Don Schlitten
record producer (Prestige, Xanadu)
Record producer, A&R man at Prestige and later behind the Xanadu label, who recorded Barry often, as leader and as sideman, from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, on a handshake rather than a contract.
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- Barry speaking
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What Barry says
Asked about meeting Schlitten, Barry agrees he was already fairly established in New York by then. He says Don was the A&R man for Prestige and that the two simply had a strong relationship, with no contract at all, only a handshake.
Barry adds that he always more or less kept to that handshake, though he admits he may not have kept to it so much lately.
Asked whether these record dates were his first chance to play with Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon or James Moody, Barry says they were, and calls it an honour; outside the studio he played with Dexter only once, at a Lincoln Center birthday concert, and with Moody a few times.
When Panken passes on Schlitten’s reason for leaving the engineer Rudy Van Gelder, that he recorded every pianist the same way, Barry is doubtful about engineers in general: he believes he has never been recorded right, with the microphone inside the piano picking up metallic clicks.
In his own words
Don was an A&R man for Prestige. We just had this strong relationship. No contract or nothing, just a handshake. And I always sort of stuck to that
Every mention
0 moments in the recordings, 0 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
In the interviews and notes
Barry describes his tie to Schlitten, then A&R man at Prestige, as a close working relationship sealed by a handshake rather than a contract.
Panken sums up Barry’s records: after Riverside came a long run with Schlitten at Prestige and Xanadu, featuring Barry with his trio, leading his own groups, and as a first-call sideman to the great players of the time.
Panken writes that after Riverside folded in 1964, Barry worked with Schlitten on a handshake and recorded often, leading his own dates and backing players such as Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, Al Cohn and Illinois Jacquet, for Prestige, MPS, Muse and Xanadu into the early 1980s.
Schlitten thinks their first session together was Charles McPherson’s Bebop Revisited at Prestige, part of his plan to record the classic repertoire of the music, for which he saw no better choice than Barry at the piano.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶148Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶150
Schlitten valued that Barry knew the melodies as well as the changes, and that his comping and joyful spirit lifted the other players, even those outside bebop such as Illinois Jacquet.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶154Ted Panken, For Barry Harris’ 82nd Birthday ¶27
He says Barry’s records sold worse than those of any artist he worked with, and that Prestige once proposed paying Barry the money it owed him instead of recording him.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶156
Schlitten believes Barry would never have played with the likes of Al Cohn or Illinois Jacquet but for his productions, and saw his own job as building the right band, a psychological as well as a musical match.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶162
He saw Barry and Jaki Byard as neglected talents who needed his help, unlike Tommy Flanagan, who did not.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶173Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶177
Schlitten names Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron as Barry’s best-loved record in Japan, reissued there again and again. He also likes Live in Tokyo, with Leroy Williams as ever on drums, and thinks of it as Barry’s Bud Powell album.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶179Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶180Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶182
He felt Barry had not yet found himself on the Riverside records and needed a heavier touch, and that Rudy Van Gelder recorded every pianist alike; after they moved to other engineers, he heard Barry’s touch improve.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶184