MERGE album – extended liner notes
MERGE, my fifth album, comes from a place of strong intention. I woke up one morning in early January 2024 knowing I wanted to record a collection of songs embracing the different music I grew up with (jazz, R&B, pop, rock, soul, Latin …), wrap ‘round it the roots of jazz, and swing on the intertwining branches of the same tree.
These arrangements were created alongside the brilliance of my friend and musical ally, pianist Tyrone Jackson, a gifted musician raised in New Orleans who is a source of endless ideas. We collaborated throughout the first half of 2024, choosing songs and feels, arranging with a method that sought out what felt good, respectful and unforced in new approaches. Many of the arrangements lean modern and read soulful. Several of the songs will be familiar to you.
We did the rhythm section tracking for this record in July 2024 over two days at Lucky Man Studio at Auburn University, a wonderland of audio technology shepherded by award-winning recording engineer Trammell Starks. The sonic experience we went for is one that melds with the contemporary arrangements while also delivering the acoustic sound of traditional jazz recordings and a certain immediacy to the performances.
In addition to covers featuring jazz standards and classic R&B songs, there are three original songs. Details on all the tracks follow.
This project was built on collaboration and camaraderie. I couldn’t have done it without my talented and generous-of-spirit friends who made the music with me. My gratitude to each of them. I love the outcome, and hope you hear something on MERGE that you love, too.
What Is This Thing Called Love
(Cole Porter)
Arr. Tyrone Jackson, Karla Harris
Vocals: Karla Harris
Piano: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Billy Thornton
Drums: Chris Burroughs
Percussion: Frankie Quiñones, Karla Harris
Tyrone came to one of our early arranging sessions with this Cole Porter classic and ideas. He sat down at the piano and started playing the diatonic harmonic descending pattern you hear at top, bringing in what he calls a “salsa, afro Cuban, Latin-ish” feel that alternates with swing. It was a great feel to fall into, and, to me, gave the song some heat that suited the lyrics and an atmosphere for flying.
Merge
(Karla Harris, Tyrone Jackson)
Vocals: Karla Harris
Piano: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Billy Thornton
Drums: Chris Burroughs
Alto Flute: Sam Skelton
Here we have the album's title track -- and the last song to be created. I hadn't originally even thought of a title track. I just always knew I would title the CD “Merge” based on the project's concept. But a few weeks before we were scheduled to go into the studio, I got hit with this lyric and melody, scribbling the words on a piece of paper and humming the tune into my phone. Next morning, I called Tyrone and told him we had another song to work out. He channeled changes to complement the melody and gave the song a feel reminiscent of Elvin Jones’ signature style – flowing groove amidst some rhythmic complexity. Sam Skelton’s wonderful alto flute brings a mysterious quality. The song’s feel switches in the last section, and voice and flute began an interplay as if starting a conversation around the song’s theme. The lyrics contain threads of my story – biracial background, influences of visiting with relatives from city and rural areas, different lifestyles, different experiences I absorbed, and the variety of music I listened to as a kid growing up in the suburbs of St. Louis. In a nod to the range of those influences, I had a little fun during the vocal solo, quoting a bit from “Good Morning Heartache” (Billie Holiday) and “Magic Man” (Heart).
I was never just one thing, and in truth, neither are you. Revel in it all.
For the Love of You
(Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley, Rudolph Isley, O'Kelly Isley, Ronald Isley, Chris Jasper)
Arr. Tyrone Jackson, Karla Harris
Vocals: Karla Harris
Piano: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Billy Thornton
Drums: Chris Burroughs
This Isley Brothers classic has been a favorite of mine for years. Our version switches between a Brazilian-esque 7/4 meter and a samba. The melody floats over the strong rhythmic quality of this arrangement, driven by Tyrone, bassist Billy Thornton and drummer Chris Burroughs. I remember listening to the early demos of this while on walks and ending up dancing down the sidewalk. ...
Stand By Me
(Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller)
Arr. Tyrone Jackson
Vocals: Karla Harris
Piano: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Kelly McCarty
Drums: Robert Boone
Guitar: Trey Wright
I first heard Tyrone's arrangement of this song a few years ago, performed by a student combo at Kennesaw State University where he and I teach. As soon as I heard it – and I mean in that moment – I wanted to sing it. I asked Tyrone if I could include the arrangement in an upcoming concert. It’s one of those songs that fell into place right away, and we’ve performed it many times since. So happy it’s on this album.
Almost Like Being in Love
(Frederick Loewe, Alan Jay Lerner)
Arr. Karla Harris, Tyrone Jackson
Vocals: Karla Harris
Piano: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Kelly McCarty
Drums: Robert Boone
Tenor Sax: Sam Skelton
One morning a couple of years ago, I heard in my mind the rhythm and phrasing that became this arrangement of Almost Like Being in Love. I sang the idea to Tyrone, and we fleshed things out. Love the up tempo and the interwoven straight-ahead and contemporary sections. And Sam Skelton’s tenor sax solo on this recording is a standout.
Never Will I Marry
(Frank Loesser)
Arr. Karla Harris, Mike Horsfall, Tyrone Jackson
Vocals: Karla Harris
Fender Rhodes: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Billy Thornton
Drums: Chris Burroughs
Alto sax: Mace Hibbard
Tenor sax: Sam Skelton
Trumpet: Justin Powell
I really wanted to include a Nancy Wilson classic on this project in tribute to her impact on my musical path. I listened to Nancy’s music as a little girl (her albums were in my parents' collection) and consider her one of my first teachers. Never Will I Marry was an up-tempo swing hit from her legendary album with Cannonball Adderley. Our version of the song actually got going a few years ago when I asked Portland pianist friend Mike Horsfall to create a chart for me giving the song an old-school R&B feel. Tyrone and I revisited it for the project and he added some re-harmonizations and rhythms to add a nice build. The track features Tyrone on organ and a horn section with Sam Skelton, Mace Hibbard and Justin Powell playing lines reminiscent of the Nancy/Cannonball recording. To go into this feel vocally, I interpreted the lyrics not as the ingenue of Nancy’s version, but as if I were someone looking at love in a melancholy rearview mirror and making a declaration to myself.
I’m Still in Love With You
(Al Green, Al Jackson, Willie Mitchell)
Arr. Karla Harris, Tyrone Jackson
Vocals: Karla Harris
Piano: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Kelly McCarty
Drums: Robert Boone
Alto Sax: Mace Hibbard
Back in the days of cassette tapes, I owned Al Green’s Greatest Hits, and this song was my favorite. Tyrone and I approached our arrangement of it with an acoustic contemporary jazz sound. The rolling groove. Mace Hibbard’s soaring sax. It all makes me want to dance. This arrangement was one of the first we created for the album, and it captured the “merging” concept right off the bat.
Sweet Land
(Karla Harris)
Vocals: Karla Harris
Piano: Karla Harris
Organ: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Billy Thornton
Drums: Chris Burroughs
Guitar: Doc Powell
Another original, written in Spring 2024. This song is a kind of meditation/musing on love in this life and beyond, knowing there is a spiritual dimension where Love and loved ones live on. This is an intimate recording, with instrumentation adding subtle support while the lyrics take the lead.
Sweet Land represents a first for me – playing piano outside of my living room ... I do not consider myself a pianist, I leave that to the professionals. However, Tyrone encouraged me to take the leap for this song. It was a special kind of joy to sit at the piano in studio and sing and play this song alongside the rest of the rhythm section. We did only two takes. This is the second.
What You Won’t Do for Love
(Bobby Caldwell, Alfons Kettner)
Arr. Tyrone Jackson
Vocals: Karla Harris
Piano: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Billy Thornton
Drums: Chris Burroughs
Alto sax: Mace Hibbard
Tenor sax: Sam Skelton
Trumpet: Justin Powell
Guitar: Chris Blackwell
Like so many others, I have loved this Bobby Caldwell mega-hit forever. Tyrone put a dance hall reggae feel to it that is kind of hypnotic, to me. The horn section quotes the original song up top, then plays a catchy line between verses. The band leans hard into this groove and it drew something from the lyric that felt a little untamed, a little wild.
Isn’t It a Pity
(GeorgeGershwin, Ira Gershwin)
Arr. Karla Harris, Tyrone Jackson
Vocals: Karla Harris
Piano: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Kelly McCarty
Drums: Robert Boone
For a project bringing together my musical influences, I had to include a beautiful ballad from the Great American Songbook. This gorgeous Gershwin standard, which I'd heard years ago, came to mind though I'd never sung it before. It was written for the 1933 musical Pardon My English. The musical was unsuccessful, but what a tune this is. The sparseness of sound in this arrangement, the repeating notes of the piano, the arco on bass – all combine to tug on the poignancy of Ira Gershwin’s touching lyric.
Sugar
(Stanley Turrentine)
Arr. Robert Boone Jr, Karla Harris, Tyrone Jackson, Kelly McCarty
Vocals: Karla Harris
Organ: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Kelly McCarty
Drums: Robert Boone
This arrangement of Stanley Turrentine’s Sugar came about one summer evening in Atlanta’s midtown before a concert I did with Tyrone, bassist Kelly McCarty and drummer Robert Boone Jr. We were running a bit of Sugar during soundcheck, and I was in the mood to do something different with it. The band spontaneously cooked up this groove with its hip-hop undertones. Had so much fun in this feel, we performed it that night and later added it to the project. Tyrone and I did some refining in our sessions, including weaving another song with a sweet-themed hook into the arrangement – the 1960s hit “Taste of Honey.” Sarah Vaughn’s vocal version of the song inspired our section. The smoky organ seals the mood running through this track.
Nice Work If You Can Get It
(George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin)
Arr. Robert Boone Jr., Tyrone Jackson
Vocals: Karla Harris
Fender Rhodes: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Kelly McCarty
Drums: Robert Boone
Guitar: Patrick Arthur, Chris Blackwell
Another concept that came from that same pre-concert soundcheck. Drummer Robert Boone Jr. started playing this jazz funk feel. Everyone fell in, moving this Gershwin standard into different territory. A little tricky, a lot of fun.
Happy People Blues
(Karla Harris)
Vocals: Karla Harris
Piano: Tyrone Jackson
Bass: Billy Thornton
Drums: Chris Burroughs
My husband, John, loves the blues. I thought it would be fun to surprise him with an original blues tune about someone who typically views life from the sunny side – aka, John. It was a good time building a lyric around that juxtaposition.
You’ll hear the band play a little bit of “Happy Birthday”at the end. That’s a shout-out for John. When we recorded this, it was, purely by coincidence, his birthday.
The hidden message under the disc …
If you have a physical copy of MERGE and take a look at the artwork lying beneath the disc tray, you’ll see something resembling a certification seal. Here’s the back story:
One day during downtime in the studio, conversation turned to AI use in music and how music made by real people should maybe come with a label saying so. It was a little tongue in cheek, but it got me thinking, why not have some fun with that.
Rewind to the months of preparing these songs for recording. … Tyrone and I often fueled the creativity with my homemade gluten-free brownies. We started calling our arranging meetings “the brownies sessions.”
Taking inspiration from that, I asked graphic designer Darren English to create artwork simulating an embossed stamp, and gave him the wording to use. It’s that graphic which appears on the panel under the compact disc. Just our way of saluting the human creative collaboration baked into every song of this project and the fun we had making it: “Brownies Sessions – Certified– all real humans, all the time.”
Lyrics to original songs on the album MERGE
Merge
(Songwriters: Karla Harris, Tyrone Jackson)
All the many colors woven
On a lifetime loom
All the shapes in the mosaic
Casting light into the room
All the lingered legacies
From ancestors of different hues
City sights and country nights
We rode between the two
Influenced by preference
Before I even knew
Songs reach from the radio
Spanning every style, every groove
I was never just one thing
And in truth
Neither are you
I reveled in it all
Reveled in it all
Revel in it all
Merge
Sweet Land
(Songwriter: Karla Harris)
I love you for a lifetime
I love you beyond
And even when apart
We’re connected as a song
Some roots run through surfaces
Others vibrate in the deep
Where trees tower cross millennia
That is where we meet
Days go quickly, years fly by
And it’s amazing, by the way
How I can look into your eyes
And the time there melts away
It’s a gift that did not break or fray
A living, vibrant thing
Breathing its expansiveness
It brings me to my knees
Sweet Land
Isn’t there something ‘bout this day?
Isn’t there something ‘bout this place?
Where questions have no answers
Yet we live them just the same
Sweet Land
Isn’t there something ‘bout this day?
Isn’t there something ‘bout this place?
Where questions have no answers
Yet we love them anyway
We’re dancing with abandon now
No choreography
Here within a sweet land
Living everything
Everything, everything, everything
This sweet land can bring
Happy People Blues
(Songwriter: Karla Harris)
I never understood, why you love the blues
Never understood, why you so love the blues
Because you’re one of the happiest people, that I ever knew
You wake up every morning, cheerful as a lark
You’re never melancholy, your mood is rarely dark
Even your dog’s tail is wagging, I ain’t never heard that dog bark
This is the blues for all the happy people in the room
This is the blues for all the happy people in the room
Always there with a smile, and a great big ‘how do you do’
You don’t fuss about the weather, if it’s raining you don’t mind
You call it a lovely day and have yourself a real good time
I tell you it’s annoying, you just give me a wink
Tell you that I’m tired you want to dance by the kitchen sink
This is the blues, for all the happy people in the room
Well I’m not here to claim you’re never draggin’ round
But it’s a real rare day that keeps you feeling down
You pick yourself up, drink from a glass that’s half-full
Whistle a bit, never quit, and shoot straight for the moon
This is the blues, for all the happy people in the room
This is the blues for all the happy people in the room
This is the blues for all the happy people in the room
Always there with a smile, and a great big ‘how do you do’
All songs copyright protected, gobykar llc, ASCAP
Questions about MERGE? Contact karla@karlaharris.com
July 21, 2025