Harold Land

Template:Short description Template:Infobox musical artist

Harold de Vance Land (December 18, 1928 – July 27, 2001)<ref name="Dead"/> was an American hard bop and post-bop tenor saxophonist. Land developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style, often rivalling Clifford Brown's instrumental ability with his own inventive and whimsical solos. His tone was strong and emotional, yet hinted at a certain introspective fragility.<ref name=ALLMUSIC>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

BiographyEdit

Land was born in Houston, Texas, United States and grew up in San Diego, California.<ref name="LarkinJazz">Template:Cite book</ref> He started playing at the age of 16. He made his first recording as the leader of the Harold Land All-Stars, for Savoy Records in 1949. In 1954, he joined the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, with whom he was at the forefront of the hard-bop/bebop movement.<ref name="latimes.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Land family moved from San Diego to Los Angeles, in 1955. There he played with Curtis Counce, led his own groups, and co-led groups with Bobby Hutcherson, Blue Mitchell, and Red Mitchell.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> From the 1970s onwards, his style showed the influence of John Coltrane.

In the early 1980s through to the early 1990s he worked regularly with the Timeless All Stars, a group sponsored by the Timeless jazz record label. The group consisted of Land on tenor, Cedar Walton on piano, Buster Williams on bass, Billy Higgins on drums, Curtis Fuller on trombone and Bobby Hutcherson on vibes. Land also toured with his own band during this time, often including his son, Harold Land Jr., on piano and usually featuring Bobby Hutcherson and Billy Higgins as well. During these years he played regularly at Hop Singh's in Marina Del Rey in the L.A. area and the Keystone Korner in San Francisco.<ref name="latimes.com"/>

Land was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He joined the UCLA Jazz Studies Program as a lecturer in 1996 to teach instrumental jazz combo. "Harold Land was one of the major contributors in the history of the jazz saxophone," said jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell, founder and director of the UCLA Jazz Studies Program.

Land died in July 2001, from a stroke, at the age of 72.<ref name="Dead">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The progressive rock band Yes included a song "Harold Land" on their eponymous debut album in 1969. In a news/blog post on 20 September 2010, Bill Bruford commented about the song - "Harold Land was a hard-bop tenor saxophone player, dead now, but quite why we named a song after him I can't remember."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Playing styleEdit

Land had an inimitably dark tone within the hard-bop and modal jazz paradigms. Over time this would contrast more and more with the brighter tonalities of more Coltrane-influenced saxophonists, although Land started to implement Coltrane's musical innovations. Land's "dire, brooding [tenor saxophone] sound began somewhere between rhythm and blues and Coleman Hawkins, and after the early 1960s owed more and more to John Coltrane's harmonies, phrasing and experiments with modalism."<ref name="Sound">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

DiscographyEdit

As leader/co-leaderEdit

Year recorded	Title	Label	Year released	Personnel/Notes
1958-01	Harold in the Land of Jazz	Contemporary	1958	Quintet, with Land (tenor sax), Rolf Ericson (trumpet), Carl Perkins (piano), Leroy Vinnegar (bass), Frank Butler (drums); reissued as Grooveyard (Contemporary, 1963)<ref name="jazzdisco">{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1958-11	Jazz at the Cellar 1958	Lone Hill Jazz	2007	Quartet, with Land (tenor sax), Elmo Hope (piano), Scott LaFaro (bass), Lenny McBrowne (drums)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1959-08	The Fox	HiFi Jazz	1960	Quintet, with Land (tenor sax), Dupree Bolton (trumpet), Elmo Hope (piano), Herbie Lewis (bass), Frank Butler (drums)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1960-05	West Coast Blues!	Jazzland	1960	Sextet, with Land (tenor sax), Joe Gordon (trumpet), Barry Harris (piano), Wes Montgomery (guitar), Sam Jones (bass), Louis Hayes (drums)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1960-07	Eastward Ho! Harold Land in New York	Jazzland	1961	Quintet, with Land (tenor sax), Kenny Dorham (trumpet), Amos Trice (piano), Clarence Jones (bass), Joe Peters (drums)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1960-07	Take Aim	Blue Note	1980	Quintet, with Land (tenor sax), Martin Banks (trumpet), Amos Trice (piano), Clarence Jones (bass), Leon Pettis (drums)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1961-10 1961-12	Hear Ye! – with Red Mitchell	Atlantic	1962	Quintet, with Land (tenor sax), Red Mitchell (bass), Carmell Jones (trumpet), Frank Strazzeri (piano), Leon Pettis (drums)
1963-07	Jazz Impressions of Folk Music	Imperial	1963	Quintet, with Land (tenor sax), Carmell Jones (trumpet), John Houston (piano), Jim Bond (bass), Mel Lee (drums)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1967-12 1968-02	The Peace-Maker	Cadet	1968	Quintet, with Land (tenor sax), Bobby Hutcherson (vibes), Joe Sample (piano), Buster Williams (bass), Donald Bailey (drums, harmonica)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1969–07	Blow Up – with Bobby Hutcherson	Jazz Music Yesterday	1990	Quintet, with Bobby Hutcherson (vibes). Stanley Cowell (piano), Reggie Johnson (bass), Joe Chambers (drums). Live at Jazz à Juan in Juan-les-Pins.
1971?	A New Shade of Blue	Mainstream	1971	Sextet, with Land (tenor sax), Bobby Hutcherson (vibes), Bill Henderson (piano, electric piano), Buster Williams (bass), Billy Hart (drums), James Mtume (congas)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1971?	Choma (Burn)	Mainstream	1971	Septet, with Land (tenor sax), Bobby Hutcherson (vibes, marimba), Bill Henderson (piano), Harold Land Jr. (piano, electric piano), Reggie Johnson (bass), Billy Hart (drums), Ndugu Chancler and Woody Theus (drums)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1972?	Damisi	Mainstream	1972	Quintet, with Land (tenor sax, oboe), Oscar Brashear (trumpet), Bill Henderson (piano, electric piano), Buster Williams (bass), Ndugu Chancler (drums)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1977-04	Mapenzi – with Blue Mitchell	Concord Jazz	1977	Quintet, with Land (tenor sax), Blue Mitchell (trumpet, flugelhorn), Kirk Lightsey (keyboards), Reggie Johnson (bass), Albert Heath (drums)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1980-12	Live at Junk – with Eiji Kitamura	Yupiteru	1981	Quintet, with Land (tenor sax), Eiji Kitamura (clarinet), Toshihiko Ogawa (piano), Mitsuaki Furuno (bass), Donald Bailey (drums); live<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1981-10	Xocia's Dance	Muse	1982	Septet, with Land (tenor sax), Oscar Brashear (trumpet, flugelhorn), Bobby Hutcherson (vibes), George Cables (piano), John Heard (bass), Billy Higgins (drums), Ray Armando (percussion)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1984-06	Topology – with Makoto Terashita	Aketa's Disk	1984	Quintet, with Land (tenor sax), Makoto Terashita (piano), Yasushi Yoneki (bass), Mike Reznikoff (drums), Takayuki Koizumi (percussion)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
1994-12	A Lazy Afternoon	Postcards	1995	Quartet, with Land (tenor sax), Bill Henderson (piano), James Leary (bass), Billy Higgins (drums)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>
2000-08	Promised Land	Audiophoric	2000	Quartet, with Land (tenor sax), Mulgrew Miller (piano), Ray Drummond (bass), Billy Higgins (drums)<ref name="jazzdisco"/>