Allan Harris

Brooklyn-born Allan Harris, now based in Harlem, ranks among the leading male jazz vocalists to surface during the 1990s. An award-winning singer frequently likened to Nat King Cole, he also performs as a guitarist, writes songs, acts, and produces recordings. His releases explore an expansive stylistic palette yet remain deeply rooted in jazz conventions. Harris began his discography on the independent Love Productions Records imprint before issuing two projects on Mons: the sextet session It’s a Wonderful World, which paired him with Ray Brown, Jeff Hamilton, Benny Green, Mark Whitfield, and Claudio Roditi, and the large-scale Here Comes Allan Harris and the Metropole Orchestra, supported by the Netherlands’ 54-piece ensemble.

In 2001 he honored longtime Duke Ellington lyricist Billy Strayhorn with the album Love Came: The Songs of Strayhorn. Departing from jazz standards, Harris issued the 2006 concept recording Cross That River, which examines the African-American experience in the American West of the 1860s. The following year he delivered the live Kennedy Center tribute Long Live the King, devoted to Nat King Cole. Two further Cole-related projects appeared in 2009: the holiday collection Dedicated to You: Allan Harris Sings a Nat King Cole Christmas and the sequel Cry of the Thunderbird. Harris explored R&B territory on 2011’s Open Up Your Mind, then collaborated with pianist Takana Miyamoto on the 2014 Tony Bennett and Bill Evans homage Convergence.

He received the Down Beat Critic’s Poll Award for Rising Star Jazz Vocalist in 2015. That same year he released the studio album Black Bar Jukebox, blending standards, original material, and contemporary pop interpretations. Its 2016 successor, Nobody’s Gonna Love You Better: Black Bar Jukebox Redux, traversed vocal jazz, R&B, blues, and Brazilian idioms while incorporating covers of Jimi Hendrix and Steely Dan alongside four Harris originals, one a reworked selection from Cross That River.