Harrison Verrett

Harrison Verrett (February 27, 1907 – October 13, 1965) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues guitarist/banjoist who performed and recorded for over 40 years.

Early life Harrison Verrett was born to Joseph Verrett and Mary (Lee) Verrett in Napoleonville in Assumption Parish, Louisiana. The family moved to New Orleans in 1910 and eventually numbered nine children. Their New Orleans cousins Lester Young and his brother Lee would later become professional musicians. As a teenager, Harrison Verrett would go to hear Chris Kelly play at white people's lawn parties in the uptown 10th Ward. He also tried playing mellophone in parade bands, but said he "got tired of walking". Verrett took lessons in trumpet and banjo at age 15 from bassist Dave Perkins, who played in Johnny Brown's jazz band. He joined Brown's band as a trumpet player, but "not having teeth it used to bother me so I gave the trumpet up". He was a banjoist with the band for three years.

At age 18, Verrett went to Biloxi, Mississippi, and joined a medicine show band that featured pianist Earl Hines. He toured with the show for a year, including through Canada. He left the band in Omaha, Nebraska, and returned briefly to New Orleans. From there, he went back to Biloxi to work on excursion boats and at a resort for five to six years.

Career Verrett left the Isle of Caprice employment to play in New Orleans, and occasionally the Mississippi Gulf Coast in taxi dance bands in the late 1920s. In the 1930s, he led a band at the Fern Cafe, a popular dance hall in the French Quarter. The Fern featured gambling and a lunch counter. Musicians such as Armand Hug, Raymond Burke, and "Stale Bread" Lacoume performed in black tuxedos with ribbon ties. The favorite dances among the regular customers were the "slow drags" which, according to dance historian Richard Powers, included many different ways of dancing called by that name based on black social dances and their white variations. In the late 1920s Verrett also played in a banjo band with Emmanuel Sayles that consisted of five banjos. At the time, he considered René Hall the best banjoist in New Orleans.

Verrett married Philonese Domino in 1932 and quit the Fern Cafe in 1934. He joined Charlie Smith's big band in New Orleans, playing first trumpet for six months, until dental problems recurred. After that, he stayed with stringed instruments. He performed with a WPA band in 1936. In 1938, he moved to California and, by 1940, returned to New Orleans, where he played spot jobs in the French Quarter. Verrett relocated in 1941 to Oxnard, California, taking an essential job with the Navy to stay out of the service. Leon was a Seventh-day Adventist who played saxophone and clarinet, but only in church. Harrison Verrett eventually entered the Army as a private in 1943. He and wife Philonese hosted her teenage brother Antoine “Fats” Domino for a stay in Oxnard in 1945. In the beginning, Domino had difficulty singing in tune with his piano playing. Once he remedied this inconsistency, Verrett got him into the musicians' union and booked him at clubs. and the Court of Two Sisters. Verrett advised Domino not to sell his songs outright, but to get a publishing contract for royalties. Dave Bartholomew became his producer. Verrett left Papa Celestin's band to accompany his homesick brother-in-law on the road, often acting as the Domino band's driver.

In 1953, Verrett and Domino befriended blues musician Boogie Bill Webb when he moved to New Orleans. Webb said about Verrett, "Now Harrison, he taught me a lot. He could play guitar, banjo, mandolin, and read music." Verrett played a part in Webb's first Imperial recordings by introducing him to Dave Bartholomew. Imperial released "Bad Dog" and "I Ain't For It", co-written by Boogie Bill Webb and Harrison Verrett. In the fall of 1956 Fats Domino recorded "Blueberry Hill", a standard first published in 1940 and covered by Gene Autry, Glenn Miller, and Bing Crosby, among others. Verrett and Domino liked Louis Armstrong's 1949 version of the song The song went to #1 on the R&B chart and #4 on the pop chart. Verrett also performed and recorded with Edward "Noon" Johnson's Bazooka Band He performed regularly at Preservation Hall, while occasionally going on the road with Fats Domino's band. In November 1964, Verrett was driving the band bus in Arizona down a steep mountain section of Route 66 on the way to Las Vegas when he lost control and collided with an oncoming car. He sustained a sprained wrist and leg abrasions. Three band members were slightly injured, and four in the car suffered injuries, with one hospitalized. Domino was traveling in his own car with three other musicians from the band. Verrett was so rattled by the incident he would never drive for his brother-in-law again. After the crash, Fats Domino gave him a Cadillac.

Harrison Verrett died of lung cancer at age 58 on October 13, 1965. In 2024, his great-nephew Durek Verrett married Princess Märtha Louise of Norway (daughter of Harald V, current king of Norway).