California music accessories brand Gruv Gear is proud to feature Bassist Aubrey Harris. Aubrey is part of a family of prominent world-class musicians that heartily endorse Gruv Gear products.
Born into a musical family, Aubrey began her musical studies at the age of four with piano lessons. By the time she was nine, she added clarinet lessons performing in the school band and also began guitar lessons. At age 12, while continuing guitar as well as her piano studies, she heard the Beatles “Hey Bulldog” and was also inspired by a video of bassist Tal Wilkenfeld performing with Jeff Beck. She asked if she could try playing the bass and it soon became clear that she had found her musical voice. In the fall of 2011, Aubrey was awarded a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant from the NH State Council on the Arts to study jazz, blues and American roots music. This grant also allowed her the opportunity to purchase and begin her studies on upright bass.
Aubrey has found a lot of support through the bass community over the past several years on NoTreble.com. The site’s readers voted her transcription of Tal Wilkenfeld’s bass solo on “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers” the number one video of the year for 2011 and she came in again in 2012 at number five with her take on Chick Corea’s “Spain”.
Selected by the Grammy Foundation as one of 136 high school students nationwide to participate in one of three Grammy Camp sessions, Aubrey was one of the 31 students who attended Grammy Camp NY in Brooklyn in August of 2012. In December of 2012, Aubrey was one of seven Grammy Camp alumni chosen to perform at the American Country Awards in Las Vegas with country singer and guitarist, Keith Urban.
Aubrey’s goal is to follow in the footsteps of her father, (Les Harris Jr. '83), and grandfather, (Les Harris Sr. '56), and be the third generation in her family to attend and graduate from Berklee College of Music.
In 2013, Aubrey played upright bass on one track for Skyler Clark-Hamel's CD, "Restless Heart" and was chosen to the NH All-State Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 2013, Aubrey attended the Victor Wooten/Berklee Summer Bass Workshop, the Interplay Jazz and Arts Camp in Woodstock, VT and the Berklee Five-Week Summer program in Boston. At Interplay, she performed as a member of the 2013 Grammy Jazz Combo. Thanks to a generous scholarship grant, Interplay was able to gather alumni members of 2012/2013 Grammy Camps from all over the US. The students formed a Jazz Combo and performed under the direction of Armen Donelian. At Berklee she performed in the Tower of Power ensemble under the direction of Bobby Gallegos. During the final concert at the Berklee Performance Center, she was awarded a full four-year scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music. She will be graduating high school a year early and begin at Berklee in the Fall of 2014.
Aubrey follows in the footsteps of her father, (Les Harris Jr. '83), and grandfather, (Les Harris Sr. '56), by becoming the third generation in her family to attend Berklee College of Music.
About Gruv Gear:
Gruv Gear exists to bring innovative and well-thought out products to creative professionals and beyond, including career musicians, DJs, photographers, filmmakers, mobile producers and more. The company is on- track not only to become a premium lifestyle accessories brand in the Music/DJ and Photo Industries, which is a small fraction of its potential market, but also expand to a broader range of industries that will increase its global footprint exponentially. To date, Gruv Gear products are sold in 5 continents and shipped directly to adoring fans worldwide.