About Shad Harris

Shad Harris is a Freelance musician/teacher. He has toured nationally and internationally since 1966 and played drums, keyboards, guitar and bass guitar with various award winning bands and Hall of Fame artists including, Etta James, Charlie Musslewhite, Eddie Harris, The Motown Review Big Band, Roger Daltry, Johnny Heartsman, Ron Thompson, Ron Hacker, Johnny Nitro, and The Tommy Castro Band. He was the band leader/drummer for the Jazz-Fusion ensemble Wave, and the award-winning R&B band The East Side Loop. Shad studied music with Professor Robert Harris in St. Petersburg, Florida, William Bell at College of Alameda in Alameda, CA and Ed Kelly at Laney College in Oakland, CA. He also studied with Chuck Brown in San Rafael CA, and Jerry Jackson Sr. in Oakland, CA. He attended Riverside Community College, in Riverside, CA where he was the 1st chair drummer for the Jazz Band. Shad has also acted and composed musical scores for Scorpio Rising Theater, a Hollywood theater company, and written, arranged, produced and published songs for, The Tommy Castro Band, Mel Brown, and Little Sister and the Bad Intentions. He was a member of the Musicians Union, Local 47 in Hollywood CA from 1976 to 1979 for during which time he was also a studio drummer for CBA Recording studio in Los Angeles, and a music copyist for Jobete Records, a Motown Records label. In 1980 Shad moved to Stockton and began playing with local legend Norman Lankford and his popular jazz quartet, Group Therapy. He also began teaching drums privately and continued freelance touring with several artists including Hank Mobley, Mel Williams and a short stint with the legendary Horace Silver. In 2000 he retired from the road and pursued a credentialed teaching career and in 2004 he graduated from San Joaquin Delta College with honors earning an AA degree in Liberal Arts. Currently he teaches beginning guitar, and beginning piano in the After School Enrichment Program (A.S.E.P.) at Don Riggio School and begininnig, intermediate guitar and Drums and Rhythm, in the Kids College Program at San Joaquin Delta College. He also conducts a Blues Band 101 class in the Community Education Department of Delta. He recently returned to the performance stage showing up as the keyboardist with regional favorites, "Rhythm Deluxe", a high energy Rock N Roll Blues Band out of Modesto, CA. He has also been playing keyboard with "Little Sister and The Bad Intentions" of San Francisco, CA. And if that's not enough he put together a new band, "The Groovenators" a Funky West Coast Blues Ensemble out of Stockton, CA. Shad is the sole proprietor of Other People Productions, and Dahs Music, a professional musician’s service, where he offers songwriting, arranging, record producing and BMI publishing as well as 24-track digital recording, mixing and pre-mastering.

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