Jazz Articles about Joe Morris

Joe Morris Quartet: Today on Earth

by AAJ Italy Staff
November 19, 2009

Registrato in un'unica sessione nel giugno del 2009, Today on Earth è album con il quale Joe Morris, a capo di un quartetto affiatato e privo di smagliature, si conferma chitarrista dalle eccelse qualità tecniche, e in grado di esprimere un linguaggio jazzistico multiforme e dal forte impatto visivo. Dei sette passaggi proposti quattro durano oltre i dieci minuti, questo perché non è praticamente mai un solo strumentista al centro del processo compositivo; come nell'iniziale “Backbone," un up-tempo travolgente dove ...

Joe Morris: Fine Objects

by Mark Corroto
October 22, 2009

Guitarist Joe Morris continues his 2002 experimentation with the double-bass. On Fine Objects, he leads a trio of saxophone, bass, and drums through two of his own compositions, a couple of trio improvisations, and other compositions by Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Larry Clinton and Petr Cancura.

Morris chose two former students from the New England Conservatory in Boston for this session. Tenor saxophonist Cancura, born in the Czech Republic, is gaining quite the reputation in jazz circles. He ...

Joe Morris: Today On Earth

by John Sharpe
October 11, 2009

Joe Morris holds a unique position in creative music, meriting the top drawer on both guitar and bass, wielding the former in David S. Ware's resurgent company on Shakti (AUM Fidelity, 2009), and the latter on Wildlife (AUM Fidelity, 2009). For his third outing on the same imprint in 2009 Morris returns to guitar for what might just be his best showing yet, in a move which represents sustained artistic return on the label's investment.

Completing the quartet, on what ...

Joe Morris Quartet: Today On Earth

by Troy Collins
October 10, 2009

Since taking up the bass in 2000, guitarist Joe Morris has split his recording and performing time between his new upright and his original axe. While growing considerably as a bassist, both as a sideman and leader, Morris maintains a singular approach to the guitar, placing him in the upper echelon of present day improvisers.

An educator at the New England Conservatory and a ubiquitous presence on the East Coast jazz scene, Today On Earth is Morris' third ...

Joe Morris: Wildlife

by Wilbur MacKenzie
September 1, 2009

Joe Morris has made a career of directing creative energy towards new experiences and a fascinating development has been the incorporation of new instruments to his vocabulary. Morris distinguished himself as a guitarist in 1994 with the release of Symbolic Gesture. Many duo, trio and ensemble records followed but Morris was not content simply to refine his musical identity as an electric guitarist. In the last few years, Morris has begun recording solo and ensemble music on acoustic guitar, banjo ...

Joe Morris / Petr Cancura / Luther Gray: Wildlife

by Troy Collins
July 10, 2009

Widely revered in avant-garde music circles for his innovative approach to the electric guitar, Joe Morris' decision to take up the contrabass in 2002 was initially met with apprehension from certain corners of the new music community. Fears that the singular guitarist might disavow his primary axe have been dispelled, replaced by a burgeoning parallel discography charting Morris' remarkable growth as a bassist.

Wildlife is the most recent document of Morris' increasingly impressive bass prowess and his first ...

Joe Morris: MVP LSD, Elm City Duets, High Definition and Rejuvenation

by Clifford Allen
April 4, 2009

Joe Morris/Jon Voigt/Tom Plsek The Graphic Scores of Lowell Skinner Davidson Riti 2009 Joe Morris/Barre Phillips Elm City Duets Clean Feed 2008 Joe Morris Bass Quartet High Definition Hatology 2008 Flow Trio Rejuvenation ESP Disk 2009 Guitarist/bassist-composer Joe ...