Sunday, December 21, 2003

By Nate Guidry, Post-Gazette

Satin Doll" has been a part of Walt Harper's repertory so long that many fans think it is he, not Duke Ellington, who wrote the tune.

	Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Walt Harper plays the piano at his Point Breeze home. "I worked as hard learning the business side as I did learning the music side," Harper says.. Click photo for larger image.

If you've heard his band, you've heard the song. No concert is complete without the gravely voiced vocalist belting out:

"Cigarette holder -- which wigs me

"Over her shoulder -- she digs me

"Out cattin' -- that Satin doll"

While Harper readily credits Ellington with the song, he estimates that he's probably played it a few thousand times over the years.

"When we started playing the tune, everybody dug it," says Harper, relaxing at his home one cold December afternoon. "Now, if I don't play it, people ask where is 'Satin Doll'?"

No need to worry. "Satin Doll" isn't about to be discarded. It is as much a part of his persona as are his wide eyes and cheerful disposition.

For nearly 50 years, Harper, 71, has been playing jazz the way his fans want to hear it. As a pianist and composer, he has remained faithful to the gentler side, never exploring the music's more esoteric territories.

He has also been a savvy club owner and celebrity tennis player. For a time in the late 1950s, he was dubbed the "Prom King" because of the number of colleges and high school proms at which his band performed.

He also has presented jazz workshops and cultural programs, recorded eight albums and appeared numerous times on national and area television, with his group or alone. He hosted a PBS special, "Walt Harper at Fallingwater," filmed at the Kaufmann home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The program aired nationally and received an Emmy nomination.

Two years ago, Harper received the Henry Schwalb Excellence in the Arts Award. Given by Pittsburgh Magazine, the award honors artists for taking risks, thinking beyond themselves, attaining excellence in their fields and educating new audiences.

In the mid-1970s, Dan Rooney, owner and president of the Pittsburgh Steelers, hired Harper's band to perform at all of the Steelers home games. The group continued to perform until last year.

'In love with the groove'

	A Life in Tune This occasional series profiles longtime performers and aficionados to mine their memories and knowledge of a lifetime in music. Ludwig grooves on jazz organ (October 26, 2003) Balladeer Jerry Betters rubbed shoulders with legends (July 20, 2003) Symphony orchestras and jazz ensembles coveted the services of bass player Joe Wallace (May 11, 2003) Negri has proved handy on the guitar (March 2, 2003) Condeluci recalls glory days as a percussionist (Dec. 8, 2002) Trumpeting a jazz icon: Danny Conn (Sept. 22, 2002) The real Slim's heyday (Aug. 11, 2002) Collector goes on the record about his jazz-infused 90 years (July 21, 2002)

One of Harper's greatest Steelers moments occurred in 1979, when the Steelers were Super Bowl-bound. Harper was vacationing in Barbados when the loudspeaker boomed over the beach that he was wanted at the office. It was Rooney telling him to return to Pittsburgh.

"He had a plane reserved for me and a limo when I got to California," Harper said. "We played at Newport Beach the day before the game and for the game in the Rose Bowl against the Los Angeles Rams.

"I remember we kept inching up to the sideline to watch the game, and the security guards chased us back. I told them we were the official Steelers band, and they said, 'All the more reason you should stay down and get back.'"

Rooney said he fell in love with Harper's music long before he hired him to perform for the Steelers.

"We used to go to Ligonier, and he would play at a place they called the Pirate's Den," said Rooney. "I got to know him, and when he opened the Attic, I used to go there because I'm a jazz fan. Walt is someone I consider a friend. He played at my daughter's wedding and for my 40th wedding anniversary. He introduced me to Wynton Marsalis and a lot of other wonderful people."

These days, though, Harper's energy is focused on composing and performing -- a gig here and a gig there -- but only if the money is right.

"The key to this is getting in with the right people," he says. "Music is a business, and I have always looked at it that way. You have to know how to sell yourself and price yourself. You have to know how to turn down jobs. When I was coming up, I used to talk to people like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, George Shearing and Doctor Billy Taylor about the business side of music, and they taught me a lot.

	Walt Harper, center, and his band played at Fallingwater in the early 1970s in a concert that was filmed for PBS.

"I worked as hard learning the business side as I did learning the music side. There are a lot of people who say I'm a businessman before they say I'm a musician. But what they don't realize is, music has made me a businessman. People don't hire me because I'm a businessman. They hire me because I'm a musician."

Harper grew up in Schenley Heights, the son of a contractor. But a young Harper showed no interest in the business and turned to music when he arrived at Schenley High School. He played valve trombone in the all-city band and the Swinging Five, a jazz group that he co-led with pioneering bebop bassist Ray Brown, who remained Harper's close friend and musical collaborator until Brown's death in July 2002.

"There was no one like Ray," said Harper. "He loved everything he did musically, and he thought about everything he did. He was an innovator with a distinctive style.

"Ray Brown and I used to play hooky from school and would go over to Errol [Garner's] house to listen to him practice," Harper says. "He used to put a stack of music on top of his piano, but he couldn't read. He had me fooled for years. Finally, I said, 'Man, why didn't you tell me you couldn't read?' He said, 'God gave me this talent.'"

After graduating from high school in 1947, Harper studied at the Pittsburgh Musical Institute and the University of Pittsburgh for two years. Then he took a 10-piece band, which included his brother and saxophonist Nate, on the road from 1949 to 1954.

The group appeared all over the East and Midwest with such artists as Nat Cole, Sarah Vaughan and George Shearing. But Harper never cared much for the rigors of the road.

"I was in that bag until I brought my group into the Crawford Grill," says Harper, who started performing at the Grill in 1958 and remained there until he opened his own club, Walt Harper's Jazz Attic in Market Square.

"We were the first group to integrate the Hill District with music," he says. "My band had made a name for itself playing the college scene. When I went to the Grill, the college kids followed."

In 1969, Harper provided a healthy shot in the arm to the city's Downtown night life when he opened the Jazz Attic, a club located one flight above a state liquor store.

"Until Walt Harper came along, Market Square was a seedy space for derelicts and pigeons," said retired Pittsburgh Press columnist Roy McHugh. "Actually, Maury Wills got there before Harper did, but his Stolen Base lasted only as long as his Pirates career, which was brief.

"The Stolen Base offered banjo music. Walt Harper, leading his own band from a piano stool, played jazz -- the commercial, danceable variety -- and for the purist there was always someone like Stan Getz or Ramsey Lewis or Dizzy Gillespie."

The club also showcased groups like the Modern Jazz Quartet, Joe Williams, Cannonball Adderley and the Billy Taylor Trio.

"I worked for him on many occasions," said pianist Taylor from his home in New York. "People think of him as a club owner and a part-time piano player, but he's a musician first. He has done a lot for a lot of musicians, and in doing so he has helped move jazz further down the road."

The Attic was also a hangout for local celebrities.

Harper said that on any given night athletes such as Terry Bradshaw, L.C. Greenwood and Connie Hawkins were stopping in.

"All of the athletes hung out there," he says. "You have to remember those were days when athletes hung out with regular people. Nowadays, they are so insulated you don't even know who they are."

But after seven years and a messy legal split with his partners, Harper sold the Attic to devote more time to arranging and composing.

He didn't stay out of the music business for long.

In February 1983, he opened Harper's, a 148-seat restaurant below street level at One Oxford Centre. Unlike the Jazz Attic, Harper's had a high-priced chef and was open for lunch and dinner. The menu featured 40 items, including these sandwiches: Chick Corea charbroiled beef pockets, Stan Getz fish sandwich, Stanley Turrentine tuna salad, George Benson club, Chuck Mangione reuben, Dizzy Gillespie charbroiled hamburger and Carmen McRae charbroiled chicken sandwich.

The restaurant drew corporate clientele for expensive performers such as Nancy Wilson, Dave Brubeck, Max Roach and Wynton Marsalis.

That was in keeping with Harper's goal of removing jazz from its traditional setting of smoke-filled rooms.

"I tried to make it upscale all the way," he says. "I brought in high-quality musicians that people didn't mind paying to see. My band would play between each set."

Harper's lasted until 1988, which he considers a successful run.

"Toward the end of each club, it came down to whether you're going to be a businessman or a musician," he says. "You just burn out. Every club has a certain life span."

Free of the club grind, Harper went to work scoring a ballet for Dance Alloy and releasing a succession of well-received recordings, including "Very Good Company," "Be My Guest" featuring saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" and "Walt Harper West Coast Online," produced by Ray Brown.

"Longevity and style are the key in everything you do," says Harper. "I have learned that the groove I played 20 years ago is what people still want to hear. So you update and modernize it in your own style."

So are there any plans to update "Satin Doll"?

"That has been my workhorse. It's the song everyone wants to hear and expects to hear. So I will have to update it."

Telephone numbers, well you know.

Doin' my rhumbas with uno.

And that's my Satin Doll.

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