Harris Eisenstadt - crashing musical boundaries

Harris Eisenstadt should be a lot more famous.

And, indeed, he's headed in that direction.

Harris was born in Toronto and now splits his time between L.A. and New York but his real home is behind a drum kit of some description.

His love is jazz - mostly improvisational. He has appeared on more than 30 recordings and recorded and performed with Connie Bauer, Big Black, Rob Brown, John Butcher, Les Claypool, Nels Cline, Lol Coxhill, Mark Dresser, Vinny Golia, Graham Haynes, Tristan Honsiger, Wayne Horvitz, Peter Kowald, Yusef Lateef, Bennie Maupin, Butch Morris, James Newton, Sam Rivers, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Adam Rudolph, Paul Rutherford, Wadada Leo Smith, Steve Swell, and Bernie Worrell.

The Georgia Strait, (Vancouver entertainment weekly) describes his playing this way -

"(Eisenstadt) does what all great jazz percusssionists do... (he) leads by pushing and prodding the soloists with subtle yet propulsive bursts of rhythmic colour."

Here's a review of one of his early recordings.

"Harris Eisenstadt delivers a set of impressive post-bop improvisation on Last Minute of Play in this Period. Five of the original tunes feature the crack ensemble interplay of a quartet led by the drummer and one piece features the drummer in a spontaneous trio with Vinny Golia and Wadada Leo Smith. The quartet pieces are all driven by a propulsive free groove. The drummer knows how to propel the music while keeping a flexible sense of time that floats across the pulse. Eisenstadt is worth keeping an eye out for."

- Michael Rosenstein, Cadence Magazine

Jazz lovers, drum lovers, and lovers of improv music that crashes all boundaries should definately check out Harris Eisenstadt. His recordings are available through his website.