Harrison on Harrison

Harrison on Harrison, subtitled Jazz Explorations of George Harrison, is an album by the American jazz guitarist and arranger Joel Harrison released in October 2005. It contains jazz interpretations of ten songs written by the former Beatle George Harrison, who died in November 2001, together with a version of the gospel standard "In My Father's House". Inspiration and recording In his liner notes to the CD, Harrison says he was inspired to record the album after being invited to perform a short set of George Harrison's songs at the 2002 New York Guitar Festival. In his selection of compositions for the album, he was drawn to the former Beatle's incorporation of a wide range of musical styles in his work, namely, "country, blues, British hymns and ballads, rock and roll, gospel, psychedelia, Indian music, and early jazz". He adds of George Harrison's songs: "They combine aching beauty and biting wit, spiritual longing and earthy humor, simple modal vamps and sophisticated harmony, mystical ballads and bashing beats." Harrison also credited the Beatles' guitarist with introducing him to Indian classical music, which he studied at the Ali Akbar College of Music in California. In a 2014 interview for Guitar Player, Harrison said that part of the attraction of making Harrison on Harrison – as with his 2003 album of country and folk covers, Free Country – was that the material was not usually played by jazz artists, and so these projects were "essentially my way of creating my own jazz repertoire". Harrison recorded the album in Brooklyn, New York backed by jazz musicians such as David Liebman, David Binney and Uri Caine. He and Liebman wrote the musical arrangements for the songs. Although mostly instrumental pieces, the tracks include vocals by Harrison and, on "All Things Must Pass", a guest appearance by singer Jen Chapin.