Tag: JoeMorris

Wet Robots

Wet Robots by Fay Victor’s SoundNoiseFunk.
Bandcamp Link: Wet Robots

Fay Victor, voice; Joe Morris, guitar; Sam Newsome, Soprano Sax; Reggie Nicholson, drums.

I am most familiar with soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome and guitarist Joe Morris. Fay Victor has been on my radar for a while, but this is the first time I have really made the time to listen to an album of hers. Reggie Nicholson’s name I knew, having seen it and heard him on records from Henry Threadgill and Myra Melford, but this album is the most space I’ve heard him given to shine.

On paper, I suppose this ensemble is similar to Geometry of Caves, even sharing a guitarist in Morris, but in practice, the albums aren’t much alike, aside from being quartets with female vocalists and guitar.

Wet Robots is a much more swinging affair, primarily due to the stellar drumming of Mr Nicholson leading the charge, and partly due to Ms Victor’s very rhythmically led vocalizations.

There is a lot of material here, over 50 minutes of music.

When she uses words, Ms Victor tends to speak sing poetically. Of those tracks, “I Sing” is a favorite. On most of the other tracks, she vocalizes without words, growling here, laughing there, tearing it up and down the bebop scales elsewhere.

Mr Newsome is one of the greatest artists of the Soprano Saxophone. He coaxes bluesy licks with ease and with equal ease animal sounds or floating cloudlike non-pitches. It is always a joy to listen to him.

Mr Morris is less strict and strategic with his playing on Wet Robots than he was on Geometry of Caves. He lets his playing follow the blues-ey and sometimes funky leads of Newsome and Nicholson, while being as eclectic as ever in his choices of texture and rhythm.

Mr Nicholson is the heart of this group, the deft interplay between snare and bass drum are the heart of his drumming. Always on time and always swinging.

Certainly the most “Jazz” album I’ve covered on the blog in a while, Wet Robots is still an eclectic and enjoyable mix of moods and feelings.

Can I stop babbling about this album and go back to listening to it?

#FayVictor #JoeMorris #SamNewsome #ReggieNicholson #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack

Geometry of Caves

Geometry of Caves by Tomeka Reid / Kyoko Kitamura / Taylor Ho Bynum / Joe Morris.
Label Website: Geometry of Caves

I’m always a bit wary about Jazz and Improvised groups that include a vocalist.

In most cases, having a “Jazz Vocalist” immediately means that the rest of the band becomes accompaniment.

Rarely does a vocalist pull their own weight in an ensemble in the same way a bassist, drummer, or pianist does.

The members of the rhythm section have to know the guts of the song, inside out, starting with the chords.

The vocalist, or the saxophonist, often knows the melody, and, well, that’s about it.

Their solos are often no more than variation on the themes of the melody. I’ve known players, and sometimes done this myself, who solo just by picking notes from the melody to jump between.

However, it’s no small thing to be able to sing, or play, a melody expressively, with feeling, and honesty. And the weight that the front person carries for the band is different than the weight that the drummer or bassist carries.

Anyway, on Geometry of Caves the vocalist, Kyoko Kitamura, chooses a more interesting path.

She wields her voice, wordlessly, more as an instrument in the ensemble, than as the featured element of the band.

Not just Kitamura, but all the players, (Tomeka Reid on cello, Morris on acoustic guitar, and Ho Bynum on sundry brass instruments,) on Geometry of Caves seem to view it as a cooperative enterprise.

More often than not, the album is a sort of twirling combination and recombination of duets and trios, rather than the “everyone blows at once” style of freedom.

I once took a workshop with Ben Goldberg where he talked almost more about NOT playing, or consciously “playing” your silence with intent, rather than playing. Leaving space in the music.

I feel like this album is a particularly good representation of that sort of ethos.

And it feels completely free, yet not as overwhelming as a lot of the more “energy forward” style of freely improvised music. In that way, it is almost as much “freeing” for the listener, as it is free for the players.

#KyokoKitamura #TomekaReid #TaylorHoBynum #JoeMorris #TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #GeometryOfCaves

Out Right Now

Out Right Now by Joe Maneri, Joe Morris, and Mat Maneri.

The father/son duo of Joe Maneri (woodwinds, voice) and Mat Maneri (violin) is joined by Joe Morris (electric guitar) on this live date of solos, duos, and trios from 1995.

Woodwind player Joe Maneri is a fascinating and idiosyncratic character. Early in his life he played Sax and Clarinet in Greek and Turkish and wedding bands. Later, he grew fascinated by the modern composers of the time, people like Schoenberg and Alban Berg. He is known for attempting to coax the notes between the notes in his clarinet and Saxophone playing.

His son, Mat, also experiments with microtonal playing and usually plays something that sounds between modern classical and jazz musics.

I really enjoy Joe Morris’ guitar. He is a music educator and something of an undersung modern improvising guitarist. On this date he sticks to a very dry tone, no discernible effects going on. He reminds me a bit in his strategies on this release of Derek Bailey. A lot of plucked sounds and more textural playing than melodic.

There is very little of jazz idioms in the playing on this release. It sounds more like improvised modern classical music. I really enjoy how the musicians don’t crowd each other’s ideas and give each other room to work out their ideas. Leave space for the music to breath.

#PacificCoastIris #JackLondonStateHistoricPark #PoisonOak #JoeManeri #MatManeri #JoeMorris #OutRightNow #HatHutRecords #IrisFernaldii

2017-05-26 Art of the Improv Trio Volume 5

The Art of The Improv Trio Volume 5. Gerald Cleaver, Joe Morris, and Ivo Perelman.

I enjoyed Joe Morris’ playing, but I didn’t fully appreciate his perspectives until I read an interview with him in a collection of interviews William Parker did with improvisors for RogueArt. Anyway, Morris and Perelman seem to have a real connection and their interplay on this album is fantastic to listen to.

#TodaysCommuteSoundtrack #GeraldCleaver #JoeMorris #IvoPerelman