Easy to love

“Easy to Love,” one of Cole Porter’s best-known songs, is also the title of jazz pianist and singer Bill Harris’s tribute to the American songwriter, which goes on the stage at 291 Gay St. at 8 p.m. one week from Saturday, Oct. 21, at the Little Washington Theatre. There’s a reason for the title.

It’s because the warm feelings toward Cole Porter’s music and lyrics start with Harris himself, the well-known jazz pianist, local favorite and longtime Rappahannock resident. Harris began singing late in his career, and nowadays is devoting his talented hands and strikingly flexible baritone to the music of the early-20th-century composers who comprise the Great American Songbook. For Harris, the composer of “You’re the Top” is at the top of that list.

If you can make it to “Easy to Love: The genius of Cole Porter’s music and lyrics,” you’ll be reminded not only of Porter’s ingenious way with both words and music, but you’ll also discover why Harris is glad he started singing — something he started doing at the Little Washington Theatre a few years back for what were otherwise jazz piano concerts. And after hearing so much positive feedback, he started building a whole new repertoire.

Harris is listed in Washingtonian’s “Best of Jazz in D.C.” and won the Hennessy Cognac Best of D.C. Jazz Competition. His many performance venues include Blues Alley, the Smithsonian, the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles, Snug Harbor in New Orleans and numerous jazz festivals.

For tickets to the Oct. 21 concert ($25, $10 ages 17 and younger), visit littlewashingtontheatre.com, email info@ littlewashingtontheatre.com or call 540-675-1253.