Tasso Harris, who died at age 86 on Saturday, played trombone with noted jazz musicians including Artie Shaw and Gene Krupa, led university and high school jazz bands to several state championships and served as the longtime president of the Denver Musicians Association.
The son of Greek immigrants, Harris was a member of Shaw’s group when the entire band famously enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Although Harris continued to perform with Shaw’s band, he also saw action at Guadalcanal, and then served on an Atlantic destroyer targeting Nazi wolf- pack U-boats.
Harris moved to Denver in the early 1950s. He continued to perform as a musician, playing in the orchestras for musicals that came through Denver and backing headliner musicians appearing at the Broadmoor hotel’s summer concerts in Colorado Springs.
Harris was a member of the orchestra that backed one of Elvis Presley’s appearances in Colorado and offered his then-teenage daughter a guest pass to meet the singer and get his autograph. A Beatles fan, she declined, a decision she later regretted.
He led the University of Denver jazz band to the state championship in 1964 and then to a national victory over the University of Notre Dame’s jazz band, winning a goodwill tour of the Far East in 1965.
His protégés include musicians Robert Funk and Dede Briscoe.
Harris also directed the Lakewood High School jazz band, leading musicians to the 1971 state championship. In 1972, he led the Wheat Ridge High School jazz band to the state title.
He was elected president of the Denver Musicians Association in 1974, a position he maintained, with a brief respite when one of his former students was elected, until 1990.
In retirement, Harris divided his time between Denver, where he and his wife spent most of their time, and Mexico, where he played with swing bands during the winter. The venues appealed mostly to U.S. tourists, but he was gratified to find more and more Mexican youths in the audience as swing and big-band music increased in popularity.
Survivors include his wife, Lillian, of Lakewood; daughters Barbara Harris of Cañon City, Clair Nordvi of Morongo, Calif., and Trina Harris of Denver; son Tasso Harris of Erie; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be at 10 a.m. today at Horan & McConaty, 3101 S. Wadsworth Blvd., followed by interment at Fort Logan National Cemetery.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
