I haven't done that in years. I'll have to pull that out and see what that sounds like."

Harris' group for his Austin appearance will include a twist in his fervent dedication to spirited improvisation. His quartet, with bassist Taurus Mateen and drummer Nasheed Waits -- both of whom played on the new directions tours, Mateen also appears on Black Action Figure -- will be completed by a newcomer to the group, pianist Billy Childs. "Billy brings a different sort of compositional approach to the music. He has a really broad sense of sound and harmonically I think that it's going to work well balancing the adventurousness of the bass player and the drummer. Extreme adventurousness. Billy knows how to really listen to balance things out so I'm trying that sort of thing."

A variation on a theme, it would seem -- making the music fresh and new by reigning in the wild ones. In any case, Harris' dedication to innovation and keeping things interesting doesn't cease, with his only guideline being one simple credo. "It's all sound. I don't have any judgement on sound -- it just depends on how you organize it."

Stefon Harris will perform at the Clay Pit's Bombay Room, 1601 Guadalupe, at 9pm September 18.