DJ Harrison Mines Childhood Musical Memories on Lush New Release ‘Shades Of Yesterday’: [REVIEW]
DJ Harrison lives in a state of perpetual motion: a natural predicament fed by an insatiable appetite for musical discovery. When not playing keyboards for hip hop/jazz fusion innovators Butcher Brown, the gifted Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, beat-maker, DJ, recording engineer, and producer creates voluminous sonic catalogs and solo projects, including his latest offering Shades of Yesterday.
Released on February 9 via Stones Throw Records, the 11-track, full-length album of covers pays joyous homage to tunes that shaped Harrison’s musical consciousness. Years in the making, the self-produced work features memorable songs from Harrison’s childhood, including tunes by Stevie Wonder, The Ohio Players, Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Henderson, Vince Guaraldi, Donald Fagan, and The Beatles. In the spirit of discovery, Harrison also throws in a couple of surprises by lesser-known artists including music experimentalist Gary Wilson, French jazz-fusion ensemble Syntaxe, and songwriter Johnny Otis.
His third full-length release behind 2017’s HazyMoods and 2021’s Tales from the Old Dominion, Shades of Yesterday flaunts Harrison’s mastery of production and multiple instruments. Recorded mainly at Harrison’s Jellowstone Studios in his hometown of Richmond, VA, the album is a solo endeavour with Harrison playing virtually every instrument on the album as well as taking engineering credits.
The album’s opener, “You Were Too Good To Be True,” is a brief dive into the avant-garde stylings of Gary Wilson. Harrison’s version hews closely to the original, which was released in 1977, but with even brighter rhythms. Harrison’s send-up of “Galaxy,” released by legendary trumpeter Eddie Henderson in 1975, features Lettuce keyboardist extraordinaire Nigel Hall and picks up where Henderson collaborator George Duke left off. Harrison and Hall masterfully maintain the spacier instincts of the original with rippling, twinkling synthesizer effects.
“IGY” was recorded soon after Harrison’s trio opened for one his heroes, Donald Fagan, in Richmond in 2018. Harrison gets to display his vocal chops on “IGY,” delivering harmonies and a tonal diversity of keyboard skills that would make Fagan proud. In the video short below, he gushes about meeting Fagan, a musician he’s followed since childhood.
Vince Guaraldi’s “Lil Birdie” is a cherished holiday classic that’s been tugging at my heart strings since its 1973 release alongside “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” where it was prominently featured. Harrison elevates the song to a whole new level folding in subtle grooves and leaving fans with a 30-second reprise of Guaraldi’s “Thanksgiving Theme,” lest we forget what the simple joys of childhood feel like. Harrison, who makes an excellent Schroeder, released “Lil Birdie” in November with an accompanying video to celebrate the start of the holiday season. Take a look below.
Harrison channels Stevie Wonder’s genius perfectly, unleashing a jazz fusion tour de force of his own on his version of the maestro’s “Contusion,” released in 1976 on Songs In The Key of Life, arguably one of the best albums to come out of the ’70s. Fans get a glimpse of Freddie Hubbard’s sensuous fusion classic “Ebony Moonbeams” in a two-minute snippet that is emblematic of Hubbard’s impact on the genre and Harrison’s musical evolution.
Harrison captures the smooth, sexy grooves of The Ohio Players on covers of “Sweet Sticky Thing,” which appears as a brief interlude, and “Together,” featuring his Butcher Brown bandmate Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney on horns and Harrison’s vocal harmonies, revealing the innocent side of the seminal funk group.
“Tomorrow Never Knows” features the vocal contributions of DJ, producer, and Stones Throw Records founder Chris Manak (a.k.a. Peanut Butter Wolf). Together he and Harrison manifest the pioneering sonic techniques that launched the psychedelic movement. Harrison ably recreates the prismatic effects and bold synth explorations of the song.
The thrill of discovering new music is not lost on Harrison with the addition of “L’ Anthropofemme” by French jazz/funk fusion group Syntaxe. Using his voice as an instrument, Harrison reinvents the rhythmic wordless vocables featured prominently on the 1981 original and pops in marvelous “Alvin and The Chipmunks” harmonies for the chorus, an enchanting touch. Watch Harrison talk about Tyler, the Creator introducing him to Syntaxe and recording this musical find.
Harrison closes out the album with “Pling,” a mesmerizing, soulful instrumental that American songwriter Johnny “Shuggie” Otis penned in 1974. Harrison follows the simple and spare beats, fleshing out the tune with layers of silvery vocal harmonies.
Start to finish, Shades of Yesterday is a deeply personal tribute to the music that has shaped Harrison since childhood. It is part of an ethos embraced by Harrison that honors the past while reinventing its sound in ways that reach far into the future. Fans can count themselves lucky to be along for the ride.
Shades of Yesterday is available via Stones Throw Records, bandcamp and across all digital platforms. You can catch DJ Harrison on tour with Butcher Brown this spring. For more information including upcoming releases and tour dates, click on the links below.
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