Les McCann & Eddie Harris

Biography

Les McCann and Eddie Harris were two of the most distinctive and adventurous voices in American jazz, whose paths converged spectacularly on the night of June 21, 1969 at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Les McCann (born Leslie Coleman McCann, September 23, 1935, Lexington, Kentucky — died December 29, 2023) came up in a musical household where his father favored jazz and his mother hummed opera. Largely self-taught on piano after his teacher died when he was just six, McCann played tuba and drums in his school's marching band, then joined the Navy in the early 1950s. Stationed in California, he absorbed the sounds of San Francisco's jazz clubs and was first electrified by Miles Davis. A Navy talent contest win led to an Ed Sullivan Show appearance. After his discharge, McCann studied at Los Angeles City College and signed with Pacific Jazz, building his reputation as a soul jazz innovator whose electric piano, clavinet, and gospel-inflected touch fused jazz with funk, soul, and world rhythms. Eddie Harris (born October 20, 1934, Chicago, Illinois — died November 5, 1996) was steeped in Chicago's rich musical tradition from childhood, learning piano at age three from his cousin and later coming under the profound influence of legendary DuSable High School music director Walter Dyett — the same educator who shaped Nat King Cole, Johnny Griffin, and Gene Ammons. Harris fell in love with the saxophone for its look alone, and after mastering the clarinet as required by Dyett, he became a commanding tenor player who also claimed Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, John Coltrane, and Charlie Parker as touchstones. His 1961 recording of the "Exodus" theme became the first jazz record certified gold, and by the mid-1960s he was pioneering the electric saxophone through his work with the Varitone signal processor — an innovation that defined his sonic identity.

The two had known each other by reputation, but their defining collaboration came unexpectedly at Montreux when McCann's trio — with bassist Leroy Vinegar and drummer Donald Dean — was joined by Harris and trumpeter Benny Bailey for a performance that crackled with spontaneous energy. The resulting live album, Swiss Movement (Atlantic, 1969), became one of jazz's great commercial triumphs: both the album and its centerpiece track, "Compared to What" (written by Eugene McDaniels), sold in excess of one million copies, an almost unheard-of achievement for jazz. "Compared to What" reached No. 2 on the R&B chart and No. 29 on the pop album chart, and the recording is widely credited with putting the Montreux Jazz Festival — only in its third year — on the world map. The album earned a Grammy nomination at the 1971 ceremony for Best Jazz Performance by a Small Group. Their pairing was not merely commercial chemistry; it captured a charged political moment, with McCann's gospel shouts and Harris's raw tenor wail turning a cynical antiwar lyric into an anthem for a generation.

Beyond their collaboration, both artists cast long shadows. Harris's composition "Freedom Jazz Dance" was recorded by Miles Davis on Miles Smiles (1966) and became a jazz standard, while his innovations in electronic saxophone technology earned him U.S. patents including one for the reed trumpet. McCann's records were sampled over 300 times by hip-hop artists from the early 1990s onward — powering tracks by Notorious B.I.G., Dr. Dre, A Tribe Called Quest, Cypress Hill, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, and Massive Attack — making him an unlikely architect of the golden age of hip-hop sampling. McCann suffered a severe stroke in 1995 that damaged his piano dexterity, but he recovered sufficiently to return to performing and released Pump It Up in 2002. Together, McCann and Harris represent a pivotal node where jazz's expressive power met funk's rhythmic urgency and the social upheaval of the late 1960s.

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Fun Facts

• The Montreux Jazz Festival was only in its third year when McCann and Harris performed there in 1969 — their live album Swiss Movement is widely credited with putting the festival on the world map.
• 'Compared to What' sold over a million copies, an almost unheard-of commercial achievement for a jazz record at the time, reaching No. 2 on the R&B chart.
• Les McCann won a U.S. Navy talent contest for singing in the early 1950s, which led directly to an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show — launching a career that would go on to influence hip-hop decades later.
• Eddie Harris holds a U.S. patent for the reed trumpet and invented 'The Eddie Harris Attachment,' a wind synthesizer that allows a single saxophonist to play in five-part harmony like a big band reed section.
• In 1971, both McCann and Harris performed at a massive 14-hour concert in Accra, Ghana alongside Wilson Pickett, Santana, and Ike & Tina Turner for over 100,000 people — the event was documented in the film Soul to Soul.

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

• Walter Dyett - Eddie Harris studied under the legendary DuSable High School music director in Chicago, as did Nat King Cole, Johnny Griffin, and Gene Ammons. Dyett required Harris to master clarinet before saxophone, shaping his technical foundation. [Late 1940s–early 1950s]
• Erroll Garner - Les McCann cited Garner as his first major piano influence, drawn to his exuberance and vocalizations — qualities that would define McCann's own style. [1950s]
• Miles Davis - McCann was first electrified hearing Davis at San Francisco jazz clubs while in the Navy; Harris counted Davis among his key saxophone influences and Davis later recorded Harris's composition 'Freedom Jazz Dance'. [Early 1950s–1960s]

Key Collaborators

• Benny Bailey - Trumpeter on the landmark 1969 Montreux live recording that produced Swiss Movement. (Swiss Movement (1969))
• Leroy Vinegar - Bassist in Les McCann's trio at the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival recording. (Swiss Movement (1969))
• Donald Dean - Drummer in Les McCann's trio at the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival recording. (Swiss Movement (1969))
• Eugene McDaniels - Songwriter who wrote 'Compared to What', the signature track on Swiss Movement that became a gold-selling hit for McCann and Harris. (Compared to What (1969))

Artists Influenced

• A Tribe Called Quest - Sampled Les McCann's recordings as part of the wave of hip-hop artists who drew on his soul-jazz catalog — McCann's records were sampled over 300 times from the early 1990s onward. [1990s]
• Miles Davis - Davis recorded Eddie Harris's composition 'Freedom Jazz Dance' on the 1966 album Miles Smiles, transforming it into a jazz standard and introducing Harris's writing to a global audience. (Miles Smiles (1966))
• Dr. Dre - Among the hip-hop producers who sampled Les McCann's recordings in the golden age of sampling. [1990s]
• Notorious B.I.G. - Sampled Les McCann's soul-jazz recordings, part of the broader hip-hop embrace of McCann's catalog. [1990s]

External Links

• Spotify
• Wikipedia