Drummer / Percussionist Birthday Calendar

Beaver Harris, born William Godvin Harris on April 20, 1936 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was an American jazz drummer who worked extensively with Archie Shepp.

Growing up in an athletic family, Harris played baseball as a teenager for the Kansas City Monarchs (at that time part of the Negro American League) and was scouted by major league teams, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants.

After his national service with the army in 1963, Harris began to play the drums, moved to New York City, and encouraged by Max Roach to pursue a career in music. While in New York he worked and/or toured with the likes of Albert Ayler, Chet Baker, Marion Brown, Doc Cheatham and Larry Coryell, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Howard Johnson, Clifford Jordan, Sheila Jordan, Lee Konitz, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Roswell Rudd, Sonny Stitt, Clark Terry, and McCoy Tyner and many others.

In addition, Harris founded a "world music" band, naming it "The 360 Degree Music Experience." The band included some of the most significant artists of the time, including Hamiet Bluiett, Ron Carter, Ricky Ford, Jimmy Garrison, Don Pullen, Titos Sompa and Buster Williams.

Beaver Harris died of prostate cancer on December 22, 1991; he was 55.