The Three Sounds

The Three Sounds ranked among Blue Note Records’ most commercially successful acts of the late 1950s and 1960s, propelled by their agile, rhythmic, blues-tinged brand of mainstream jazz. Because successive releases often resembled one another and the ensemble’s genial, approachable style required little effort from listeners, reviewers of the era frequently labeled the unit mere lounge entertainment; yet by the 1990s a reevaluation had taken hold, recognizing pianist Gene Harris—the group’s guiding force—as a distinctive and skilled player whose apparent facility masked considerable technical command. Bassist Andrew Simpkins and drummer Bill Dowdy likewise supplied a polished, resourceful rhythm foundation that sustained the trio’s inviting, blues-rooted pulse, a quality that helped them retain a sizable audience well into the late 1960s. Between their 1958 Blue Note debut and Dowdy’s exit in 1967 the band amassed an unusually large discography, issuing numerous titles while leaving additional material unissued for later release. Throughout this peak era their essential sound stayed consistent, showing little decline until internal fractures began to surface in the closing years of the decade.

Harris remained the constant presence in the Three Sounds from its inception. Born in Benton Harbor, Michigan, he started piano lessons as a youngster and first performed publicly at age six. Although boxing and athletics later competed for his attention, he kept playing, sometimes joining drummer Bill Dowdy in an informal trio. After both graduated high school in 1951 they enlisted in the Army and served in separate units, receiving their discharges in 1954. Harris subsequently worked with assorted ensembles across the South and Midwest, while Dowdy settled in Chicago and performed with several blues and jazz groups. Two years later the two musicians converged again in South Bend, Indiana, where they joined bassist Andrew Simpkins and a tenor saxophonist to form the Four Sounds. After cycling through several saxophonists without satisfaction, the remaining members dropped the horn and renamed themselves the Three Sounds. For the next two years they performed steadily throughout the Midwest, with particular frequency in Ohio, appearing both as a trio and as backing musicians for soloists such as Lester Young and Sonny Stitt. During this period Horace Silver became an admirer and recommended the group to Blue Note founder Alfred Lion, though the endorsement did not immediately yield a contract. The musicians toured with Stitt and relocated to Washington, D.C., where they continued as a trio and as a rhythm section for visiting artists including Miles Davis and Kenny Burrell. In the autumn of 1958 they moved to New York to work once more with Stitt; shortly afterward they signed with Blue Note and also backed Nat Adderley on a Riverside date.

Their first Blue Note album, recorded in September 1958 and titled Introducing the Three Sounds, achieved surprising commercial success. Live appearances attracted admirers such as Horace Silver, Sonny Stitt, Miles Davis, and Cannonball Adderley, even while critics remained dismissive—a Down Beat review, for instance, gave the record a harsh assessment. Public demand nevertheless made it one of the year’s most popular jazz releases. Blue Note returned the band to the studio in February 1959 to record Bottoms Up, the third of seventeen total sessions held at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio (Introducing itself had required two sessions). Harris later estimated that the group ultimately produced the equivalent of thirty-five albums, many of which stayed in the vaults. During their initial Blue Note tenure they issued, besides the two already mentioned, Good Deal, Feelin’ Good, Moods, Here We Come, It Just Got to Be, Hey There!, Out of This World, and Black Orchid, and they also accompanied Stanley Turrentine and Lou Donaldson on several dates.

The Three Sounds remained with Blue Note until 1962, when they departed shortly after completing Black Orchid. They recorded one album, Blue Genes, for Verve before moving to Mercury, where three further records appeared between December 1962 and 1964. Later in 1964 the trio joined Limelight and cut three more albums there. In October 1966 they returned to Blue Note for Vibrations. Soon after those sessions Dowdy departed, replaced by Donald Bailey, who debuted on record with the group on the 1967 release Live at the Lighthouse. The following year’s Coldwater Flat added a string section to the trio’s sound. By the September 1968 sessions for Elegant Soul, Bailey had been succeeded by Carl Burnette. The pattern of lush, string-laden productions continued on 1969’s Soul Symphony, by which time Andrew Simpkins had left and Henry Franklin had taken his place.

Soul Symphony effectively marked the end of the Three Sounds’ recording career. The musicians continued performing, and one such engagement was preserved on Live at the It Club, a 1970 concert issued in 1995. Later that year Monk Montgomery replaced Franklin, yet this lineup never entered the studio. Harris instead launched a solo career in 1971 with the album Gene Harris & the Three Sounds, which featured Burnette, electric bassist Luther Hughes, and additional session players. He focused on his own projects for the next six years, recording exclusively for Blue Note. After that contract concluded he retired to Boise, Idaho, where he served as musical director at a local hotel. Bassist Ray Brown eventually persuaded him to return, resulting in an album for Pablo; Harris resumed his solo output in 1985 on Concord Jazz. Fresh recordings together with compact-disc reissues of the classic Three Sounds material encouraged a favorable reassessment of his work, sustaining his reputation into the late 1990s.