Harry Lim was born in Batavia, Java, now Jakarta, Indonesia. With a family heavily involved in the rubber industry, Lim had a good education and learned to speak English fluently. At age four the family moved to Holland. He developed an interest in jazz as a young child and collected jazz records form age ten. At age 17 he moved back to Java. By 1938 he had a jazz radio show and had founded the Batavia Rhythm Club, which promoted jazz through films, lectures and discussions. For two years he published the club's magazine, Swing: Officeel Orgaan van de Batavia Rhythm Club; he was responsible for the funding and most of the writing of the journal. In 1940 he visited New York City as a tourist, and began meeting jazz artists. Described as "friendly, sincere and outgoing," he was quickly accepted to the inner circle of the jazz world. He then spent seven months observing the jazz scene in New Orleans. While there, he did his first recordings, four George Hartman band sessions. When the war broke out he stayed in the United States, working as a jazz critic, promoter and running jam sessions at the new Village Vanguard. His absence as a promoter in Batavia was felt, and jazz activity declined during the war years.
Keynote years
In late 1943 he approached Keynote Records president Eric Bernay, about becoming a jazz producer. Keynote had previously been doing mainly left-wing folk and protest songs, and needed to expand its audience; Lim joined Keynote as a self-financing producer. His most notable sessions were with Lester Young, Count Basie and Coleman Hawkins. He kept an eye out for young talent, and gave many artists their first opportunity to record as leaders, including Lester Young, Lennie Tristano,and Benny Carter. Many of the recordings were 12 inch 78s, which were unusual for the time, giving extra "blowing room." Keynote was in decline in 1947 and Lim left that year; it was taken over by Mercury Records in 1948 and Lim lost all the rights to his music. Most of the Keynote sessions were effectively lost until 1986 when PolyGram issued a 21LP set with a rediscovered Tristano album. In 2013 there was a second reissue of the 1941–1947 Keynote jazz collection. The reviews of both were strongly positive, noting that Keynote "made a very strong contribution to the world of jazz," and the reissues "contributed greatly to documenting the jazz history of 40s America." A review of his work at Keynote described him as knowing what he was doing and getting "good sound, with no gimmicks."
Later years
Lim kept active in the jazz scene. In 1948 he started a short lived label, HL, which produced only a few obscure albums. He worked at Sam Goody as a jazz buyer 1956–1973. In 1972 he formed the Famous Door label, recording top mainstream jazz artists, such as Bill Watrous, Zoot Sims, Scott Hamilton and Red Norvo. While running Famous Door he wrote his own liner notes and had his family assist in filling and shipping the orders to distributors. He noted that to be successful as a "little guy" in the record business required guts and hanging in when things are rough. He worked only with artists with whom he had a warm rapport and admired, and he kept an eye open for new talent. Famous Door was active until Lim's death in 1990 when it folded. The label was sold to jazz preservationist George H. Buck. Lim was "happily still living when Polygram reissued all of the Keynote jazz sessions on a huge LP box set in 1986."
