Barry HarrisThe method

Tunes he taught

A Night in Tunisia

Barry’s classes in the archive touch A Night in Tunisia only briefly: a short clip from his 2007 clinic in Spain is about the tune’s break, and at a 2004 master class in New York he asks the student band to play it with a Latin feel. Both are captioned almost entirely as music, so what he taught about it cannot be recovered. In his oral history he remembered that when Art Blakey let him sit in, they always played it fast.

moments in class
3
recordings
2
Barry plays it
6

In his own words

And Art Blakey always used to let me sit in, too. And we’d always play Night in Tunisia fast. Fastest Night in Tunisia I ever played.

Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program. Smithsonian oral history (2010), remembering a trip to New York with Doug Watkins around 1952 or 1953, when Bird was out of town and he heard Art Blakey instead. ¶304

In class

Every moment he works on it, with the ideas of the method it shows.

Student performances and coaching

New York City, 2004

  1. 37:22

    Asks the band why they aren’t playing Night in Tunisia and calls for some Latin; the playing is not captioned.

    Watch on YouTube at 37:22

The break in A Night in Tunisia

Spain, 2007–08

  1. 0:00

    Spain 2007 clip on the tune’s break: ‘ready, try again’ and a count; otherwise music.

    Watch on YouTube

  2. 3:05

    ‘After you do this, watch’: shows a next step and says to go back down; mostly music.

    Watch on YouTube at 3:05

Barry plays it