ACCLAIMED TENOR SAXOPHONIST, COMPOSER, AND EWI PLAYER SEAMUS BLAKE ANNOUNCES THE ELECTRIFYING SEAMUS BLAKE – EH! (PLAYS THE MUSIC OF EDDIE HARRIS)
FEATURING ORGANIST, PIANIST, AND KEYBOARDIST SAM YAHEL, ELECTRIC BASSIST TIM LEFEBVRE, DRUMMER COREY FONVILLE, AND VOCALIST DAWN PEMBERTON
OUT JULY 3, 2026 VIA CELLAR MUSIC GROUP
Tenor saxophonist and composer Seamus Blake announces the release of The Electrifying Seamus Blake – EH! (Plays the Music of Eddie Harris), out July 3, 2026 via Cellar Music Group. Recorded November 3–4, 2025 at Afterlife Studios in Vancouver, the album features Blake on tenor saxophone, EWI, effects, and vocals with organist, pianist, and keyboardist Sam Yahel, electric bassist Tim Lefebvre, drummer Corey Fonville, and guest vocalist Dawn Pemberton. Blake, Yahel, Lefebvre, Fonville, Pemberton, and producer Scott Morin contribute group vocals on the closing track. All compositions are by Harris, arranged by Blake, who also wrote lyrics for “Illusionary Dreams.” Cory Weeds, founder of Cellar Music Group, serves as executive producer.
Eddie Harris (1934–1996) was a Chicago-born tenor saxophonist and composer whose work in the late 1960s incorporated groove-based writing, electronics, and crossover forms. His recording of “Exodus” became the first jazz record certified gold and charted nationally. His collaboration with Les McCann, Swiss Movement (1969), recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival without prior rehearsal, was nominated for a Grammy Award and included “Compared to What,” written by Gene McDaniels. His composition “Freedom Jazz Dance,” later recorded by Miles Davis and others, became a widely performed modern jazz composition.
Among the first jazz musicians to electrify his horn through the Varitone, Harris helped establish a lineage of electronic wind playing that runs through fusion and into contemporary practice. His recordings have been widely sampled across hip-hop by artists including Eric B. & Rakim, Gang Starr, De La Soul, Cypress Hill, Digable Planets, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, and Busta Rhymes.
In the liner notes, producer Scott Morin, who co-produced the album with Blake and Weeds, calls Harris “one of the most underrated jazz and soulful music composers and artists of the 20th century,” and writes that “these songs could have easily been written this morning, and not in the 1960s when they were equally as poignant.” The assessment reflects the continued resonance of Harris’s writing across decades and contexts without altering its original force.
“I remember hearing Eddie Harris for the first time and just being blown away,” Blake says. “It was funky, it was melodic, and it didn’t sound like anyone else.” Blake has performed and recorded with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and John Scofield, who called him “extraordinary, a total saxophonist.” He recorded with drummer Victor Lewis while still a student at Berklee College of Music, and later established himself in New York, including long-standing work with the Mingus Big Band, winning the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 2002.
Yahel, a longtime collaborator of Blake and the organist on Norah Jones’s Come Away With Me, performs on Hammond B3, clavinet, and Rhodes, grounding the session in the keyboard textures central to Harris’s sound. Lefebvre, known for his work on David Bowie’s Blackstar, anchors the electric bass role, while Fonville, a founding member of Butcher Brown, brings a rhythmic approach shaped at the intersection of jazz, funk, and hip-hop. Pemberton, a Juno Award nominee, contributes lead vocals and appears as part of the ensemble on the closing track.
“Compared to What” opens with Pemberton on lead vocals. “I wanted to try a different arrangement on this one and feature Dawn Pemberton on vocals,” Blake says. “The lyrics, although written in the ’60s, ring loud and true today.” “Listen Here” follows, one of Harris’s core live vehicles. “This is a classic bread and butter Eddie Harris tune,” Blake says. “Straight to the point, bluesy and funky with a tinge of psychedelic.”
“Mean Greens” continues in that vein. “This one has a great angular melody with Eddie’s classic interval touch. Less known than Freedom Jazz Dance, but equally satisfying.” The “EH Medley” combines “Get On Up and Dance,” “It’s Time to Do What You Want,” “Get on Down,” “Freedom Jazz Dance,” and “I Need Some Money” into a single continuous arrangement. “It was a challenging jigsaw puzzle fitting them together but the smorgasbord of funk in the end made it all worthwhile.”
“Come Dance With Me” follows. “This is one of Eddie’s sambas that I have never heard anyone else play or record.” On “Funkorama,” Blake performs on EWI and effects, extending Harris’s Varitone-era approach into a contemporary context. “Eddie’s sound on the intro always knocked me out,” he says. “That octave and filter combo that works so well. A straightforward, no-nonsense, funky good time.”
The album closes with “Illusionary Dreams,” a Harris composition Blake reworked with original lyrics and group vocals drawn from a monologue Harris recorded at a live concert. It features Blake, Yahel, Lefebvre, Fonville, Pemberton, and Morin. “A beautiful, seldom played soul ballad,” Blake says. “I added lyrics and we put a refrain at the end that Eddie jokes about in a monologue from a live concert. The perfect album closer in a very special recording session that gives the great Eddie Harris what I hope is a proper tribute.”
Tracklisting
- Compared To What
- Listen Here
- Mean Greens
- EH Medley (Get On Up and Dance / It’s Time to Do What You Want / Get on Down / Freedom Jazz Dance / I Need Some Money)
- Come Dance With Me
- Funkorama
- Illusionary Dreams