Stefon Harris, Theo Croker Share UpSwing Stage

Photo: Deneka Peniston

When Stefon Harris talks about music, he's not just describing a career but a way of experiencing the world. The four-time Grammy-nominated vibraphonist, composer, and educator has been celebrated as one of the most influential artists in contemporary jazz. With his long-standing band Blackout, a new chapter of his Sonic Creed project, an innovative ear-training app, and an upcoming performance at SFJAZZ, Harris manages multiple roles, all centered around the idea of sound as a means of human connection. (Click play to listen to the interview.)

Early Roots in Church and Classical Music

“Well, my mom's a minister, so I grew up in the black church,” Stefon Harris says. “I believe my roots are deeply grounded in Black culture.” Those Sundays in Albany gave him an early model of music as communal ritual, where harmony, testimony, and emotion were inseparable. Starting in seventh grade, he added intensive classical percussion studies and eventually earned a degree in classical music. “My music is deeply rooted in the culture I grew up with,” he explains, “and I also drew a lot of influence from the expansive nature of Western classical music.” That “fascinating mixture,” as he calls it, still shapes the voice listeners will hear at SFJAZZ.

Soulful Music Beyond Genre

Harris’s listening has never respected genre borders. “It's fascinating because it's beyond genre,” he says of the music that formed him. Above all stands Stevie Wonder. “Probably the most inspiring artist for me is Stevie Wonder,” Harris notes. “He's a musical genius, of course, but there's always this grounding in the ‘why’ of music. His music is always centered on uplifting people and helping them be seen.” For Harris, that example is a reminder that music matters most when it gives listeners a sense of meaning and care.

Life Signs and the Power of Limits

That sense of responsibility runs straight through his latest release with Blackout, Sonic Creed Volume Two: Life Signs. Harris records only when he feels a genuine message building. “I think there's a lot of music in the world,” he says. “I tend to record when there's a large body of music that wants to come through me.” During the Life Signs period, ideas arrived in a rush, and several pieces had been waiting since the first Sonic Creed sessions. The title track grew from a deliberate constraint. “Often you want to challenge yourself,” he explains. Watching his young sons invent games with two plastic cups, he wrote “Life Signs” around four-note cells, “just choosing a few elements and seeing what I could pull out of those elements.”

“I Know Love” and the Language of Harmony

Another centerpiece, “I Know Love,” shows how personal his harmonic language has become. “It's a song I composed for an incredible person named Eileen,” Harris says. “Her family asked me to write something that would help them remember her.” To respond, he drew on a long-standing ritual of taking a single chord and living with it until its emotional weight is clear. “I know which chords create anxiety,” he explains. “I know which chords have that haunting feeling.” For “I Know Love,” he wrote a poem first, then chose harmonies that could hold both the family’s grief and gratitude, shaping a melody that feels like a private letter rendered in tone color.

Harmony Cloud: A Metronome for Harmony

Harris’s exploration of harmony eventually led him into technology, culminating in the creation of Harmony Cloud, an app he calls “a metronome for harmony.” “I would explain it like this to someone who isn't a musician,” he says. “Imagine closing your eyes and being surrounded by a space of sound, where chords are changing in real time and you have to respond.” The idea grew from his church memories, where accompanists followed a speaker’s testimony moment by moment. “Everyone's listening, and the chords actually amplify the story,” he recalls. Harmony Cloud brings that experience into the practice room and, for now, “it's an app available on the Apple App Store.”

Sharing the UpSwing Stage With Theo Croker

San Francisco audiences know Harris from his six seasons with the SFJAZZ Collective, which he calls “a model of how the world should work,” featuring musicians from diverse backgrounds listening deeply to one another. Now he returns to Miner Auditorium as part of Terence Blanchard’s UpSwing series, sharing the bill with trumpeter Theo Croker. “Oh, I love Theo's sound and his voice,” Harris says. “He's really documenting what's happening in the world right now.” He believes Croker is “committed to capturing contemporary sounds,” just as Blackout has been doing for more than twenty years. “I think it's a fantastic bill,” he adds. “Both of our ensembles are full of love, joy, being in the moment, and unapologetic soul.”

Theo Croker. Courtesey photo.

Onstage at SFJAZZ, Harris will bring a long-running version of Blackout: drummer Terreon Gully, bassist Luques Curtis, pianist Kenny Banks Jr., saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, and vocalist Alexis Morrast. “Our set list often changes,” he says. “We don't always stick to a fixed set list, but we'll be playing music from previous albums.” After more than two decades together, “our chemistry is fantastic.” He lights up when he talks about his bandmates: “Luques Curtis will be playing bass; Kenny Banks Jr. is incredible; we have the great Jaleel Shaw. And we're going to have a vocalist named Alexis Morrast, who is incredibly special.”

Offstage, his calendar is just as full. “We just released my app a few days ago, so I'll be working on continuing to develop that,” he says. “Another ambition is that I'm writing a book this year.” Still, he shrugs off the workload with a smile: “I'm a lucky guy.”

TICKET INFO

Bay Area jazz fans will get to experience that presence firsthand when Stefon Harris and Blackout perform alongside Theo Croker at the Miner Auditorium on Saturday, November 29, at 7:30 p.m., as part of Terence Blanchard’s UpSwing series. If Harris has his way, the night will highlight diversity and serve as a living record of where the music – and the people creating it – stand right now.

Show details: Stefon Harris & Blackout / Theo Croker, November 29, 2025, Miner Auditorium, showtime 7:30 p.m. Tickets: https://www.sfjazz.org/tickets/productions/25-26/upswing-stefon-harris-theo-croker/

Download and explore Harmony Cloud (IOS app) here: https://www.stefonharris.com/harmony-cloud