Making the Low Notes: A Life in Music is a deep dive into the career of a musician you’ve likely never heard of—and that’s what makes it unique.
Bassist Bill Harrison’s memoir is replete with stories from his multifarious career, during which he toiled in venues from dive bars and bowling alleys to concert halls, recording studios, and hotel ballrooms.
Bill describes what it was like to work with well-known jazz masters, in theater orchestras, and for a raft of both reputable and nefarious bandleaders at weddings, bar mitzvahs, and corporate events.
Themes of identity, grace, irony, tenacity, friendship, and aging arise throughout the book as Bill perseveres in a notoriously fickle profession. Along the way, he strives to resolve the internal conflict between a desire to be heard and the impulse to hide silently in the shadows.
“Full of heart and the craft of a natural storyteller, Bill Harrison’s memoir Making the Low Notes is a tender, rhapsodic, funny, evocative love letter to the bass…”
“Harrison writes about the highs and lows of a musician’s life with wit, candor, and verve, capturing the pleasures of performing in the limelight as well as in its lambent periphery.”
“His lively writing contains a wealth of detail about the musicians’ life, the gifted oddballs that line the path, and the pure joy of true collaboration. Title notwithstanding, Harrison hits plenty of high notes along the way.”
“Harrison’s memoir delivers as resoundingly as an open-bottom E-string. He describes with engaging vividness the joys, discoveries, disappointments, and friendships of a professional journeyman…”
“In this vivid and candid tale, Bill Harrison [journeys] through . . . the ‘business’ from the ’60s to the nows… The tale of a true survivor, this deeply felt memoir transcends jazz bass.”
“Harrison excels as a writer. Much of his past is brought back to life in gripping detail…”
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