 Arthur Lee Harris (1922 - 2006) of the Blues Fuse playing his Hammond B-3 organ at Smiley's Schooner Saloon in a small town north of San Francisco.
When he was young, Art taught himself the guitar and played with many bands throughout the South, before and after World War II. He toured with Percy Mayfield and had a trio with Ray Charles. At the end of the war, he was a soldier in Germany where he even took his guitar and occasionally had a chance to play it by the Rhine River. He went to tailoring school in Detroit after the war and played guitar at night. He went into business as ''Art The Tailor'' in Miami, Florida and at one point had five shops and a factory in Haiti. In the late Seventies he relocated to San Francisco where he opened a clothing shop on Third Street. He sang and played organ with his band The Blues Fuse throughout San Francisco and had a regular Friday evening slot at John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom Room. ''Charles Brown loved the way Art kicked the bass pedals.''
The Blues Fuse's classic CD ''Happy Hour'' came out of the Boom Boom Room. Art died on November 29, 2006 in Memphis, Tennessee.
(Adapted from the obituary in The Coastal Post written by Mike Dingle, manager of the Blues Fuse). |