Jazz Articles about Joe Morris

Joe Morris: Singularity, Part 2-2

by AAJ Staff
August 25, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2

Joe Morris first started playing the guitar in 1969, at the age of 14. He immediately took to the instrument and started a long process of self-instruction. During his high school years, he spent time playing with other students and listening to a wide variety of recorded and live music. Morris's major influences during this period included seminal free jazz revolutionaries like Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, and Eric Dolphy--as well as West African string music ...

Joe Morris: Age of Everything

by Clifford Allen
February 22, 2004

Sometimes an artist comes along that, while making obviously forward-thinking and unique music, nevertheless remains apart from one's expectations that at first it seems unapproachable. Yet revisiting this same artist a few years later, with more listening under one's belt, the value of the work becomes more readily apparent. With this in mind, Joe Morris, before seemingly a 'stylist', is now certifiably an important figure in creative guitar music. With Age of Everything, Joe Morris has cemented ...

A Fireside Chat With Joe Morris

by AAJ Staff
February 14, 2003

To me, Joe Morris is about as good as it gets these days. Sure, I pine for the days of Trane and Ayler. But every now and then, I am pleased to be alive and well (relative) in 2003. Morris' discography is impressive, records with both Ken Vandermark and Vandermark's DKV Trio, Joe and Mat Maneri, William Parker, John Butcher, AALY Trio, Hamid Drake, Matt Shipp, Roy Campbell Jr., Raphe Malik (my fingers are starting to hurt). So when Morris ...

Joe Morris: Age of Everything

by AAJ Staff
June 15, 2002

Back in the '60s, jazz players made a startling discovery: density can lead to weightlessness. With the onset of energy music came the revelation that emotional intensity, harmonic freedom, and piercing improvisation can yield a spiritual enlightenment unattainable by other means. John Coltrane, an icon from the period, found over time that he was able to communicate on a higher level when he let go of the constraints that rein in most jazz players.

Guitarist Joe Morris learned ...

Joe Morris: Singularity

by AAJ Staff
May 1, 2001

One night before a show, I had the opportunity to overhear a conversation Joe Morris was having with another member of the audience. I didn't catch a single word, but what struck was the way he accompanied the dialogue on his guitar. Some players might call this process “warming up"--but I wonder if Morris is ever “cold." The connections between speech, gesture, and response all flowed naturally from his hands through the unamplified guitar. Unlike a lot of guitarists, Morris ...

Joe Morris & Mat Maneri: Soul Search

by Glenn Astarita
August 1, 2000

Soul Search represents the latest offering from modern day jazz/improv artists, guitarist Joe Morris and violinist Mat Maneri. ' Hence, we are presented with new music from two musicians who have placed their rather prolific identities on this scene for quite some time now and as they say in the world of prize fighting - - styles make fights!

With Soul Search, this union of two exemplary improvisers comes to fruition in glowing yet at times, subtly intricate fashion which ...

Joe Morris/Mat Maneri: Soul Search

by AAJ Staff
July 1, 2000

Soul Search marks the first duo collaboration from Boston's guitar wizard Joe Morris and power violinist Mat Maneri, who previously played together on Morris's quartet recordings (eg. 1998's A Cloud of Black Birds). Morris and Maneri, both idiosyncratic stylists with their own signature sound, clearly belong together.

Joe Morris--without a doubt the most innovative guitarist to enter the arena of free jazz in the last ten years--relies largely on leaping single-note melodic lines and tight clusters. Morris's technical mastery of ...