"A Cloud of Red Dust." That's what the jazz vibraphonist Stefon Harris called his first album. At the time he was using red mallets on the instrument's metal bars, and when a concert was over, he was surrounded by a crimson dust storm. Stefon Harris is an intense player, a man who takes his music and his language seriously. He hates terms like "flat 9th against a major 7th." He says chords have personality: "That one's irritating, this one's sunny, that one's mellow."
And he speaks, on his instrument, in sometimes blistering, sometimes cool, always sublime tones. Stefon Harris, age 28, is being mentioned in the same breath as the greats in the small vibes pantheon that includes Lionel Hampton, Gary Burton, Milt Jackson. Stefon Harris and his amazing mallets.
