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This project was made possible by funding through the Canadian Culture Online Strategy and the Heritage Policy Branch of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Canadian Heritage

Harold Mabern

Harold Mabern discusses the merits of playing the blues for a jazz musician

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Harold Mabern discusses the many different styles of blues

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Harold Mabern talks about how he got started in music

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Transcription

Q: “You just started playing music because that’s just what was in the air, right, when you were a kid?”

A: Harold Mabern: “Well, what happened, when I was like, say, eight or nine years old, I had a strange affinity for the drums. I used to go out and beat on the top of tin cans and garbage cans and stuff. I didn't know what I was doing, but I like the drums. So to make a long story short, when I got ready to start my high school, I said, "I want to play drums." So I played drums the first year in the marching band, the snare drum. But around the second year, something was missing. I want to be involved with the more melodic kind of instruments, so they put me on trumpet. Now, I could read the notes, so to speak, but I could never really get a sound. So the second, in the middle ways of the second year, they switched me to the baritone horn. So Frank Strozier and I hooked up and he said, "Man, you should transfer to our school." I was going to Douglas High School. We had some good teachers out there. He said, "You should go and come to our school because at Manassas, man, we've got a better jazz program.” You know, they had Dee Dee Bridgewater's father was there teaching. Hank Crawford was there. Frank Strozier, George Coleman, Louis Smith. So I said, "Yes." So I got a transfer, so I played baritone horn when I transferred to Manassas and incidentally, Jimmie Lunceford taught there. Well, this is way before my time.”

Interviewer: “Before that?”

Harold Mabern: “Right. And to make a long story short, so I heard this young lady playing one day. It's a true story. And I was about fifteen and a half, sixteen and she played a little song on all the black keys, F-sharp and she played and I just walked up to the piano and just sat down and picked it out. So then it was letting me know that I had maybe an affinity, maybe, for the piano. So I just started playing it. The next thing I learned was 'The Honeydripper', Joe Liggins. And after that, I learned 'All The Things You Are' after about six months. It took me a long time to learn that song.”