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2006 Best Jazz Performer 28.67% Todd Harrold Trio*
Others with Votes (more than one):
* On the ballot | 
Drummer/singer/songwriter Todd Harrold calls himself a "lame little white dude." He's three-quarters right. He and his Todd Harold Trio partners, guitar player Dan Mowan and organist Eric Clancy, won the Whammy award for Best Jazz Performer. During their set at Piere's Thursday night it was made immediately clear that Harrold is not a big man, he's white and he's a dude. But one thing he is not is lame. The Todd Harrold Trio has a regular Friday night gig at Club Soda on Superior Street in Fort Wayne. There, Harrold, Clancy and Mowan, who plays an 8-string guitar (three of the strings occupy the bass guitar regions) work through sets of jazz and rock tunes bent to wide-ranging influences each player brings to the stage. And for Harrold, actually playing on a stage is not as trite as it may seem. "I once played a club in Gary that had no floor," he said. Harrold grew up in Churubusco listening to Styx records at top volume in his bedroom. Then his dad informed him that Styx were not really worth all the wattage. He gave him some Miles Davis instead and Harrold's life was changed. While not strictly a jazz musician, playing jazz standards in a jazzy sort of way, Harrold certainly gives the genre a close reading before launching into his own take on things. From Spencer Davis and Steely Dan covers to Davis and Jimi Hendrix re-workings, Harrold plays with great attention to each note and beat he plays. "I like my grooves big, fat and slow." Following a stint at the American Music Conservatory in Chicago, Harrold spent time touring the states opening for acts like Gov't Mule and making sure he introduced himself to every working musician he could. The people he met and the things he learned from them made Harrold a tireless student of music. A brief listen to the Burnt Toast Radio Show he co-hosts every Sunday night on WBOI confirms this. He seems to have a personal story for most everything he plays, and it's easy to find yourself online checking out the groups and musicians he admires. And the list is ever-growing. Consequently, his style is ever-changing. "You always filter how you play through the people you've met and worked with. Just as you don't like looking at a picture of yourself with a mullet, I look back at the six CDs I've made in the last 17 years and cringe. Back in the early 1990s I had no idea what I sounded like. Now I know what I sound like." (Mark Hunter) |
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