Stefon Harris at the Library of Congress

by Alan Greenblatt

Stefon Harris is one of the most promising young players in jazz. He grew up playing plenty of instruments but has found his niche as a professional playing the vibes. Still in his 20s, I have already been impressed with him in person on a couple of occasions, because he played with such tact for a young person. He can play some powerful blues but apparently felt no need to overwhelm his solos with tons and tons of superfluous notes.

He was less impressive this past Friday at the Library of Congress, where I caught him for the first time as a leader. At first, as he opened up with his own composition "Cloud of Red Dust," I felt like I could settle in and watch someone both delightful and masterful. He has a great knack for melody, really an almost Tin Pan Alley sense of creating a pleasing line.

But soon all was mishmash. I blame the rhythm section -- Tarus Mateen, Terreon Gully and Xavier Davis -- who were boring. I'd had such good luck recently hearing excellent rhythm men I'd begun to take them for granted. This group favored repetition above all else, taking the same short idea and going with it again and again, varying only the volume of their attack.

The group played only three tunes in the hourlong first set, meandering around them, worrying a few phrases over and over, adding no sense of balance or build. We skipped out after that one set, figuring the second one would offer more of the same.