Daniel Harris is a guitarist based in Tampa, Florida who has played guitar since picking it up at age 7 while recuperating from major eye surgery. Daniel is largely self-taught -- after just a few lessons, his first guitar instructor, a classical player, told Daniel’s mother in his presence to stop wasting her money on him because he would never learn to play properly. Daniel has spent his life ever since trying to prove him wrong. Undeterred, Daniel set about learning to play by ear listening to early 1970's FM radio. Soon Daniel became the “go to” guitarist while in elementary and middle school, being tapped to play in various ensembles including chamber music and providing music for school plays. Early on Daniel’s heart belonged to rock, blues and R&B but he always knew that someday he would rise to the occasion and play jazz. Daniel habitually experimented with writing and arranging music, even stringing multiple tape recorders together to achieve a rudimentary multi-tracking effect while in middle school. Daniel started playing professionally when his brother, an aspiring drummer, asked him in 1986 to join a band where a “rhythm” guitarist was needed. Daniel wound up being more than a mere "rhythm" guitarist and pretty much took over all the arranging duties and helped the band get a house gig at a local college bar. After years of listening wistfully to contemporary jazz, also in 1986, Daniel’s odyssey into actually playing jazz began when a friend brought him a copy of Wes Montgomery’s “A Day in the Life” LP which he had picked up at a garage sale for a dollar. That changed everything and Daniel locked himself in the woodshed and became a student of Wes Montgomery’s incredible music and the broader realm of jazz music in general. Daniel entered law school in 1989 and continued to play odd gigs to supplement his income. Shortly after graduation, Daniel landed a stint with the renowned South Florida doo-wop group The Five Burroughs where he was privileged to back numerous artists such as The Cleftones, The Dell Vikings, Don & Juan, Rudy West and Jimmy Beaumont. In 1995 following his return to Tampa, Daniel co-founded a band called The Swinging Johnsons with bassist Tom “TBone” Hamilton, playing a broad spectrum of material from jazz, blues, soul, funk, rock and even some bluegrass, including numerous original songs composed by Daniel. In 2003, the Swinging Johnsons evolved into a new band called the Hamilton Harris Project with new personnel including the late, great internationally acclaimed vocalist Marilyn Freemon and the incredible Ken Loomer on drums. Today Daniel remains on call as a freelance guitarist playing a variety of genres. Please give some of his original songs here a listen, you will hear jazz with some other diverse styles mixed in. Thank you for stopping by!
