Eric Harland is an American jazz drummer. In addition to leading his own group, Harland is a member of Charles Lloyd's Quartet, Dave Holland's Prism, James Farm with Joshua Redman, and Taylor Eigsti's Trio. He has also been a member of McCoy Tyner's Quartet, Kurt Rosenwinkel's Standards Trio, Aaron Goldberg's Trio, Julian Lage's Trio, Chris Potter's Trio, and Terence Blanchard's Quintet, among other groups. He was a member of the SFJAZZ Collective from 2005 to 2012.
Biography
Harland began his professional career in 1993 playing locally in Houston, Texas, as he finished high school at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where many notable performers have studied. Harland won first chair in 1992–93 with the Regional and All State Texas Jazz Band. He received a special Citation for Outstanding Musicianship in 1994 from the International Association for Jazz Education. During a workshop in high school, Wynton Marsalis encouraged Harland to study in New York City. After graduation Harland attended the Manhattan School of Music with a full scholarship in their music program. After music school he went on to study Theology at Houston Baptist University and was subsequently ordained as a Minister. Harland has been featured on over 80 recordings with various artists. Among these recordings, Let's Get Lost and Wandering Moon, Back East, and Land of Giants were nominated for Grammy Awards. With Blanchard and Spike Lee, Harland has performed in 18 motion picture movie scores, including The Caveman's Valentine, Original Sin, People I Know, and Dark Blue. Harland has toured and recorded with Mark Turner, Larry Grenadier, Ravi Coltrane, Wynton Marsalis, Betty Carter, Joe Henderson, Walter Smith III, Aaron Parks, John Patitucci, Zakir Hussain, and others. In DownBeat's 65th Annual Readers Poll, Harland was included on the short list of world's most recognized drummers along with Elvin Jones and Roy Haynes. He also won the 2008 and 2009 Critics Polls for Rising Star on the Drums. Harland was featured in the September 2002 and November 2009 issues of Modern Drummer. Harland released his debut album, Voyager: Live by Night, in late 2010. It features Walter Smith III, Julian Lage, Taylor Eigsti and Harish Raghavan. Harland's second album, Vipassana, was released on August 11, 2014. In April 2017, Harland opened a state-of-the-art recording studio in New York City called GSI Studios, with partners Daniel Rovin and Austin White. Harland's latest album 13th Floor was released in November 2018.
