| James Samuel "Cornbread" Harris, Sr. | |
|---|---|
Harris performing at the Mill City Farmers Market in 2010 |
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| Born | April 23, 1927 |
| Occupation | Musician |
James Samuel "Cornbread" Harris, Sr. (born April 23, 1927) is an American musician. He is a singer and pianist who performs in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[1] He was a performer on Minnesota's first rock 'n' roll record, and is the father of record producer Jimmy "Jam" Harris.[1]
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When his father was shot while gambling and his mother died of grieving, Harris was orphaned at age 3. He lived with foster families until he was 11 or 12 when he and his sister went to live with his grandparents in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He has been married four times. One of his daughters died. He is the father of Jimmy Jam (James Harris III) who produced records for Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and Usher.[1]
Country music was an early influence, and Hank Williams and Gene Autry are among his early favorites.[2]
Harris helped invent Augie Garcia's "Hi Yo Silver," a 1955 song that was Minnesota's first rock 'n' roll recording. He performed on the record, which he called a one-hit wonder[1] (although Garcia is remembered as the godfather of Minnesota rock 'n' roll[3]).
Harris was in the U.S. military and later worked for about 25 years for American Hoist & Derrick.[1]
His repertoire includes blues and jazz and in his eighties, Harris still plays Minneapolis nightclubs[4] including the Loring Pasta Bar in Dinkytown, Clubhouse Jäger in the North Loop and Palmer's[5] and the Nomad World Pub on the West Bank.[6]
Harris is a mentor to Cadillac Kolstad and City Pages calls them the "must-see dueling-piano act in town".[5]
Thomas Zocher, a Twin Cities film-maker, has begun a documentary on the life of Cornbread Harris, which he expects to complete in 2011.[7] In one segment that is available on Vimeo, Harris explains how he got his nickname: he loved and ate cornbread everywhere he grew up, his grandparents and foster families cooked it, and with his drummer, Harris wrote a song about it. The song got longer and longer as they added the people who love cornbread ("truck drivers like cornbread"). Eventually, people began to call Harris "Cornbread" because of the popularity of his song and food that he likes.[8]