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Joe Morris

Joe Morris was born in New Haven, Connecticut on September 13, 1955. At the age of 12 he took lessons on the trumpet for one year. He started on guitar in 1969 at the age of 14. He played his first professional gig later that year. With the exception of a few lessons he is self-taught. The influence of Jimi Hendrix and other guitarists of that period led him to concentrate on learning to play the blues. Soon thereafter his sister gave him a copy of John Coltrane's OM which inspired him to learn about Jazz and New Music. From age 15 to 17 he attended a student run alternative High School called The Unschool in downtown New Haven next to the campus of Yale University. Taking advantage of the open learning style of the school he spent most of his time day and night playing music with other students, listening to ethnic folk, blues, jazz, and classical music on record at the public library and attending the various concerts and recitals on the Yale campus. He worked to establish his own voice on guitar in a free jazz context from the age of 17. Drawing on the influence of Coltrane, Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor,Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman as well as the AACM, BAG, and the many European improvisers of the '70s. Later he would draw influence from traditional West African string music, Messian, Ives, Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Lyons, Steve McCall and Fred Hopkins. After high school he performed in rock bands, rehearsed in jazz bands and played totally improvised music with friends until 1975 when he moved to Boston.

Between 1975 and 1978 he was active on the Boston creative music scene as a soloist as well as in various groups from duos to large ensembles. He composed music for his first trio in 1977. In 1980 he traveled to Europe where he performed in Belgium and Holland. When he returned to Boston he helped to organize the Boston Improvisers Group (BIG) with other musicians. Over the next few years through various configurations BIG produced two festivals and many concerts. In 1981 he formed his own record company, Riti, and recorded his first Lp Wraparound with a trio featuring Sebastian Steinberg on bass and Laurence Cook on drums. Riti records released four more LPs and CDs before 1991. Also in 1981 he began what would be a six year collaboration with the multi-instrumentalist Lowell Davidson, performing with him in a trio and a duo. During the next few years in Boston he performed in groups which featured among others; Billy Bang, Andrew Cyrille, Peter Kowald, Joe McPhee, Malcolm Goldstein, Samm Bennett, Lawrence "Butch" Morris and Thurman Barker. Between 1987 and 1989 he lived in New York City where he performed at the Shuttle Theater, Club Chandelier, Visiones, Inroads, Greenwich House, etc. as well as performing with his trio at the first festival Tea and Comprovisation held at the Knitting Factory.

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7
Album Review

Ivo Perelman: Seven Skies Orchestra

Read "Seven Skies Orchestra" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


In another reality, where the love one makes is what gets the headlines, the big money, the streaming specials, ceaselessly inquisitive saxophonist and downtown legend Ivo Perelman might just top the list of good guys. The guy who pushes for the better mind, the better heart, and confesses it all to tape or lacquer or binary code; chronicling one man's pursuit of the day. while hopefully inspiring others to cut the course the same. Even before the most ...

5
Album Review

Ivo Perelman: Molten Gold

Read "Molten Gold" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Saxophonist Ivo Perelman is a restless innovator, and his recorded output is as inventive as it is prolific. On the exhilarating Molten Gold he explores a new sonic texture by playing with the equally idiosyncratic trombonist Ray Anderson. In addition to Anderson, the quartet includes another Chicago native, drummer Reggie Nicholson who developed his unique sound with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Frequent Perelman collaborator, guitarist Joe Morris, here playing double bass, completes the ensemble. The ...

4
Album Review

Ivo Perelman: Molten Gold

Read "Molten Gold" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


A tactile, umbilical cord tension binds you to the slithery movements advanced on Molten Gold, the umpteenth in a slew of hard-core free jazz releases, one of them being the twelve disc set Reed Rapture In Brooklyn (Mahakala, 2022), from the generative mind and horn of saxophonist Ivo Perelman. Recorded at ParkWest Studio by Jim Clouse, Perelman, in full form and fever, assembles fellow rogues trombonist Ray Anderson, bassist Joe Morris and drummer Reggie Nicholson for over eighty minutes of ...

3
Album Review

Ivo Perelman / Ray Anderson / Joe Morris / Reggie Nicholson: Molten Gold

Read "Molten Gold" reviewed by Chris May


Lovingly described by one critic as “a leather-lunged monster," reviews of saxophonist Ivo Perelman's albums typically attract words such as honking, squawking, squealing and apocalyptic. Perelman is not interested in the current vogue for creating safe spaces. He is not the sort of free-improv player one would, in the normal course of things, recommend to AAJers wanting to dip a neophyte toe in the genre. But Molten Gold is recommended. And not just to newbies, but to ...

3
Album Review

Flow Trio with Joe McPhee: Winter Garden

Read "Winter Garden" reviewed by Mark Corroto


The thing about free jazz is that it is very much like abstract expressionist painting. Many an inexperienced museum goer will spot a Jackson Pollock and say to herself, “I coulda done that." Actually, you couldn't. Same thing with free jazz. From a distance, it's all hubbub and din, but try your hand at it, and you're just creating babel. In the hands of masters like the Flow Trio and their guest Joe McPhee, that cacophony becomes a beautiful thing, ...

6
Album Review

Paul Dunmall - Matthew Shipp - Joe Morris - Gerald Cleaver: The Bright Awakening

Read "The Bright Awakening" reviewed by John Sharpe


British saxophonist Paul Dunmall reaffirms the transcendent power of free jazz with a muscular quartet convened for his triumphant appearance at the 2012 Vision Festival, for which he invited pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist Joe Morris and drummer Gerald Cleaver to join him. The pianist and reedman were well acquainted, having hooked up during a Shipp residency at London's Cafe Oto in 2010, with the group captured for posterity on Live In London (FMR, 2017). While Dunmall had not previously played ...

4
Album Review

Tomeka Reid - Joe Morris: Combinations

Read "Combinations" reviewed by John Sharpe


One of the fascinations of a duet is how the alternating tension and balance between the two poles can create an overall mood which differs from either of the constituent parts. Abstraction particularly promotes that sort of ambiguity, and it is especially prevalent in the pairing of cellist Tomeka Reid and guitarist Joe Morris on Combinations, who....er, combine on a program of ten cuts, which include three covers from the free jazz canon alongside unfettered inventions. After a ...

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Video / DVD

Elmo Hope and Joe Morris

Elmo Hope and Joe Morris

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Bebop's fast tempo and complex rhythms were embraced by modern-jazz fans when the jazz style emerged in the mid-1940s. But bop also provided jump blues with an opening. Bebop was spectacular and electrifying, but it wasn't for dancing. It was mostly for sitting and listening. As a result, the big-beat, horn-driven dance music made major inroads in Black neighborhoods and in the record market. By 1949, R&B was so popular that Billboard started an official R&B chart. Hundreds of R&B ...

1

Recording

Red Piano Records To Release "Cosmopolitan Greetings" From Frank Carlberg/Joe Morris/Pascal Niggenkemper/Luther Gray

Red Piano Records To Release "Cosmopolitan Greetings" From Frank Carlberg/Joe Morris/Pascal Niggenkemper/Luther Gray

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Available October 16, 2015 Brooklyn-based Red Piano Records is proud to announce the release of Cosmopolitan Greetings, a collective effort by four veterans of the improvised music scene. This album marks the recorded debut of this quartet, with a line up featuring guitar legend Joe Morris, pianist/composer Frank Carlberg, bass wizard Pascal Niggenkemper and unsung drum master Luther Gray, in a program of three Carlberg compositions, and three collective improvisations. In the liner notes Carlberg describes the genesis of Cosmopolitan ...

1

Recording

Guitarist Joe Morris Joins Forces With Keyboardist Jamie Saft & Drummer Mike Pride On Microtonal Blues Project Raoul

Guitarist Joe Morris Joins Forces With Keyboardist Jamie Saft & Drummer Mike Pride On Microtonal Blues Project Raoul

Source: hubtone PR

The sound of Joe Morris’ electric guitar, with distortion pedal set on stun and wah-wah pedal fully engaged, colliding with Jamie Saft’s droning, microtonal organ and Mike Pride’s thunderous free drumming approach to the kit creates a mind-numbing maelstrom on The Spanish Donkey's RAOUL, the improvising trio’s debut on RareNoiseRecords. A follow-up to XYX, their 2011 album, which was released on Northern Spy Records. The album consists of three throbbing tracks — the brutal 32-minute title track ‘Raoul, the 22-minute ...

1

Recording

Avant-Garde Icon Wadada Leo Smith Joins Forces With Jamie Saft, Joe Morris, Balazs Pandi On Startling RareNoise Release Red Hill

Avant-Garde Icon Wadada Leo Smith Joins Forces With Jamie Saft, Joe Morris, Balazs Pandi On Startling RareNoise Release Red Hill

Source: hubtone PR

There’s a sense of mystery, majesty and daring surrounding this remarkably deep studio session, the first of its kind for the adventurous renegade label RareNoiseRecords. Each piece resounds with such compelling, conversational, in-the-moment playing that it sets a new standard in collective improvisation. “I believe it raises the bar for what improvised music can achieve on record,” says pianist Jamie Saft of Red Hill, the group’s mesmerizing debut on the RareNoise label.Fueled by the urgent high note blasts and expressive ...

Recording

Jamie Saft And Joe Morris Join Forces Once Again For Sonic Mayhem On RareNoise Release Plymouth

Jamie Saft And Joe Morris Join Forces Once Again For Sonic Mayhem On RareNoise Release Plymouth

Source: Antje Hübner

Following on the heels of their successful collaboration on 2013‘s Slobber Pup, one of the most intensely throbbing releases in the RareNoise catalog, keyboardist Jamie Saft and guitarist Joe Morris have reunited for another potent and provocative offering in Plymouth. Joining them on the three expansive pieces that comprise this purely improvised set are the indelible rhythm tandem of bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer Gerald Cleaver, who have played together in various settings (including Morris’ quartet) since the late ‘90s, ...

Recording

Free Jazz Tenor Sax Titan Ivo Perelman Joins Joe Morris & Balazs Pandi On Provocative Improv Outing "One"

Free Jazz Tenor Sax Titan Ivo Perelman Joins Joe Morris & Balazs Pandi On Provocative Improv Outing "One"

Source: hubtone PR

IVO PERELMAN - tenor sax JOE MORRIS - electric bass Balazs Pandi - drums AVAILABLE IN STORES AND ONLINE OCTOBER 1ST, 2013 AND THROUGH RARE NOISE RECORDS ON CD, VINYL AND HI-RES DIGITAL DOWNLOAD. One brings together the potent forces of Brazilian tenor saxophonist and prolific free jazz icon Ivo Perelman, veteran bassist-guitarist Joe Morris (a ubiquitous figure on the avant-garde jazz scene, making his recorded debut on electric bass guitar here) and Hungarian hardcore drummer ...

84

Recording

Matthew Shipp and Joe Morris - Broken Partials (Nottwo, 2011) ****

Matthew Shipp and Joe Morris - Broken Partials (Nottwo, 2011) ****

Source: Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels

By Paul Acquaro The music starts getting tense midway through 'Two' on Matthew Shipp and Joe Morris' vibrant new duo recording 'Broken Partials.' Shipp extracts all the sound he possibly can from the piano while Morris, intense and focused on upright bass, contributes a swarm of sound below the piano. Soon, like Shipp, he is digging fiercely into the acoustic depths of his instrument. Shipp's improvised melody on 'Three' begins with angular notes and puncuating tonal clusters that are ever ...

91

Recording

Matthew Shipp and Joe Morris - Broken Partials (Not Two, 2011)

Matthew Shipp and Joe Morris - Broken Partials (Not Two, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist and guitarist Joe Morris have been long time compatriots on the improvised music scene, but I believe that may be the first time they have recorded in the duet configuration ( at least with Morris sticking strictly to bass.) It works very well, with Morris adhering to acoustic bass and Shipp's wonderful keyboard technique that makes use of the entire instrument. The music develops in a an eight part suite of improvised music, occasionally developing ...

104

Recording

Joe Morris and Agusta- Ferna Ndez - Ambrosia (Riti Records, 2011) ****

Joe Morris and Agusta- Ferna Ndez - Ambrosia (Riti Records, 2011) ****

Source: Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels

By Paul Acquaro This guitar and piano duo album from Joe Morris and Agustí Fernández is an outing by like minded improvisors, happily extending the definition of melody and the physical limitations of their respective instruments. Between rich acoustic tones they scratch and pluck in unintended places, creating rhythm and melody in adventurous ways. The series of improvisations begin with “Ambrosia 1," which finds Fernández delivering fleeting phrases on the keys while Morris, reacting, provides counter argument via his fretboard. ...

101

Recording

Joe Morris - Sensor (Nobusiness, 2010)

Joe Morris - Sensor (Nobusiness, 2010)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Joe Morris is a veteran musician, playing and teaching in New England and New York. Primarily known a guitarist, he added bass to his arsenal about a decade ago, and has built a remarkably original and personal conception of the instrument. This solo album was recorded in 2010 and released as a limited edition vinyl record. “Sensor" is one long meta-track, broken into seven sections, featuring Morris on both plucked and bowed bass. “Sensor 1" opens the album with him ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Seven Skies Orchestra

Fundacja Sluchaj
2024

buy

Molten Gold

Fundacja Słuchaj!
2023

buy

Guitar Duos

Mystic Form Records
2022

buy

Combinations

Rogue Art
2021

buy

Winter Garden

ESP Disk
2021

buy

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