Johann Sebastian Bach
composer (classical)
German Baroque composer and organist whom Barry called probably the best jazz musician of his time, and whom he counted among the classical improvisers whose line he believed jazz continues.
- mentions
- 25
- recordings
- 17
- Barry speaking
- 17
What Barry says
Barry says the music is classical, and the ones who played it well were Bach and his peers: they were jazz musicians, and Bach was probably the best jazz musician of his day.
Student performances and coaching22:25
Bach and the others did not tell us everything, Barry warns: there are things jazz musicians had to find out for themselves, because it is too much to be told. No one has played everything there is to play, even on the major scale.
Bach, Chopin, Liszt and Beethoven all learned to improvise, so Barry sees jazz as the continuation of classical theory. Europe went wrong when it stopped teaching improvisation, a big blunder in his view, and improvisation started again in the United States.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle2:21Interview on Italian television6:12The last train to Monk: an interview30:17Jazz theory, part 2: drop voicings0:000:34Believe: a talk to musicians14:22
If Bach were alive now, Barry says, he would have to be on a stage somewhere, just like Barry and other jazz musicians, playing his own music in a corner bar, since concert halls play only dead people’s music.
Student performances and coaching23:3724:15Barry Harris Trio - 2005-07-08, North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands42:40
On stage he defends playing the bebop masters: if concert halls can program Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, he sees no reason he cannot play Bird, Bud and Monk, and a jazz musician should prove himself on their songs rather than only on originals.
Barry Harris Trio - 2005-07-08, North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands35:38Barry Harris Live In Rennes40:2240:55
He tells of a call from David Freedman in London with Bach playing in the background; Barry asked to hear it again and heard I Got Rhythm in it. To him that showed Bach knew about it, and that jazz musicians are the classical ones (the old captions muddled the name as ‘Bo’ and ‘B’; the newer transcript has Bach).
He also says Bach, like Chopin, misled us by handing down just the major scale, which he thinks is wrong from the start.
Believe: a talk to musicians55:30
In his own words
See, our music is classical. The ones that played it good is Bach and them. You know, they’re jazz musicians, you know. Bach probably was, for his time, he was probably the best jazz musician.
you might think that, you know, Bach and them told us everything. They didn’t tell us everything. There’s some things we had to find out for ourselves.
So Bach and them, if they were here now, they had to be on stage somewhere. Be just like me and the rest of us, jazz musicians.
Jazz is a continuation of Bach and Beethoven, and so on. If they were alive today, they would be jazz musicians.
Bach had gone to see this great organist, a great cat. And it really messed him up a little. Bach came back and he was doing stuff and the singers were having a fit.
Every mention
25 moments in the recordings, 17 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Student performances and coaching
- 22:25
Our music is classical; Bach and his peers were jazz musicians, Bach probably the best of his time.
- 26:09
Bach and them did not tell us everything; some things jazz musicians had to find out themselves.
- 24:15
If alive now, Bach and the rest would be on a stage somewhere, just like jazz musicians.
- 23:37
Chopin, Bach and Beethoven would not be in today’s concert halls, which play dead people’s music.
Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes
- 1:08
Bach heard on a London friend’s phone sounded like I Got Rhythm, so Bach knew.
Believe: a talk to musicians
‘I am jazz’, set to animation
- 2:58
The same remark in another recording of the talk, with Bach captioned ‘Barkin’.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle
- 2:21
Jazz continues classical theory; Bach, Chopin and Beethoven had a way of learning to improvise.
Interview on Italian television
- 6:12
Chopin, Bach, Liszt and Beethoven all learned to improvise; jazz musicians are today’s classical theorists.
The last train to Monk: an interview
- 30:17
Bach, Liszt, Chopin and Beethoven learned to improvise, so there had to be a system to it.
Jazz theory, part 2: drop voicings
- 0:00
Bach, Beethoven, Liszt and the others goofed on us by no longer showing how to improvise.
Jazz theory, part 2, with score
- 0:11
The same remark in another transcript of the Lincoln Center theory class.
Ep.1 | Everything no one has ever told you about jazz | Barry Harris
- 0:54
Jazz musicians are trying to learn to improvise as Chopin, Bach, Brahms and Liszt did.
Barry Harris Trio - 2005-07-08, North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands
Barry Harris Live In Rennes
- 40:22
Symphony halls play Beethoven, Bach, Brahms and Chopin, so a jazz musician should play Bud, Bird and Monk.
My Chat With Chris Parks From Things I Learned From Barry Harris
TILF Barry Harris EP 52 A Very Important Arpeggio
- 11:55
A teacher
Chris Parks says Barry often argued Bach and Chopin, alive today, would be improvising at a corner bar.
Jazz GUITAR Reflections on BARRY HARRIS
- 18:03
A student
A former student says Barry felt jazz concerts should offer Monk and Bud, as classical ones offer Bach.
Detroit Jazz: Ancient to the Future
- 42:51
Someone else
A Detroit musician recalls jazz being dismissed as never as great as Beethoven, Bach or Brahms.
Ep. 20 | Charles McPherson: Meeting Charlie Parker, Studying with Barry Harris, and the Art of Bebop
- 17:58
Someone else
Charles McPherson says modes, like Gregorian chant, are older than Bach; his generation knew them but didn’t focus on them.
- 49:53
Someone else
McPherson says Bach, Stravinsky or Wagner, moving to a new key, land on its third or fifth.
- 1:07:24
Someone else
Asked about opera and classical taste, McPherson says he loves Bach.
In the interviews and notes
Andrew Velez notes that Barry used Bach as an example of improvisation; Barry says that if Bach and his peers were alive they would be playing in a bar, because symphony halls play dead people’s music.
Barry tells how Bach went to hear a great organist and came back so stirred up that his playing upset the church singers; told he was doing too much, Bach ended up playing in a saloon. Barry acts out the complaints in a strangled voice.
Velez counts Bach among Barry’s great mentors, alongside Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk.
Asked if he plays the classical repertoire, Barry says of course: it is all one music, and jazz carries on from Bach and Beethoven, who alive today would be jazz musicians playing in a corner bar. Jazz players, he adds, improvise and cannot go back to correct themselves.
Barry names Bach, with Chopin, Beethoven, Liszt, Scriabin, Schubert and Schumann, among the composers who would be playing at the corner bar if alive today, since concert halls play the music of the dead.
Barry told Allen Morrison that this music extends classical theory, and that he was sure that, were Bach alive, they would all be together in a class like this one.
A forum member says Barry never took credit for the sixth diminished scale, only for naming it, and often credited Bach, Beethoven and Chopin with using it.
A forum member’s favourite Barry moment: talking about the scale, he said something like ‘shame on Chopin and Bach’ for reducing it to the plain diatonic major scale, which he then played.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Tom Jobim - Wave Analysis using Barry Harris Method ¶299
Another member recalls Barry asking where Bach, Beethoven and Chopin would play if alive, and answering the corner bar, since improvising passed to America when Europe stopped.
Brian de Lima reports that Barry named classical composers, Chopin, Bach and Beethoven among them, as major influences, arguing that jazz musicians are not only jazz musicians.
Recordings that name them
Barry’s performances and records in the archive that credit or name them.
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.
- 2.3The three diminished seventh chords (‘the children’)7
- 1.4Triplets and thinking in six6
- 2.2The two whole-tone scales (‘man and woman’)6
- 1.1Rhythm comes first4
- 15.3Music is like math; finding your own voice; the teacher’s job4
- 3.3Every chord takes the scale it comes from4
- 6.9Triplets in lines (eighth- and sixteenth-note)4
- 8.4Playing with the family4