Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
Keeping the Flame at Van Gelder Studio
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
Allan Harris, seated, with his band at the Blue Llama in Ann Arbor, Michigan: from left, Jay White, Sylvia Cuenca, Alan Grubner and John Di Martino.
(Photo: Steve Mundinger)With 17 records to his name, including his newest live record, The Poetry Of Jazz, seasoned New York vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Allan Harris is nothing short of prolific. A Harlem native and mentee of Tony Bennett who grew up immersed in music, Harris says making new records is an organic process for him and an essential part of who he is.
At the same time, there were many moments during the making of The Poetry Of Jazz, an ambitious live album recorded at the Ann Arbor jazz club and restaurant Blue Llama, that Harris almost gave up on the project. The Poetry Of Jazz pairs Harris’ originals, as well as well-known jazz compositions by greats like Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini, with the classic and beloved poems of Shakespeare, Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes.
“Not only was it daunting, it was frightening,” said Harris, who was often concerned he wouldn’t do justice to the well-known literary jewels he planned to braid into the music.
Luckily, a small army of supporters who believed in the project, including his wife, Patricia, convinced Harris to forge ahead in those moments of doubt. They told him: “Once you get to the shore, you’re going to reach another level,” Harris said.
Sure enough, The Poetry Of Jazz, released on Love Production Records, has transformed Harris’ understanding of himself as a musician, performer and also as a human being.
“My delivery on-stage now, because of learning these poems and understanding what they are, has really just developed tenfold,” he said.
Though the project officially began in 2023, The Poetry Of Jazz has been brewing for much of his life. Harris, who writes many of his own lyrics, has been a “student of poetry” for years, and poetry has been key to his warmup routine since he was a child working on his vocals alongside his mother, a classically trained pianist.
“I was raised with a mother who believed in one thing: proper diction,” said Harris, adding: “When I’m learning a new song ... I delve into poetry, I delve into soliloquies and monologues to get my jaw and get my voice and my mind into the correct pronunciation of what the composer’s trying to do.”
Likewise, storytelling has become a central part of who Harris is as a musician and performer. He’s gradually moved away from performing songs because they’re popular or a nice listen. He wants to take the audience to a deeper emotional place.
“A lot of times people clap ... at my concert. They’re clapping because of the ambiance, because the band is just incredible. I try to have incredible musicians with me. But after a few songs that dies down and they settle into things that really perk their interest and things that hit their heart,” Harris said.
What better way to hit people’s hearts than through poetry? After years spent reciting iconic literature to himself backstage, Harris decided to put the poetry under the spotlight. And, for more than six months, he rigorously studied the histories and the meanings of world-class literature so he could create the best possible song-poem pairings.
The record opens with the lighthearted Lou Rawls tribute “Groovy People,” and then Harris performs a powerful rendition of Langston Hughes’ “Weary Blues,” the classic Harlem Renaissance poem. As Harris recites the verses, his band holds down a blues groove drawn from one of Harris’ original songs, “Inner Fear.”
From there, he performs Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese,” which uses the natural world as metaphor for the human experience. He then seamlessly moves into his tender original “Autumn.” Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29, “When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,” follows to complement a rousing rendition of Henry Mancini’s “Charade.”
The latter is one of several Shakespeare pairings that occur on the record, including the passionate Sonnet 116, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds,” which Harris merges with a gentle, yet spritely, version of the Antonio Carlos Jobim bossa nova standard “Desafinado.”
“There’s so much that you could put with Shakespeare as far as music’s concerned because his sonnets could match anything,” said Harris. “You know, there’s no composer that’s worth his salt from Duke Ellington to John Mayer ... that has not cut their teeth on Shakespeare.”
The Poetry Of Jazz also includes Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” paired with “Shallow Man,” a soulful Harris original; civil rights icon Maya Angelou’s inspiring “Still I Rise” pairs with a funky performance of “Sea Line Woman,” written and popularized by Nina Simone; and Robert Frost’s poignant poem “The Road Less Traveled” mixed with Harris’ “Time Just Slips Away,” a bittersweet original about enjoying life’s journey.
Throughout the record, Harris’ crisp diction and expansive understanding of the words and lyrics he performs radiate forth, enthralling live audiences at the Blue Llama. Meanwhile, the sensitive musicianship of grooving drummer Sylvia Cuenca, driving bassist Jay White, ferocious fiddler Alan Grubner and pianist John Di Martino (one of New York’s most masterful jazz vocal accompanists) enhances the impact.
“I’m channeling emotions of what these great poets and songwriters are saying. I’m channeling them through my own voice, which I was doing haphazardly before,” said Harris, adding later: “My fans and friends I’ve known for years have written me and said ... where has this been hiding?”
On the other side of this learning experience, Harris hopes to do another record of poetry-jazz pairings. He’s inspired by poetry’s power to encourage self-exploration and emotional understanding, unlike so much contemporary American media that magnifies our pain and anger. “You could listen to [podcasters like] Oprah all day long, or Kevin Smith, Joe Rogan ... but they solve no problems in your heart and your soul. They just reinforce how we feel,” he said. “But then you read something by Emily Dickinson ... you actually soul search into what you are about. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” DB
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