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Jeff Morris

Jeff Morris is an improviser, coder, and composer. His live sampling debut album, Interfaces (Ravello Records) explores different ways for a computer performer to fit in a jazz trio without dominating it (like Ornette Coleman thought of the piano for forty years). Jeff is joined by free jazz legend Karl Berger (vibes, piano) and NYC dynamo Joe Hertenstein (drums, found percussion).

In all his work, Jeff creates experiences that engage audiences’ minds with their surroundings. His performances, installations, lectures, and writings appear in international venues known for cutting- edge arts and deep questions in the arts. He has won awards for making art emerge from unusual situations: music tailored to architecture and cityscapes, performance art for the radio, and serious concert music for toy piano, robot, Sudoku puzzles, and paranormal electronic voice phenomena.

He has presented work in the Onassis Cultural Center (Athens), Triennale Museum (Milan), D–22 (Beijing’s avant-garde music scene), the International Symposium on Electronic Art (Vancouver, Canada), the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum (Austin), the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s “Open House Chicago,” and the Boston Microtonal Society.

His work has won awards in the Concours de Bourges (France), Viseu Rural (Portugal), “Music in Architecture” International Competition (Austin), the Un“Cage”d Toy Piano Competition (NYC), and the “Radio Killed the Video Star” Competition (NYC). He has albums of live sampling improvisations on Ravello Records (distributed internationally and online via Naxos).

Writings about his works and their aesthetics have been presented at the International Computer Music Conference, Generative Art International Conference, and Computer Art Congress and are published by Leonardo Music Journal, Springer, and IGI Global.

He serves as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies, and created the Performance Technology (PerfTech) program at Texas A&M University (a Carnegie Tier One Research University and member of the elite Association of American Universities) and created the Fresh Minds Festival of audiovisual art from all over the world.

Awards

Winner. Radio Killed the Video Star, CUE Art Foundation, New York. First Prize. Viseu Rural 2.0: Sonic Explorations of a Rural Archive, Portugal. Commission award. Environmental Art Biennale, I-Park Foundation, Connecticut. Lynda J. Marchese Award, Florida. Second Prize. Concours de Bourges, France. Third Prize. Music in Architecture—Architecture in Music, LBJ Presidential Library. Third Prize. UnCaged Toy Piano, New York. First Honorable Mention. Russell Horn Young Composers Competition, Dallas. Semi-Finalist. American Prize, Chamber Music, Connecticut. Pre-Finalist (twice). Destellos Competition, Argentina.


Tags

“For those bored with free jazz and straight-ahead classicism, Interfaces opens a doorway, through which it plunges headfirst." — JazzTimes

“Because of [his] manipulations of samples, electronically produced sounds don’t come across as like something alien in combination with a violin but serve as complicated contra point.” — The Improvisor, reviewing the International Society of Improvised Music (ISIM) conference

“The sensuality of sound and its behaviour is celebrated here” … “Convincing work that foregrounds first- principles in a manner that is creative and engaging (simple systems/complex music)” — New Interfaces in Musical Expression international conference

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Primary Instrument

Electronics

Location

Houston

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Clinic/Workshop Information

Jeff Morris creates experiences that engage audiences’ minds with their surroundings. His performances, installations, lectures, and writings appear in international venues known for cutting-edge arts and deep questions in the arts. He has won awards for making art emerge from unusual situations: music tailored to architecture and cityscapes, performance art for the radio, and serious concert music for toy piano, robot, Sudoku puzzles, and paranormal electronic voice phenomena. He has presented work in the Onassis Cultural Center (Athens), Triennale Museum (Milan), D–22 (Beijing’s avant-garde music scene), the International Symposium on Electronic Art (Vancouver, Canada), the Lyndon B

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

With Strings: Live...

Ravello Records
2019

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Interfaces: Jazz...

Ravello Records
2018

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Rondo

From: Interfaces: Jazz Meets...
By Jeff Morris

Videos

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