Thanks to Hubert Brantano for this excellent page about

Don 'Sugarcane' Harris: MPS recordings

Most of the pictures link to a larger version. Unfortunately none of these records is available at the record shops anymore. See homepage

Volker Kriegel: guitar; John Taylor: piano
Tom Oxley: drums, perc.

here's a picture of this lineup

"[...] When actually he was to come, it was November. I wote him to bring along an over-coat as Villingen is 1000 metres high and there was already snow in the Black Forest. When on the eve of his departure to Germany Don with his new coat stepped out of a shop in Venice, near Los Angeles, some bloke threatened him with a gun ('it was a big one - a real canon') and coat, car, money, violin, bass, and - 'this was the worst' - lovely ring changed their owner. 'I literally lost everything but the ticket to Europe.' And that is why two day later Don 'Sugar Cane' Harris stood chilly and trembling in the Black Forest's snow in white beach shoes and in a summer-shirt Californian style and with a single US-dollar only. He had to borrow the violin from a music shop in Donaueschingen, the pick up from Volker Kriegel, and the coat from the son of an MPS employee (J. E. Berendt, excerpt from the liner notes)."

Got The Blues (1972)

Volker Kriegel: guitar (except "Song For My Father"), Terje Rypdal: guitar ('Song for...'), Wolfgang Dauner: keyboards, Neville Whitehead: bass, Robert Wyatt: drums

Here's a picture of Don from this great session recorded live at the Berlin Jazz Festival.

same lineup as "Got The Blues", fellow violinists are: Jean Luc Ponty, Nipso Brantner, Michal Urbaniac

Here's a picture showing Don, Jean Luc, Nipso and Michal playing together as a quartet.

Valium (Violin-Quartet)
Got My Mojo Working (Duo: Don and Nipso)
Nuggis (Duo: Jean Luc and Michal)
Horizon (Violin-Qartet and Terje Rypdal)
Flipping (Solo Jean Luc)
Astrorama (Duo: Don and Jean Luc)
Violin Summit No 2 (Violin-Quartet)

Other subjects of interest

There are several releases on EPIC, such as an album named 'Don Sugarcane Harris' (Epic 26286) produced by Johnny Otis and feat. Shuggie Otis on guitar and bass, but I don't own this item and don't know anything about the contents. Another very remarkable one has been released as Pure Food And Drug Act.

"In 1970, Harris hooked up with Frank Zappa, with whom he recorded, most notably on Hot Rats and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, which featured Harris' vocals as well as his violin playing. Zappa has said that Don and Dewey's single "Soul Motion" b/w "Stretching' Out" on Rush Records was one of the all-time great R&B records. Both sides featured Harris' kinetic electric violin work (The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, 1983)."