Eric Harland

Biography

Harland began his professional career in 1993 playing locally in Houston, Texas, as he finished high school at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where many notable performers have studied. Harland won first chair in 1992–93 with the Regional and All State Texas Jazz Band. He received a special Citation for Outstanding Musicianship in 1994 from the International Association for Jazz Education. During a workshop in high school, Wynton Marsalis encouraged Harland to study in New York City.

After graduation Harland attended the Manhattan School of Music with a full scholarship in their music program. After music school he went on to study Theology at Houston Baptist University (College of Biblical Studies) and was subsequently ordained as a Minister.

Harland has been featured on over 80 recordings with various artists. Among these recordings, Let's Get Lost and Wandering Moon (Terence Blanchard), Back East (Joshua Redman), and Land of Giants (McCoy Tyner) were nominated for Grammy Awards. With Blanchard and Spike Lee, Harland has performed in 18 motion picture movie scores, including The Caveman's Valentine, Original Sin, People I Know, and Dark Blue.

Harland has toured and recorded with Mark Turner, Larry Grenadier, Ravi Coltrane, Wynton Marsalis, Betty Carter, Joe Henderson, Walter Smith III, Aaron Parks, John Patitucci, Zakir Hussain, and others.

In Down Beat's 65th Annual Readers Poll, Harland was included on the short list of world's most recognized drummers along with Elvin Jones and Roy Haynes. He also won the 2008 and 2009 Critics Polls for Rising Star on the Drums. Harland was featured in the September 2002 and November 2009 issues of Modern Drummer.

Harland released his debut album, Voyager: Live by Night, in late 2010. It features Walter Smith III, Julian Lage, Taylor Eigsti and Harish Raghavan.

Harland's second album, Vipassana, was released on August 11, 2014.

In April of 2017, Harland opened a state of the art recording studio in New York City called GSI Studios with partners Daniel Rovin and Austin White.

Endorsements

Harland plays Sakae drums, Zildjian cymbals, Remo drumheads and Vic Firth sticks.

As leader

As sideman

With Charles Lloyd

With Aaron Parks

With Taylor Eigsti

With Walter Smith III

With McCoy Tyner

With the Monterey Quartet

With Terence Blanchard

With Dave Holland

With Chris Potter

With Joshua Redman

With Kenny Garrett

With the 3 Cohens

With Jimmy Greene

With Joel Weiskopf

With John Swana

With Aaron Goldberg

With Kurt Rosenwinkel

With Edward Simon

With Greg Osby

With the SFJAZZ Collective

With Dayne Stephens

With Zhenya Strigalev

With Stefano di Battista

With Ravi Coltrane

With Jacky Terrasson

Filmography

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