George Morrow
bass
Bass player in Max Roach’s band in the mid-1950s; after Clifford Brown and Richie Powell were killed, Barry, Donald Byrd and Sonny Rollins joined Max and Morrow for a few months.
- mentions
- 1
- recordings
- 1
- Barry speaking
- 1
What Barry says
When Clifford Brown and Richie Powell were killed in a car crash and Harold Land went back to California, Barry says, that left Max Roach and his bass player George Morrow. Donald Byrd, Sonny Rollins and Barry then joined Max’s band.
In a filmed interview he tells it a little differently: he and Byrd joined Max first, and Rollins came in when Harold Land left. He lists the group as Byrd, Rollins, himself, George Morrow and Max Roach, and calls it a really good band.
Ep.3 | Everything no one has ever told you about jazz | Barry Harris2:142:46
The band never recorded, which Barry calls a drag. He jokes that somebody probably has them hidden away somewhere, waiting for them all to die.
Ep.3 | Everything no one has ever told you about jazz | Barry Harris2:14Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶149Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶155
Barry thinks they were together about three months; then he went back home to Detroit and the group split up.
Asked whether he had work lined up when he went to New York, Barry says Max Roach hired him into a group with Sonny Rollins, Donald Byrd and the bassist George Morrow, after which he went back to Detroit.
Victor L. Schermer (interviewer); Barry Harris, Barry Harris: Iconic Jazz Pianist and Keeper of the Flame ¶20Victor L. Schermer (interviewer); Barry Harris, Barry Harris: Iconic Jazz Pianist and Keeper of the Flame ¶21
In his own words
So that left Max and George Morrow, the bass player. So Donald Byrd, Sonny Rollins and myself, we joined Max’s band. Um, we never recorded, which is a drag.
Max Roach hired me to work with his group that included Sonny Rollins, Donald Byrd, and the bassist George Morrow.
There are no recordings of this group. You know, somebody probably got us hidden somewhere, waiting for us all to die.
Every mention
1 moments in the recordings, 1 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Ep.3 | Everything no one has ever told you about jazz | Barry Harris
- 2:14
Names the band: Donald Byrd, Sonny Rollins, himself, George Morrow and Max Roach; there are no recordings of it.
In the interviews and notes
Barry tells Aaron Graves that after the crash that killed Clifford Brown and Richie Powell, and Harold Land’s return to California, only Max and the bassist George Morrow were left, so Byrd, Rollins and Barry joined. They never recorded, which he regrets.
Asked who played bass in that band, Barry names Morrow along with Donald Byrd; the interviewer spells the name out. Barry puts their time together at about three months.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶156Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶157Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶158Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶161
Barry tells Victor Schermer that Max Roach took him on in a group with Sonny Rollins, Donald Byrd and the bassist George Morrow; after that he went back to Detroit, and he goes on to say he hooked up with Cannonball Adderley.