|
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
quickly lured Sugar to the dark side permanently, eventually transitioning
to the contrabass clarinet.
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 music scholarship from Stetson
University.
Sugar recently joined the Tallahassee music scene and came to the
attention of Bodega and Archie who immediately recognized that her
combination of soft curves and hard lines was the perfect compliment to the
Trigger Happy sound.
Sugar's 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. Naomi's accurate harmonics and
rhythmic punch form the low end structure upon which the
unique Trigger Happy sound is developed and her steamy alto vocals
compliment the trio's wide harmony.
Want to sample the band?
Click Here!
Read more about
|
Bodega Bob
|
Rev. Hollywood
|
Sugar
|
|
Keith
|
|