. I\u2019d be honoured if you’d watch, and if you enjoy please give it a \u201clike\u201d and share (and subscribing helps, too :)). Thank you!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nHEROES AWARD NOMINATION<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOn April 2, <\/strong>Karla learned she was one of 29 individuals selected by the Jazz Journalists Association<\/strong> for their 2025 Jazz Heroes<\/strong> recognition. This annual recognition of \u201cactivists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz\u201d highlights individuals from across North America. What an unexpected honour!<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe nomination reads as follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00b4<\/strong>Since making her home in Atlanta, Georgia in 2012, Karla Harris has emerged as a vital force within the jazz community, showcasing her exceptional talents as a vocalist, educator, songwriter and bandleader. With a rich career spanning three decades, Harris\u2019s journey through diverse jazz scenes \u2014 from the cozy lounges of Portland, Oregon<\/strong> to the picturesque towns of Provence, France<\/strong> \u2014 has enchanted audiences and fellow musicians alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBefore her transition to Atlanta\u2019s jazz scene, the singer established herself in the Pacific Northwest<\/strong>. Renowned for its dynamic jazz scene, Portland provided a fertile ground for Karla to cultivate her artistry. She quickly gained recognition and became a sought-after performer at various events, including the Sarasota Jazz Festival, Portland Jazz Festival, Oregon Coast Jazz Party, Nantucket Arts Festival<\/strong> and the Atlanta Jazz Party<\/strong>. She\u2019s given a TED<\/strong> Talk, and has three albums to her name, with a fourth on the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut Karla\u2019s dedication to jazz extends far beyond performance \u2014 her contributions to music education are equally impressive. An artist-in-residence in the Jazz Studies department at Kennesaw State University<\/strong>, she teaches Applied Vocal Jazz<\/strong>, instilling in her students a love for this uniquely American art form and nurturing the next generation of jazz musicians by passing down the heritage and traditions that have shaped the genre. Furthermore, recognizing the importance of early musical education, Karla co-created a children\u2019s music education curriculum entitled The Land-of-Music,<\/strong> aiming to introduce young minds to the joys of music and the intricacies of jazz.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 2022, Karla embarked on a transformative Jazz Road<\/strong> summer tour through North Carolina and South Carolina, supported by a grant from the South Arts Foundation. In 2024, she was honoured with Atlanta Magazine\u2019s \u201cWomen Making a Mark\u201d<\/strong> award for her impactful contributions to jazz education outreach. Her Jazz Discovery Series<\/strong> is a noteworthy outreach program that offers a hands-on learning experience for students ranging from grade school to adults. Karla teaches the technical aspects of jazz while also such emphasizes essential qualities as cooperation, creativity, collaboration, communication, camaraderie, trust and respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Karla Harris\u2019s dedication to performance, education, mentorship and community engagement makes her an inspirational figure in the Atlanta jazz scene. She continues to innovate and inspire, so her influence on jazz and the next generation of musicians is sure to resonate in Atlanta for years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 J. Scott Fugate<\/em>Jazz Evangelist<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\nthe complete list of fellow nominees is carried on Karla\u00b4s web site.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
New album\u00a8, MERGE, releasing in six weeks!<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\nI’m excited to tell you about MERGE, my fifth album, which just wrapped\u00b4,<\/em> says Karla<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMaking a CD is equal parts arduous and exhilarating, and we’ve been working on this one since early 2024. Co-producer\/pianist Tyrone Jackson and I took a deep dive into arranging these songs, mixing influences and blurring genres to find a sound that feels honest and leans contemporary. It’s a full-on soulful embrace entwining the diverse styles of music I grew up with. Many songs will be familiar, and include some favorite standards (Gershwin, Lerner and Loewe, Cole Porter\u2026) and classic R&B tunes I\u2019ve loved (think Al Green, Isley Brothers, Bobby Caldwell…). And I\u2019m also thrilled to share that there are three new original songs on the project! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nMERGE by Karla Harris<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nmixing influences and blurring genres<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nreview by Norman Warwick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe late John Stewart,<\/strong> the writer of Daydream Believer<\/strong> for The Monkees<\/strong> pop group, and the beautiful Strange Rivers<\/strong> for the folk singer Joan Baez<\/strong>, as well as two Billboard country chart toppers, Runaway Train<\/strong> and To Dance With The Tiger<\/strong> recorded by Roseanne Cash<\/strong>, started his career with his own folk music ensemble before writing for, and subsequently joining as a full time member, The Kingston Trio. <\/strong>Despite, or maybe because of, that pedigree he almost shouted his desire to be a rock star.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHe succeeded in that field, too. His two best-selling albums featured the Buckingham Nicks<\/strong> partnership that was such an essential part of the era of Rumours<\/strong> from Fleetwood Mac<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe reason John\u00b4s music remains so ubiquitous on my playlists is that he is a versatile listener, a canny adapter and whilst his hundreds of self composed tracks and the scores of covers always immediately present a recognisable John Stewart whether identified by beautifully slinky guitar riffs, irresistible beats, great vocal tone and phrasing, all attributes that could be attached to Karla Harris<\/strong>. It should also be said that both Karla and John Stewart pick from, and plant seeds, in so many genres signalling why each of these two artists always sound authentic in their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI think the random thoughts above were shooting around my mind like Distant Stars when I first heard Karla\u00b4s last album, Moon To Gold<\/strong>. On that album, she re-adapted the song Blue Moon<\/strong> back into the jazz genre, with the help of the wonderful instrumentation of The Joe Alterman Trio<\/strong>. There were several examples of some older jazz sounds on that album too and the whole of the long-playing record reminded us that the genre of jazz both gives and takes from its musical fellows.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe wonderful Merge<\/strong> album, of whfich I have been privileged to hear a pre-release copy, has now helped me to articulate the two paragraphs above: like all my heroes, Karla remains true to herself, whether exploring, experimenting or exhorting.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Webster\u00b4s dictionary definition of the word Merge gives its meaning as being to combine, or cause to combine, or to coalesce. The album, Merge,<\/em> delivers precise evidence, given by Karla Harris, that shows the words jazz<\/em><\/strong> and merge<\/strong> to be very nearly synonymous throughout the thirteen tracks on this splendoured album.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLet\u00b4s take a few sidetracks and detours<\/strong> down the tracks to see why I am so excited by this forthcoming release of Merge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n1 WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe album opens with a song that most of our readers will recognise in What Is This Thing Called Love?<\/strong> The song enters with an infectious few bars of double bass, joined quietly and patiently by some rim percussion that is then also joined by the light fingered pianist to form a strong platform upon which Karla stands to sing the piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCole Porter<\/strong>, the composer of the song he wrote intending it for a musical Wake Up And Dream, <\/strong>has no reason to scream, Melanie <\/strong>like, \u00a8look what they\u00b4ve done to my song ma\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nEach time Karla sings the title line she asks the question in a slightly different way. She is at once entranced by love, welcoming to love, afraid to love, suspicious of its effects upon our emotions, and yet is also unable to ignore love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are age old questions, thoroughly examined by the lyrics and melody and revealed by a singer capable of taking a song apart and putting it back together in perfect condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2 MERGE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nMany years ago I became obsessed with theories about where truth lies and was determined to write a song of that title. It eluded me then and it eludes me still.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nKarla, however, has written the perfect title song for this album. Her lyric details how shades can distance and dim or can gather and glow and she goes on to discuss other forms of merging,\u2026. she therefore calls up \u00b4the legacies of ancestries, of different hues\u00b4. This lyric is poetry of a Toni Morrison<\/strong> Beloved<\/em> tone,<\/strong> read under a swirling and swinging jazz tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe lyrics of the song \u201cMerge\u201d describe the personal background of the songwriter, Karla Harris. They allude to her bi-racial ethnicity, the influences of family from both city and rural life, and the variety of music she grew up listening to as a kid in the suburbs of St. Louis \u2013 jazz, pop, R&B and rock. The vocal solo later in the song plays with her influences, and you can hear brief melodic quotes from \u201cGood Morning Heartache\u201d (Billie Holiday)<\/strong> and \u201cMagic Man\u201d (Heart).<\/p>\n\n\n\n3 FOR THE LOVE OF YOU<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nKarla delivers a superb vocal over an instrumental outfit fully deserving of such a gift. There is a piano\u00a0 riff not too distant a cousin of That\u00b4s Just The Way It Is<\/em><\/strong> (in the country genre) by Bruce Hornby and The Range. <\/strong>The song needs to belted out, so heartfelt is its lyric, and Karla belts it out without ever losing the melody. When we speak of love, how many of us remember the love between the singer and the song? This,once a hit enjoyed by The Isley Brothers<\/strong>, is now a song that now defines the ethos and outcome of Merge, the album<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n4 STAND BY ME<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis track, of course,<\/strong> is a standard in genres such as soul and blues and even the commercial pop market. With the stacatto piano behind it the song is elevated here above soul, blues & pop.Covered previously by artists such as Ben E King <\/strong>and even by Gene Clark, <\/strong>once of The Byrds, <\/strong>since being written by Ben E King <\/strong>(who would later record the song himself), <\/strong>with Lieber & Stoller, <\/strong>the rock and roll writers for the early Elvis, <\/strong>in almost hymnal form. Whilst delivering a blood transfusion of soul into the song Karla Harris and her fellow musicians still place the song in a recognisable serving of jazz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n5 ALMOST LIKE BEING IN LOVE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis is another well known track and has the band and Karla relishing how jazz streams travel right, left and up and under each other, seeming sometimes to dry out somewhere before the end of the trail. More often than not those streams then come crashing together in a torrent of music that makes perfect sense of their explorations,\u2026.. \u00a0and that certainly happens again here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This song is written by Frederick Leowe<\/strong> & Alan Jay Lerner,<\/strong> two more multi-contributors to The Great American Songbook. <\/strong>Amongst those who have recorded this song are David Brooks and Marion Bell<\/strong> who also delivered the song in the Broadway musical of Brigadoon.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe song was written in the slightly odd key of B flat minor, and Karla leaps splendidly over notes on escalator and elevators. The song is designed, I think, to sound like the melody is running away with \/ from the lyrics but Karla Harris and these musicians have so much mutual respect for each other that this series of star-burst leaps, and quick sprints, leaves nobody behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6 NEVER WILL I MARRY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nEven the title of this song sounds folksy. I seem to remember that, when I was trying to deliver my contemporary folk music songs on the club circuit in the UK during the seventies, songs with similar titles to this were ten a penny fare from the folk-traditionalists who preferred their songs from the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. However, Never Will I Marry<\/strong>, has clearly adapted to Karla\u00b4s modern sound. There\u00b4s a somewhat gentle but beautiful piano line and silver and golden brass bursting out at the seams as well as a beat of percussion that drives the song along. Adding to the modernity is Karla\u00b4s delivery, sounding here like a university sophomore who believes the world is her oyster. The song was actually writte a few decades ago by Frank Loeesser<\/strong>, still considered as one of Broadway\u00b4s most versatile songwriters.The song was recorded by Nancy Wilson<\/strong>, a version often listened to in her formative years.Learning Nancy\u2019s songs from her parents\u2019 albums was Karla\u2019s path to learning her first jazz standards. Karla wanted to include a Nancy classic in this project in tribute to her first \u201cteacher.\u201d This version of Never Will I Marry re-imagines it in a more contemplative, old-school R&B style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n7 I\u00b4M STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nA lively brass intro fades and yields to a sultry, sassy vocal, with Karla backed by a pretty piano, saying she is still in love with you. The track has great instrumental interventions from piano and percussion. Wasn\u00b4t this a hit for Al Green<\/strong> back in the day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n8 SWEET LAND<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nA sonorous bass, piano and string riffs help Karla to describe being in love as living in a Sweet Land, and the arrangement boasts an interesting \u00b4organ\u00b4 section\u00a0 that becomes almost choral. On this rapturous track Karla sings of \u00b4dancing with abandon now, with no choreography\u00b4<\/em> (a line so redolent of Dylan\u00b4<\/strong>s to dance beneath a diamond sky with one hand waving free<\/em>) and her vocal delivery reminds me slightly of another favourite female artist of mine in Marilyn Middleton Pollock, <\/strong>(who once recorded a Stanley Accrington<\/strong> song) an artist who could hold audiences in the palm of her hands as does Karla. I\u00b4ve been told that this Sugar arrangement came about during a pre-concert soundcheck. A spontaneous groove emerged when Karla asked for a different feel, and this hip-hop\/funk version was born. Also woven into the arrangement of this funk version of Sugar is the hook from the 1960s hit Taste of Honey, which earned Herb Alpert<\/strong> a Grammy. This quote is a nod to Sarah Vaughn<\/strong>\u2019s vocal version of the song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n9 WHAT YOU WON\u00b4T DO FOR LOVE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnother song with a great bass line, burgeoning brass and another perfect pitch vocal performance, with that lovely piano filling the spaces between the notes<\/p>\n\n\n\n
10 ISN\u00b4T IT A PITY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe percussionists tip their high hats to usher in a contemplative lyric that, once again, is delivered sublimely by Karla. She demonstrates her ease with Sinatra-<\/strong>like phraseology and her strength in delivering long notes. This is a George and Ira Gershwin<\/strong> collaboration and is not to be cofnused with a George Harrison<\/strong> song of the same name on his solo recording away from The Beatles tiled All Things Must Pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n11 SUGAR<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen singing of \u00a8Sugar\u00b4, the man she loves, Karla describes him as being like Paradise and Sugar and Spice.<\/em>The keyboards on this track are very nearly of Georgie Fame<\/strong>, and almost echo Booker T<\/strong> and the MGs. <\/strong>Magnificent though the instrumentation is, however, it is always complementary to Karla\u00b4s voice as she glides through these songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n12 NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnother soundcheck creation. The drummer started playing this jazz funk feel, the band had a good time with it, and an arrangement was conceived. The rattling rims and deep percussion, and trilling keyboards and outstanding bass make this track sound exactly like nice work and the outfit show that they certainly know how to get it. Some readers will immediately recognise this as the title song of another great Gershwin<\/strong> musical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n13 ALL THE HAPPY PEOPLE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nKarla wrote this song because her husband, John, loves the blues and she thought it would be fun to surprise him with a new song. The lyrics have a good time celebrating his positive personality, in contrast with his love for the blues, so the song is for all the happy people in the room! The band quotes \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d at the end \u2013 that\u2019s a shout-out to Karla\u00b4s husband John. On the day of recording this track it was, purely by coincidence, John\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Karla tells us in the lyric, this is the blues for all the happy people in the room. It tells us of the kind of laid back people we\u00b4d most of us like to be. A great bass line gives us a slightly false ending as it prefaces a cleverly disguised piano trill that brings the album to a close..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So this album has delivered thirteen tracks, most of which show Karla Harris<\/strong> in a happy, even boisterous, mood. This is a studio recording but if these songs were collected into a self-contained live performance, Karla Harris and her friends would bring the audience to their feet to boogie, and she would surely have her fans reeling in the years, (to coin a phrase from Steely Dan<\/strong> as alluded to in Peter Pearson<\/strong>\u00b4s article at the foot of today\u00b4s edition of sidetracks & detours)<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith the release of Merge, her fifth album, the celebrated jazz vocalist, Karla Harris<\/strong> offers up an album that somehow transcends genre even whilst rooted in jazz land. She has designed a multi-faceted soundscape of various musical and cultural influences shimmering with originality. She nods lovingly to the diverse musical styles that she first heard as a child whenlistening to Latin, blues, reggae, funk, hip hop and ballads.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe and her co-producer and pianist, Tyrone Jackson,<\/strong> gently rearrange, applying a respectful contemporary approach. In doing so, they add new light and shade to r + b classics, with the strokes of jazz. The thirteen tracks on the album share a sophistication that represents the modern, breathes soulfully and conveys a wide range of deep emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u00b4The album is about convergence, and the intersection of stories, sounds and styles that flowed into my world early and gave shape to as lifelong stream of joy\u00b4, Karla tells us.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThat is evidenced by how she quotes melodies from both jazz and rock hits. This all points to an artist comfortable in her own skin, at the height of her craft with a generosity of spirit that is delivered with a light-hearted affection and the penchant for fun that characterised her previous offering, Moon To Gold.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nMerge<\/strong> is so joyous and dances so elegantly and sounds so spontaneous even though we know this must have been achieved through intentional arranging and sterling musicianship from all concerned. With a career spanning four decades she has captivated audiences across America, earning accolades for her approach to jazz standards and contemporary compositions alike. This album stand as her over-arching achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe project’s official release of Merge is July 7<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 that\u2019s when it goes to radio and streaming platforms. I’ll have physical copies at live shows. I hope you love the music, and that
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