Hard bop pianist Harold Mabern used his wide array of skills to become one of the most well-respected, albeit not the most well-known, jazz pianists of his era. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 20, 1936, Mabern was a self-taught player and tried his luck in Chicago before landing a gig with Lionel Hampton in New York City in the late 1950s. He continued to pay his dues as a sideman for the next few years, culminating in a six-week stint in San Francisco alongside Miles Davis in 1963.

His debut as a leader, A Few Miles from Memphis, arrived in 1968, and was the first of several albums he released on the Prestige label. In this era he also continued his work accompanying other artists, and spent time recording and performing with Sarah Vaughan, Wes Montgomery, and Lee Morgan. He also served as an educator, despite having no formal music schooling himself, and was on the faculty at William Paterson University. There he began a decades-spanning collaboration with saxophonist Eric Alexander, one of his former students.

Mabern also became particularly appreciated in Japan, where he devoted a significant amount of his attention later in his life. He was signed to the Japanese jazz label Venus for a series of albums in the early 2000s, and closed out his recording career on the independent label Smoke Sessions. He was actively recording and performing up until his death on September 19, 2019.

Harold Mabern

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