For those unaware, Stan Harrison, born in Philadelphia, raised in New Jersey, and a resident of New York City for the last few decades (with a two-year stay in London tucked in there), is a saxophone player/composer who has traveled the globe performing and/or recording, sound-checking, rehearsing, bussing, flying, dining, laughing, emoting, etc., with David Bowie, Serge Gainsbourg, Radiohead, Laurie Anderson, They Might Be Giants, The Borneo Horns, Talking Heads, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Duran Duran, Taylor Mac, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Stevie Van Zandt, and many others (phew!)

But don’t let these credits mislead you. Harrison is also a jazz musician and has been since he first heard the music of Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Miles Davis. He studied composition most recently with the phenomenal composer, Huang Ruo, and less recently with Dennis Sandole (with whom he also studied improvisation and music in general) and Robert Moevs.

He is one of a growing number of musicians who are just as at home listening to Elliott Carter as to James Carter; Anton Webern as to Anna Weber. The world of music is his oyster, to embarrassingly borrow a tired cliche, and as will be heard in his distinctive music, there is no obvious way to define it.

Which brings us to Harrison’s current album, Some Poor Soul Has a Fire (out on October 28th, 2024 via Adhyâropa Records). For here on his new record, the music is quite varied, for once you listen to “They Must Be Praying” or “All That Remains” you might be surprised to hear a piece like “It’s Time to Put the Dog to Bed” following along.

1. (Smaller Than) The Big Picture (6:50)
2. The Details (6:05)
3. What’s Left Unsaid (4:54)
4. They Must Be Praying (6:36)
5. All That Remains (8:17)
6. Introduction to a Continuation/To Be Continued… (5:19)
7. It’s Time to Put the Dog to Bed (6:39)
8. Some Poor Soul Has a Fire (6:36)
9. Joy (3:45)

This elegantly hued, abundantly impassioned opens on the free flowing rhythmic wonderment that abound within (Smaller Than) The Big Picture and then comes the more stridently regimented The Details, the skittishly playful What’s Left Unsaid, the languishing They Must Be Praying, and the emotively melodic All That Remains then backs them.

An aching yearn, at first, latterly a more euphorically charged sense of hope threads throughout the Introduction to a Continuation/To Be Continued… which is in turn followed by the ornate delicacies and vocal aspirations exhibited within It’s Time to Put the Dog to Bed, the album rounding out on the infectiously-grooved title track Some Poor Soul Has a Fire, closing on the flirtatiously fluttering Joy.

Stan’s latest album, Some Poor Soul Has a Fire, is a collection of nine original pieces, all quite different from one another but unified by their distinctive sound and approach. There is an equal emphasis on composition and improvisation, often combined in imaginative and unexpected ways, and always energetically performed.

He is also joined by a cast of absolutely fantastic musicians: Kim Cass (bass), Steven Crammer (drums) and Elias Stemeseder (piano, Una Cords, synths) who provide the backbone of the album. Virtuoso guitarist, Michael Gregory Jackson, can be heard wailing on two pieces, and a string quartet - Sara Caswell (violin), Erin Benim Mayland (violin), Carla Fabiani (Viola) and Jessie Reagen (cello) - are a major part of the only vocal piece on the album, a piece unlike any of the others.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering what Stan did during the Covid lockdown, he actually released a well-accepted series of short compositions, each with video accompaniment. They can be heard and seen on YouTube under the title, Twenty Seconds of Something and within them you might even hear a hint of what is on Some Poor Soul Has a Fire.

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