Barry HarrisThe method

Tunes he taught

On Green Dolphin Street

Barry recorded On Green Dolphin Street and played it in concert. The only class footage is a short Hague clip in which he names it as a tune a student might bring to play for him, in a lesson about the left hand; its captions are fragmentary.

moments in class
3
recordings
1
Barry plays it
5

What he teaches through it

In a short clip from his Hague workshop he pictures a student coming in to play for him and choosing On Green Dolphin Street (the captions write ‘Green Darkness Beat’), and he plays. The captions catch only fragments around his playing: a C arpeggio, sevenths, a tenth, octaves, small hands. What he demonstrates is not clear.

On Green Dolphin Street0:000:401:27

The clip ends plainly: when the students come to play for him tomorrow, nobody is to play the left hand. His Oblivion clip from the same films ends with the same words about tomorrow, and there he says he does not believe in chords in the left hand and wants it to be an interesting hand, so the two may come from one lesson.

On Green Dolphin Street2:13Bud Powell’s Oblivion0:451:192:33

In his own words

So when you come in to play for me tomorrow, I do not want anybody to play the left hand.

On Green Dolphin Street, The Hague, 1989–98. End of a short Hague workshop clip in which he plays On Green Dolphin Street. 2:13 Watch on YouTube at 2:13

In class

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

On Green Dolphin Street

The Hague, 1989–98

  1. 0:00

    Hague: imagines a student choosing On Green Dolphin Street to play for him, then plays.

    Watch on YouTube

  2. 1:27

    Fragments about hitting a tenth and octaves; captions unclear.

    Watch on YouTube at 1:27

  3. 2:13

    Tomorrow, when you play for him, nobody is to play the left hand.

    Watch on YouTube at 2:13

Barry plays it