Butch Morris - Dust To Dust 1990

Lawrence "Butch" Morris' conduction technique, a form of directed improvisation whereby musicians follow a variety of live hand signals by the conductor to shape and reshape both notated and non-notated music, has not taken on the revered status of Ornette Coleman's harmolodic method of free improvisation, but has produced equally exciting music. In fact, mirroring the keen mix of composition and improvisation found in both Anthony Braxton's and John Zorn's work, Morris' relatively structured music at times surpasses Coleman's more free-form output. If his conceptions were amateurish, Morris' "songs" would pale in comparison to any of the high-end work Coleman has produced, but, as is the case with Dust to Dust, the pieces come out sounding whole and refined, enhanced greatly by a variety of impromptu musical twists. Enlisting a stellar cast of 12 musicians including, among others, drummer Andrew Cyrille, pianist Myra Melford, harp player Zeena Parkins, clarinetist Marty Ehrlich, and keyboard player Wayne Horvitz, Morris works through a varied program of seven numbers, mixing electronic and acoustic elements to produce constantly shifting ambient soundscapes. The pieces range from the spacious and pastoral-sounding "Via Talciona" and "Othello A" (with the harp parts faintly evoking Japanese koto music) to the more tightly wound, atonal-minimalist "Bartok Comprovisation," which is insistently moved along by repetitive figures played on the piano and a variety of electronic instruments. For the duration of all these cuts, a multitude of sound fragments drift in and out as original themes progressively turn more diffuse, broken up by a variety of rhythmic shifts. Some sound contrivances don't come off, like a few awkward guitar bits on "Via Talciona," but considering the amount of improvisation going on here and the mostly seamless result, these indiscretions end up as attractive aberrations. Taking in Webern's 12-tone brevity, Far Eastern music, jazz, Brian Eno's ambient work, and a load of his own compositional ideas, Morris creates a sophisticated and satisfying mix on Dust to Dust. AMG.

listen here

Butch Morris - Current Trends in Racism in Modern America 1985

Though Morris had enjoyed a career as a fine cornetist and composer for, among others, David Murray, his first album as a leader found him investigating his own driving passion, the "conduction." He had honed this ability with Murray's big band, organizing riffs and responses for the group on the fly, blurring the distinction between composing and improvising. Here, he assembled a tentet evenly divided between musicians from a jazz background and those from the then nascent downtown New York City scene, including future "superstars" John Zorn, Tom Cora, and Christian Marclay for a live session at The Kitchen. The music owes little to jazz, however, and traverses relatively rough, abstract territory as Morris selects various groups within the ensemble, soloists, duos, etc., and channels them into loose slabs of sound. Here, they're in a dense swirl, harshly bleating while there, a serene, delicate quiet takes hold, Zeena Parkins' harp plucking forlornly. Zorn is in full-on screech and game call mode through much of the evening while Marclay provides some of the more routinely entertaining moments, at one point dropping in some heavily funky rap from his turntable. In the ensuing years, the success of many of Morris' conduction projects would depend critically on the caliber and sensitivity to his conception of the players involved. Here, while the musicians are certainly fine, there is perhaps a lack of familiarity to his approach since the overall effect doesn't quite attain the cohesiveness and sense of scale that one would like to hear. The recording suffers a bit simply by the listener being unable to observe Morris in action, making it unclear as to exactly what his contributions were at any given point. Fragments work fairly well on their own (such as the Eastern-sounding beginning to "Part Two") and the whole idea, at the time, was an exciting and innovative one. This makes Current Trends... worth hearing as a somewhat flawed first attempt at a grand and fascinating idea. AMG.

listen here

Buy @ Amazon: USA