Allan Harris is on tour out of NYC, and meets up with fellow New Yorker/acclaimed guitarist Freddie Bryant and bi-coastal drummer Sylvia Cuenca–with the estimable Doug Miller on bass–for two sets of poetry inflected jazz and jazz inflected poetry… $30 cover charge; byob. Call the shop to reserve.

Harris, long acclaimed for his vocalese, is touring in advance of a fresh album with a superb band, including Sylvia on drums: “Allan Harris Live at the Blue LLama,” recorded live in Ann Arbor.

Freddie Bryant was proclaimed “a brilliant young guitarist and composer” by Kenny Burrell right out the gate. Since those youthful years, he’s blazed a brilliant path, and the recording of his epic song cycle with an all-star case, “Upper West Side Love Story” was named by Downbeat as one of the “Best CDs of 2023.” 

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Allan Harris “Poetry of Jazz”

“Poetry of Jazz” is where the spoken word gets its groove. Allan Harris, Harlem’s own modern-day troubadour, takes classic poetry–from Shakespeare’s sonnets to Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance–and drops it into the deep pocket of jazz. With his velvet vocals and magnetic presence, he flows between swinging rhythms and soulful recitations, backed by a razor-sharp jazz trio. This isn’t just a concert–it’s a vibe, a conversation between past and present, where jazz and poetry don’t just meet, they riff, improvise, and redefine cool.