Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Jazz Connections
Loston Harris Trio brings star power to WAC
Loston Harris often points out that he’s been blessed in his connections. Since he began playing jazz piano at New York City clubs in the early 1990s, he’s shared the stage and performed for both music and Hollywood A-listers alike — George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Sarah Jessica Parker — he even sang with Sir Paul McCartney!
He admits that he still gets a little starstruck from time to time, but that eventually wears away.
“You’re really amazed when you meet them and realize they’re just regular people too,” he says during a morning phone call from his home in New York City. “I’ve never met anyone who made me feel like they thought they were bigger than me or bigger than themselves. I think the ‘starstruck’ term kind of fades away. … You take all that away. They’re just like me and you.”
Known for his percussive style of jazz piano, Harris focused on drums as a young musician with lots of support from his parents. In college, he majored in jazz percussion, he says, but didn’t start playing piano and smooth vocals until after college when a chance meeting with Harry Connick Jr. led Harris to study with late great jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis.
Harris met Connick at a youth jazz competition in which Harris was participating. He says his dad encouraged him to approach Connick, who was just becoming famous, and ask for advice. At the time, Connick was studying piano with Marsalis and suggested that Harris meet with him. He went on to study with Marsalis at Virginia Commonwealth University and later toured with Marsalis’s son, jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.
Another of Harris’ blessings, he says, have been his residencies. He performed at New York’s famed Bemelmans Bar, with walls illustrated by children’s book author Ludwig Bemelmans, for 23 years. Before that, he held a three year residency at the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
“I can’t tell you how wonderful every residency has been. I met new people, new friends, new fans, new musicians. Every time I leave much better than I was when I got there,” he says. “Now I’m starting to kind of branch out and see the world a little more — see some different cities and states.”
His performance on Jan. 13 at the Walton Arts Center will be his first time playing in Fayetteville. He’s bringing a new trio, which includes James Cammack Jr. on acoustic bass — who played with the late jazz pianist and composer Ahmad Jamal.
“This will be the first time on stage with James,” Harris says, but he’s excited to work with him. “We’ll be well-rehearsed, but it’ll be more exciting because we’re both going to be feeding off of each other.”
He’s also bringing an old friend to the stage, Katisse Buckingham, who will play saxophone, flute and percussion.
“Katisse, he knows me, and we’ll have a lot of inside and musical jokes. You’ll see a lot of laughter on stage, but we’ll just be laughing at how much fun we’re having,” Harris adds. Most importantly, he’s looking forward to engaging the crowd with classics from the Great American Songbook, but with his own distinctive edge that draws not only from jazz traditions but R&B, soul and pop.
“I can put my groove on a Cole Porter song, and it feels like my song,” he says, even though he’s not the composer or the author.
“It’s the same thing with Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra was singing songs by other composers, but when Frank Sinatra sang it, you’d be like, ‘Oh, that’s a Sinatra song!’”
And that is one of the many things that keeps the old songs exciting for him and the audience, he says.
“We’re still doing these songs with our own twist on it and bringing a fresh approach to an old classic,” he says. “That’s why I say this music is timeless. These are the songs that we’ll be singing forever.”