|
Naomi "Sugar" Harris
Sugar Harris is the daughter of the Japanese
child star, Fukiko Hirai, and the granddaughter of string
prodigy, Emily Vera Wetmore, a concert violinist at age 16 with the
Elmira Symphony Orchestra. Sugar is a native of the Daytona Beach
music scene.
 Raised under the inspiration of her brother, Russ
Wetmore, an orchestral and marching band composer who once composed
for Michael Jackson, she developed an
early love of cadence and rhythm. Her first instrument was the
violin but she quickly transitioned into woodwinds where she
mastered the clarinet, flute, and saxophone.
Serendipity intervened in her teenage years in the form of a broken
clarinet. Being without an instrument at practice,
she
was instructed by her band director to "pick up that bass clarinet
and learn how to use it!" The deep resonance of bass instruments lured Sugar to the dark side
forever!
Her love affair with the bass clef drove her into the arms of the
electric bass guitar. Popping bass behind a variety of local coastal
and central Florida bands
from Christian to Classic Rock brought her to the attention of the
Daytona Beach jazz scene where in the mid 1980s she laid bass lines
behind jazz combos from Daytona Beach Community College, The
University of Central Florida, and Stetson University, culminating in the offer of a
full-ride music scholarship from Stetson
University.
Sugar has been an active member of the Tallahassee music scene
for many years now, most recently with the successful regional trio
Trigger Happy. Her jazz roots and the influence of such composers as
Benson, Klugh, Methany & Jordan are apparent in her aggressive bass
lines and often non-traditional patterns. Sugar's accurate
harmonics and rhythmic punch form the low end structure upon which
the Cheap & Easy sound is built. Her steamy alto vocals
and outrageous sense of humor give the duet's music and stage show a
vitality that is hard to match.|
Back |
| Sugar Harris
|
Bodega
Bob
| |