Weather bird

Barry Harris - reluctant testee

Bebop guru Barry Harris, the man whom Joe Zawinul credited with igniting his individuality, is in London this week to hold his annual jazz piano workshops and play Pizza Express gigs.

Oddly, given his expertise, Barry has always declined to sit a blindfold test with JJ. To be fair, perhaps, like Mike Stern in a similar situation, he would prefer not to pass judgement on his fellow musicians. But one never knows - no explanation is ever forthcoming. It perhaps should be rememembered that both players are Americans and may have encountered in Leonard Feather's tests for Downbeat what Pat Martino, presented with the same proposal a few years ago, said was an experience he wasn't about to be repeating.

The story of Zawinul's creative ascendancy arises from an interview some years back in which Zawinul told me he ran into Harris on a Manhattan street and Harris said, in effect: "You play great bebop - you sound just like me." At which, said Zawinul, he vowed never to play bebop again and began developing the epochal style evinced by Weather Report.