Revealed: Notorious BIG’s secret jazz education

Did Notorious BIG learn his flow from Cannonball Adderley? One of the late rapper’s former neighbours, saxophonist Donald Harrison, claims to have introduced him to the work of jazz giants including Adderley, Charlie Parker and Ella Fitzgerald, teaching the teenage Biggie about diction, phrasing and scat techniques.

“The first time I spoke with Chris, the Notorious BIG, he was on the stoop,” Harrison recalled in a recent interview with NPR. “I was passing by and he just said ‘Hello’. We started talking and it grew into a friendship. He was a lot younger, but he wanted to learn about music. And [those were] magic words to my ears.” Harrison said he gave Biggie homework, asking him to scat along to an Adderley sax solo. “You have to slow things down really slow and take the time to phrase each note,” Harrison explained. “We worked on various tonguing and speed and agility.”

Perhaps in an alternate universe, the rapper born as Christopher Wallace changed his middle name to Sphere and became a fixture of Brooklyn’s jazz scene. But in this world he was drawn into life on the corner, dealing drugs and going to jail, leaving jazz behind – and became arguably one of the finest rappers ever to have lived. “The Chris I knew was a good guy,” Harrison said. “He was really looking for love and acceptance at the end of the day. And he paid a price for looking for love.”