Local Musician – Danny Harrington
by Kathleen Downey
Local musician Danny Harrington says that every instrument has its own personality. The job of a musician, he believes, is to coax-out the unique musical timbre that each instrument possesses. If the relationship is good—“There is a bonding that occurs between a musician and his (or her) chosen instrument,” says Harrington—the personality of the instrument will be revealed—and sometimes, the soul of the musician is also bared.
A professor for Berklee College of Music where he is a member of the Harmony department, Harrington describes his teaching style as “improvisational” and tells students that “improvisation is an imperfect art.” Perfection is not the goal. Rather, Harrington believes, a musician’s goal is to find a way to make any imperfections enhance the music. In so doing, these enhanced imperfections will ultimately shape the musician. “I want my students to become more comfortable with who they are as artists,” he explains. Harrington adds that it’s relevant to his students that he remains a performing musician—and not just someone delivering musical sermons in front of the classroom.
Harrington’s “hey day,” as he calls it, was during the early 1990s, when he toured with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and performed with legendary musical luminaries such as The Four Tops, The Temptations, Diana Ross, and Gladys Knight. He recalls a personable Ms. Knight who warmly greeted and introduced herself to Harrington, a memory with a lasting musical imprint.
But the person whom Harrington credits with helping him to develop as a musician is jazz music’s elder statesman, clarinet/saxophone player Teddy Casher. “It was 1974 and I was playing the Providence bar scene; through an acquaintance, I met Casher, who happened to hear me on the bari sax,” says Harrington. (He says that at the time, he considered himself more of an alto or tenor sax player.) After his performance, Harrington says that Casher told him, “I hate to tell you this, but you’re a baritone saxophone player.” Harrington jokes that the baritone saxophone has a small image problem—but somehow, Harrington has been able to make this imposing, low-pitched woodwind resonate with the reverberations of soulful jazz. He praises Casher for giving him “the strength to keep at it” and calls Casher his “musical father.”
His own father, a trumpeter, also played an influential role in Harrington’s life. “Every Sunday morning, my father would put on a bunch of 78-records. We’d listen to Louis Armstrong and obscure Dixieland players,” Harrington reminisces. When Harrington was five-years-old, his father took him to a music store. “My father told me to pick out an instrument, so I picked out a set of red drums. ‘Pick again,’ my father said.” Harrington deadpans his father’s response. Though Harrington’s second choice was a saxophone, he ultimately left the store with a clarinet. “My father believed that I’d become a better sax player if I learned to play the clarinet first,” Harrington says. He adds, “And what he said was the spot-on truth.”
For Harrington, the pull of the deep bass lines of his bari sax is matched by the pull of the community where he lives. He’s been a citizen of Newburyport for almost 20 years, having served 11 years on the board of directors for the Firehouse Center for the Arts—3 of those years as president. “How could I not get involved?” he asks rhetorically and retrospectively. He says that he wanted to help bring arts to the community that “kept calling to him.” Harrington remembers the early growing pains; today, the Firehouse is a renowned arts institution. Harrington’s recording, “Danny Harrington—Live at the Firehouse Theatre” was recorded there in 2001.
His first recording, however, is “Risa’s Waltz,” a composition that Harrington wrote for his wife in 1990. He confides that when he plays this piece today during performances where his wife is in attendance, he likes to observe whether she still notices the melody that is meant for her. “Does she notice?” I ask. A faint smile tugs at the corners of Harrington’s lips. “She does,” he answers. Perhaps because Harrington, practiced at the art of improvisation, is baring his soul.
Visit www.dannyharrington.com/ to learn more about Newburyport’s own bari sax player and for a schedule of Harrington’s local gigs
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Kathleen Downey is a contributing writer to Newburyport-Today if you are a “Townie” and would like to be interviewed by Kathleen, please let us know!
