# Why jazz drumming legend Eric Harland had to go to Bible school: Video, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2022/06/18/why-jazz-drumming-legend-eric-harland-had-to-go-to-bible-school-video-photos/
- Published: 2022-06-18T09:23:28+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Of all the reasons for dropping out of music school, Eric Harland’s has to be 
among the weirdest. There he was at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music on
a full scholarship, his career as a jazz drummer taking off like a rocket, and the
notoriously hard-to-please singing great Betty Carter among those to hire him. But
none of that mattered to Harland’s mother back home in Texas. She was thinking long
term. _Very _long term. She had an unconquerable fear for the health of his eternal
soul.**

“I came from a very religious family,” Harland explains, “and it was really hard
for me to enjoy being in college, because my mum was so concerned that I was doing
something wrong, or something against God … I was so far away from home, and she
was used to having that control over the family, and knowing where everybody was
and what everybody was doing.”

![Eric Harland: ‘There’s nothing wrong with being afraid. All you have to do is 
do the best that you can.’
](https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.219%2C$multiply_0.4431%
2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_95/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/e6de849617b150111ab6ad80983e4bdd743f6c32)

Eric Harland: ‘There’s nothing wrong with being afraid. All you have to do is do
the best that you can.’ CREDIT:GOFFREDO LOERTSCHER

His unorthodox solution involved returning to Houston. “What I decided to do was
go to theology school, because in order to be able to have a legitimate conversation
with my mum, if I didn’t have the biblical knowledge, there was no way to get her
to understand where I was coming from,” he explains. “And going to theology school
really taught me compassion. That was the first time I realised there’s something
greater than just being an artist, and allowing that part of myself just to be present.”

Harland had played in church as a child, and now for about eight months he returned
to that while pursuing these new studies, and found the beauty of some theological
concepts changed his approach to music: made it more collegiate and less concerned
with what he personally had to say.

He concedes he might well have arrived in the same place by studying philosophy 
rather than theology: “But without studying something that’s exponentially greater
than yourself, I feel like it’s hard to surrender yourself to something that’s going
to be greater on the bandstand. It helps you to grow in so many ways.”

Having jumped the hurdle of his mother’s fear, he relaunched his meteoric career–
until 9/11 obliterated New York’s jazz scene in 2001. A planned tour with trumpeter
Terence Blanchard was cancelled, and Harland and his wife, who had just had a baby
four days before the calamity, decided to leave NYC. The first gig he could get 
when the dust settled was playing in weekend jam sessions at the Blue Note – scant
remuneration for trekking in from Pennsylvania.

The world has wheels within wheels, however, and the illustrious saxophonist Charles
Lloyd happened to hear one of those jam sessions, and invited Harland to join his
quartet. The celebrated players associated with Lloyd’s long history filled Harland
with fear and self-doubt, yet how could he say no? “That’s another beautiful thing,”
he says. “There’s nothing wrong with being afraid. All you have to do is do the 
best that you can … I just had to be humble, listen, receive advice and just trust
that everything was going to be OK.”

It was, because now Harland is coming up for 20 years with, Lloyd – nearly half 
his life. When he performed in an un-dampened City Recital Hall with Lloyd’s Greek
Project in 2014, his capacity to make the music burn at a whisper shone out. It 
was a skill he learned from his first teacher at about six – one he believes too
few drummers fully assimilate.

“When the room is really lively they don’t really know how to readapt their sound,”
he observes. “You have to play softer, but not lose the intensity or the support.
You still want the drums to sound like the drums, but not be overbearing, just more
accommodating for everything that’s happening. It’s all about giving a unified sound
with the band.”

He points to many groups who play the same material in the same way regardless of
the room, whereas Lloyd’s band always instantly adapts. “One of the most beautiful
things about jazz music is that you can play the same song a million different ways,”
he says. “As long as you have a band leader, like Charles, who’s completely open
and not really set for the song to sound the exact same way every time, then you
can achieve some great musical creations on the fly, because the approach is just
a little bit different.”

Each time Harland has been here he’s come with a different venture, and this time
he’s joining saxophonist Will Vinson and guitarist Gilad Hekselman in Trio Grande
2.0, which made its debut album with one of Harland’s few drumming peers, Antonio
Sanchez. While Harland has recorded with both Hekselman and Vinson on their solo
albums (and counts them among his favourite players), he’s never worked with them
together before, and is excited by the prospect. “We just hear the same language,”
he says. “We’re going to really see what’s possible and honour the music to the 
best of our ability.”

By [John Shand](https://www.smh.com.au/by/john-shand-h0idl5)

![Eric Harland | Pi Recordings](https://i0.wp.com/pirecordings.com/wp-content/uploads/
2017/06/Eric-Harland-Trio.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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