Tommy Flanagan
piano
Detroit pianist, Barry’s contemporary and close friend from their teens, who shared his classical teacher and whose hands Barry watched to learn chords.
- mentions
- 27
- recordings
- 15
- Barry speaking
- 16
What Barry says
As a teenager Barry learned by looking over Tommy’s shoulder and watching his hands. When Tommy hit a chord Barry would remember it, go home and practise it in every key all over the piano, because Tommy could already play better.
Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Student Interviews After Concert9:33The Spirit of Bebop19:02Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶510Mark Stryker (Detroit Free Press), Professor of Bebop at 70: Native Detroiter Barry Harris Shares the Secrets of the Jazz Tradition with Students in New York ¶20
Tommy and Kenny Burrell were the most advanced of the young Detroit players, the best bebop musicians of their age. Barry says he did not collaborate with them so much as go and hear them; he followed behind Tommy and learned a great deal from those two.
The last train to Monk: an interview13:45Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle5:08Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶163Ted Panken, For Barry Harris’ 82nd Birthday ¶15
Both studied classical piano with Gladys Dillard and once played the same recital. Barry played Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude; Tommy played something harder, and played it better. Barry thinks Tommy was the more schooled of the two in classical music.
Interview: Detroit and after4:37Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶102Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶74Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶160
Barry names Tommy with Terry Pollard and Will Davis as players who were better than him, so he watched them; he also learned from Will Davis, Willie Anderson and many others in Detroit.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle5:43Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Student Interviews After Concert10:06Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶143
Barry always thought of Tommy as the older one, and only learned in New York that Tommy was born in March 1930, a few months after him.
People hear a likeness between Tommy’s sound and Hank Jones’s. Barry was not aware of a Detroit sound, but says they all came out of players like Will Davis who could really play.
Interview: Detroit and after7:31
Teaching “Giant Steps”, Barry feels for Tommy, who had to solo on Coltrane’s new changes on the record. He thinks Tommy did a hell of a job, wonders what he himself would have done, and notes that Coltrane had practised the tune for a long time.
Coleman Hawkins worked with Tommy, Roland Hanna and Hank Jones before Barry, which is why he greeted Barry as another Detroit piano player. Tommy also heard Art Tatum in Detroit after-hours spots, which Barry only learned about later.
On Coleman Hawkins0:34Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶96Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶302
In his own words
I’d see a couple of chords and I go home and I practice those chords all over that piano. That’s how I learned, because Tommy Flanagan could play better at a young age
I’m so used to Tommy Flanagan, because I like to watch his hands. I’ve spent my life watching his hands!
I would go to Tommy and Kenny Burrell. They were about the best two players... I followed behind Tommy Flanagan.
Okay, we got to say – Tommy Flannigan played better. Terry Pollard played better, Will Davis played better than me, so I watched them.
And I said, Lord, how did Tommy get through that stuff?
Every mention
27 moments in the recordings, 16 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Student Interviews After Concert
The Spirit of Bebop
- 19:02
Spent the first part of his life watching Tommy’s hands.
- 19:38
Took each chord he saw Tommy play home and played it in every key.
- 18:29
Tommy was very good, a real shy kind of cat; Barry liked to go and watch him play.
- 18:29
Someone else
A commentator names Flanagan with the Jones brothers in the remarkable Michigan group around Barry.
- 36:18
Someone else
A speaker says the Baroness loved pianists after Bud, such as Barry, Tommy and Walter Davis Jr.
The last train to Monk: an interview
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle
Interview: Detroit and after
Giant Steps
On Coleman Hawkins
- 0:34
Coleman Hawkins had used Hank Jones, Roland Hanna and Tommy Flanagan before him.
Interview on Italian television
- 0:00
Hawkins went through all the Detroit pianists, Tommy among them.
Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York
Detroit Jazz: Ancient to the Future
- 24:46
Someone else
A Detroit musician recalls Barry and Tommy Flanagan as early bebop players around town.
Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Introduction by Gary Giddins
- 1:58
Someone else
Gary Giddins lists Tommy Flanagan in Barry’s post-war Detroit circle.
Barry Harris - 2018-10-14, The Jazz Room, Wayne, NJ
- 1:54
Someone else
A concert host calls Barry a Detroit gentleman, like Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan.
JAZZ NOTES 026 | Jazz Biography | Jazz From Detroit Pt 2 | Jazz Radio
- 23:00
Someone else
A radio host says Roland Hanna picked up jazz from Barry and Tommy Flanagan.
Jazz Harmony According to Barry Harris. Part 1 [SUBTITLES]
- 13:27
A teacher
A harmony course takes an example from Flanagan’s playing on “Something to Live For”.
Jazz GUITAR Reflections on BARRY HARRIS
- 15:18
A teacher
A guitarist wonders whether contemporaries like Flanagan saw the music as Barry did.
In the interviews and notes
After lessons with Neptune Holloway and Mrs. Lipscomb, Barry and Tommy both studied classical piano with Gladys Dillard and played a recital together.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶160Ted Panken, For Barry Harris’ 82nd Birthday ¶6
At the recital Barry played the Revolutionary Etude; he has forgotten Tommy’s piece but remembers that Tommy played better.
Barry doubts he was more schooled than the others: Tommy had more classical training, and Tommy and Kenny Burrell were the hippest of the young bebop players in town.
Ted Panken, For Barry Harris’ 82nd Birthday ¶15Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶74
When they were young, Kenny Burrell and Tommy were the best of the bebop players; Tommy, Terry Pollard and Will Davis all played better than Barry, so he watched them.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶143Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶163
Barry assumed Tommy was older until he learned in New York that Tommy was born on 16 March 1930 and Barry on 15 December 1929.
Asked which of his peers he admires, Barry names the tenor player Charles Davis and then Tommy, saying he has spent his life watching Tommy’s hands and learning from him; he goes on to Hank Jones.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶508Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶509Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶510
Tommy heard Art Tatum in Detroit after-hours places; Barry found out about that only later and saw Tatum at the Rouge Lounge instead.
Stryker writes that the young Barry would stand behind Tommy, his friend and fellow pianist, and steal chords.
Flanagan recalls Barry’s dynamic attack and confidence: he was one of the few who would wait for Bird to reach Detroit and then sit in with him, which Flanagan never dared. He adds that Barry took to Bud Powell more than anyone else on the scene then.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶11Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶12Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶52
Flanagan says Barry always leaned towards teaching, and names Charles McPherson and Lonnie Hillyer as the outstanding young players who came out of it.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶22
Recordings that name them
Barry’s performances and records in the archive that credit or name them.
- Barry Harris - 2018-10-14, The Jazz Room, Wayne, NJ2024, 84 min YouTube
- Thelonious Monk - Misterioso - Interpreted By Barry Harris & Tommy Flanagan2020, 3 min YouTube
- Thelonious Monk - Well, You Needn’t - Interpreted By Barry Harris & Tommy Flanagan2020, 3 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Spanish TVMadrid, 1988, 47 min YouTube
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.
- 15.4The lineage14
- 14.3Learn from the masters by ear; study the small things10
- 11.4Play from the body and the arm, not the fingers5
- 8.1Put the ii chord away3
- 11.2Keep the left hand low and make it interesting2
- 11.5Touch2
- 12.1Everybody sings2
- 14.1Start with the basics; practise slowly, exactly, in time; repeat until it is yours2