DJ Harrison

Devonne Harris, the multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, and vocalist who belongs to Butcher Brown, issues dusty funk and jazz recordings under the DJ Harrison moniker. Through numerous projects stretching back to the late 2000s, the Virginia-born artist has demonstrated a wide-ranging and continually shifting command of multiple eras of Black music, applying that understanding to contemporary contexts via inventive fusions of live playing and sample-driven methods. Based at his shared Jellowstone Studio in Richmond, Harris launched his DJ Harrison discography with the self-released Monotones in 2013, a collection consisting primarily of short instrumentals that evoked an informal Soulquarians gathering. Song names such as "Erykah's Gun" and "Dilla's Eclair" clarified his touchstones more explicitly on the smoother Stashboxxx, which appeared in 2014 via Ropeadope. Slyish, issued in 2016 on DJ House Shoes' Street Corner Music imprint, offered a deliberately hazy homage to Sly Stone. Harris subsequently established a relationship with Stones Throw Records, the home of inspirations Dilla and Madlib, releasing HazyMoods in 2017, Tales from the Old Dominion in 2021, and the all-covers Shades of Yesterday in 2024. He has further collaborated with Nigel Hall on the 2024 tribute The Burning Bush: A Journey Through the Music of Earth, Wind & Fire.

Born in Petersburg as a lifelong Virginia resident, Harris entered music young via his parents' record collections, which supplied an extensive grounding. His father worked as a radio DJ, while his mother supported his development by purchasing a range of instruments during his youth. In his early teenage years, Harris immersed himself in home recording, starting with a karaoke machine whose dual cassette deck allowed multi-tracking across instruments, then moving to a four-track recorder. After participating in his high school drum line, he pursued percussion studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he encountered his future Butcher Brown colleagues.

While Butcher Brown gained traction in 2013, Harris put out the initial DJ Harrison album, Monotones, on the local 32 Bar label. Beyond one guest verse and guitar parts on two tracks, he performed and recorded all elements solo. He followed the next year on Ropeadope with Stashboxxx, a generally warmer and more flowing successor made without samples. For Slyish, which arrived two years afterward on Street Corner, Harris emphasized his connection to Sly Stone, particularly the artist's hazy early-1970s work. At that stage, Harris had already emerged as a frequent collaborator beyond the busy Butcher Brown schedule. His contributions spanned projects including Mac Miller's Faces, Nicholas Payton's Numbers, and Phonte and Eric Roberson's Tigallerro, alongside drum work on jazz trio sessions led by Marcus Tenney of Butcher Brown and Charles Owens, plus additional output as one-third of Pace Cadets and one-half of Sons of Frod.

Beyond official releases, Harris has utilized his Bandcamp page to distribute abundant extra solo material. One such deep cut, "R2," was chosen by Stones Throw associate Sofie Royer for Sofie's SOS Tape, a 2016 compilation. Early in 2017, Harris signed with Stones Throw and debuted on the label with the largely knocking HazyMoods. Butcher Brown's parallel ascent via Gearbox albums led to a Concord Jazz agreement that began in 2020 with the full-length #KingButch. That year, Harris and singer/songwriter Rob Milton also issued Everlasting as Sons of the James. In 2021, Kurt Elling released SuperBlue, a recording featuring Harris on keys, Butcher Brown's Corey Fonville on drums, and Charlie Hunter on guitar. Late that year, Harris delivered his second Stones Throw LP, Tales from the Old Dominion, a comparatively song-focused effort with appearances from labelmate Stimulator Jones, Pink Siifu, Billy Mercury, and Nigel Hall. Early the next year, SuperBlue earned a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Elling and the same ensemble followed with the sequel SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree, which received a nomination the subsequent year for Best Alternative Jazz Album in the category's inaugural year.

Amid ongoing Butcher Brown commitments, Harris issued his third Stones Throw album, Shades of Yesterday, in February 2024. Assembled across several years, the set included covers of childhood favorites, formative influences, and recent finds, among them Vince Guaraldi's "Little Birdie" (retitled "Lil Birdie"), Donald Fagen's "IGY," and Eddie Henderson's "Galaxy." Label head Chris Manak appeared on a suitably psychedelic take of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." Only months later, Harris and Lettuce's Nigel Hall released The Burning Bush: A Journey Through the Music of Earth, Wind & Fire through Regime Music Group.