Harold Imperiled

MUSIC

A product of the Bay Area’s rich jazz and jam rock scene AND the band’s shared love of 70’s soul-jazz, funk, and early rock fusion, Harold GROOVES.

Cinematic, emotional, intellectual, and warm, the instrumental songwriting synthesizes 1970s Herbie Hancock, Idris Muhammad, Jerry Garcia, and Lee Morgan as well as rare groove revivalists Soulive, Greyboy Allstars, and Medeski, Martin, and Wood, and contemporary innovators, Amendola vs. Blades, Charlie Hunter, Adam Deitch, and Khruangbin.

MYTHOLOGY

Harold Imperiled was born one summer day, an archetypal character of childlike wonder and golden innocence. He came to Bay Area drummer and composer Jared Baird in an intense daydream. The original instrumentals are warm, vibey and gently psychedelic, reflecting pockets of memories, the reveries of childhood, and an inexplicable love of California culture in the 1970s. 

A VISION OF COLLECTIVE IMPROVISATION 

Recent performances at San Francisco’s Boom Boom Room supporting Atta Kid and Chill Clinton and headlining at Peri’s in Fairfax Harold Imperiled is made for performance, drawing listeners onto the dance floor and into Harold’s imagined universe.

The music was recorded live in two sessions: rhythm section and horns, and produced by Timmy Stabler (Sour Widows) in San Rafael and San Francisco, California in 2024.