Roderick Harper

Roderick’s has been singing almost as long as he has been speaking. In school, he formed and was part of numerous jazz groups. One of those groups was Alvin Batiste and the Jazzstranauts. This afforded him the opportunity to come to the attention of jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis. With the recommendation of Batiste, Roderick was invited to sing with Marsalis. This led him to land a featured spot in the Ellis Marsalis Quartet.

Being under the experienced hand of Marsalis brought about many opportunities for Roderick to perform with the likes of Jon Hendricks of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Betty Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis, Joe Sample, Danny Barker, Kent Jordan, Mark Whitfield, Joe Lavano, Bobby Watson, Marcus Roberts, Cyrus Chestnut, Nicholas Payton, Wessel Anderson, James Carter, Stephen Scott, Brian Blade, Max Roach, Terence Blanchard, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and many others.

Since that time he has recorded five CD’s: Beautiful Beginnings, produced by Delfeayo Marsalis and The Essence Of… produced by Grammy Award Winner, Nicholas Payton, Perfect Imperfections, self produced, E•VOLV•ING, self produced and the R&B project, Back To Love. His voice was apart of the HBO Soul of the Game, the BET BlacKout, a featured vocalist on Kent Jordan’s CD, Out of this World, as well as, a Folgers Coffee and McDonalds Commercial and the UMC television series, Terror Lake Drive.