Blues-drenched jazz pianist Gene Harris [ tickets ] has cancelled his Nov. 18-20 solo gigs at Jazz at Lincoln Center because of kidney problems. Jazz pianist Fred Hersch [ tickets ] will play the concerts instead, which feature Duke Ellington compositions in honor of the composer's centennial.

Harris hopes to get back into the swing of things next year. His new album ''Alley Cats,'' recorded live at Jazz Alley in Seattle, was just released in October by Concord Records. The date includes some of the great champions of groove/soul jazz--tenor saxophonist Red Holloway, B-3 organist Jack McDuff and saxophonist Ernie Watts on alto, instead of his usual tenor.

Hersch is an excellent interpreter of jazz's more difficult composers: his recording of Thelonious Monk compositions on Nonesuch earned him praise, as did ''Passion Flower,'' a Nonesuch disc devoted to composer/Ellington co-writer Billy Strayhorn. His controlled, erudite approach to piano phrasing is nearly the opposite of Harris', whose ten-fingered block chords and unstoppable blues runs literally rock the house.