Making the Low Notes: A Life in Music

by Bill Harrison

Overview

A bass player navigates his way through the muddy waters of Chicago's music scene

Bill Harrison chronicles his journey from bumbling music student to successful professional bass player in late twentieth-century Chicago. Told with a mixture of wry humor and hard-won insight, Making the Low Notes gives readers an insider's peek into the prosaic life of a working musician. Harrison describes periods of camaraderie, disappointment, pain, and joy as he toils in venues as divergent as bowling alleys, jazz clubs, recording studios, hotels, orchestra pits, and concert halls. He shares the stage with jazz greats, including Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, Clark Terry, Bunky Green, and Max Roach. Along the way, the bassist struggles to reconcile the dissonance between his desire to be heard and his impulse to hide silently in the shadows.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781956897289
Publisher:	Open Books Press
Publication date:	06/06/2023
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.54(d)

About the Author

Bill Harrison worked as a professional bassist in Chicago for four decades. He performed with jazz luminaries Clark Terry, James Moody, Bunky Green, Max Roach, Woody Herman's Thundering Herd, Dizzy Gillespie, and many others. His theatrical credits include Wicked, The Lion King, Always Patsy Cline, The Visit, Bounce, Turn of the Century, and Billy Elliot. Bill's writing has been published in After Hours, Allium, Counseling Today, The Intermezzo, Performink, The Sandpiper, Sledgehammer, Under the Gum Tree, and elsewhere. He has a private psychotherapy practice in Chicago, where he lives with his poet/therapist wife, Nina Corwin, and a naughty Bengal named Jazzy.

Editorial Reviews

05/01/2023

A colloquially recounted story of a string bass musician who became a mental health counselor, this book more generally conveys lessons on career transitioning, cultural competency, adapting to aging, and surviving bullying. For more than 40 years, the New York City—born Harrison, preferring supporting over starring roles, parlayed his musical talent into gigs as a part of jazz, pop, and theatrical bands playing in the Chicago area and on tour. The author gained respect as an associate of many musical greats, such as Dizzy Gillespie, and several legends served as mentors. Adaptability and versatility were keys to Harrison's success. Musically, he shifted from upright to electric bass as needed, and he witnessed several women singers make the transition to instrumentalist. Personally, he learned about his hidden battles with depression, and he changed careers from musician to licensed therapist when bodily injuries and a lasting desire to contribute to others' lives led him to the less physically taxing role. VERDICT While exploring a life in music, this book also outlines trying to fit in, finding and retaining a job, and adjusting to fellow workers, all experiences that many readers may find to be universally relatable.—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr.

Library Journal