La'Grant Harris Biography
When
I got out of the Marine Corps after spending 6 years
there and four years in the New Jersey National Guard,
I worked as a Conrail Police officer, and at various
other jobs. So be as it was, I've
never stopped loving the sound of good music. So
working with these two brothers has been an experience
of ups and downs, highs and lows, but through it all
Jehovah has helped me to endure.
It all
started for me back in 1987 when I was working as a
security guard for a hospital here in New Jersey named East
Orange General. There was an offsite office for the home
health aides located in Orange, New Jersey. I was the
onsite security officer there.
So as I would come to work everyday there would be some of
the employees there that said “you should sing
professionally”, because I would be patrolling my area
singing all the time. It was just in me, it kept me calm.
So one day one of the supervisors there named Patricia said
to me "do you remember the singing group named the
Escorts?" I said "yeah, that they were one of my favorite
groups." She said, "I’m going to introduce you to one of
the Escorts, his name is Reginald Haynes." He did some
catering from time to time and he was coming by the office
to drop off some food for her on this day. So I said sure.
I was a big fan of the Escorts back then. I remember once I
went to one of their shows at a park in Newark, NJ named
Branch Brook Park and man did they put on a show. I was so
excited, I was screaming just as much as the women in the
audience were, maybe even louder. Man that show had me so
hyped up, on the way home I was singing, and singing, but
back to the story... So he came and Pat told him that I was
around there singing and that I had a nice voice. We
introduced ourselves and he told me that one day he was
getting the group back together. So I gave him my number
and I told him that I was going down to Georgia to do some
business but that I would be back. So after my trip to
Georgia I came back and I got in touch with him and he was
still looking for a tenor for the group, so one day I went
to his house to do an audition, when I got there was when I
met Bill Martin. So they asked me "what are you going to
sing?"
I told them "Reasons" by 'Earth,
Wind and Fire'. So I
began to sing and before the song was done, I saw them look
at each other and then Reggie told me that I need not go
any further, that I was in the group. I went home like
WOW!!! I can't
believe it, I'm
singing with the Escorts. I went home and told my mother
about it and she said "that's good
make sure you do your best."
So our first show was at Abyssinian Baptist Church located
in New York City. They were doing some type of affair
there, and along with us were Ashford and Simpson, Clifton
Davis from "That’s my Momma", a television show that was
airing back then. Not mayor yet but, David Dinkins, Mayor
Koch, Roz Abrams from Eyewitness News, Jesse Jackson, Al
Sharpton, a bunch of gospel groups, Hezekiah Walker and his
gospel choir, The Harlem Gospel Choir, Donnie McClurkin,
Five Blind Boys, and The Winans. It was packed; there was
no place to sit. So we got our chance to go up and sing out
first song as a group, which was "Bridge over Troubled
Water." Man my knees were shaking, I was nervous.
We all had a solo part in the song so I did not want to
mess that up in front of all those people. But in any
event, it all turned out wonderfully well. When we were
changing clothes in the dressing room, Jesse Jackson peeked
in and said that we had done a great job and that he was
proud of us. And as they say "The rest is history."
I've been
singing with this group for about 21 years now. So we have
sung in venues all over such as Alaska, California,
Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Carnival
Cruise Lines. And we are looking forward to singing for
another 21 years.