Son of Night After Night

RIP Butch Morris (February 10, 1947–January 29, 2013)

News has arrived that Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, a cornetist, conductor, composer, conceptualist and inimitable spirit, has succumbed to the cancer with which he was diagnosed last year. I’d so hoped for his recovery, but it was not to be. If you know his work, this poignant musical slideshow will kindle warm memories; if you don’t, let this be the start of a fruitful voyage of discovery.

Amazing pro video of Anthony Braxton’s 12+1tet at the Venice Biennale Musica 2012, the 56th annual International Festival of Contemporary Music, last Saturday, October 13. Watching the ensemble play Braxton’s Composition 355 and more, you get a great sense of how the band’s on-the-fly decision making works. You can watch a related interview with Braxton here. (My thanks to Alberto Lofoco for passing these along.)

The great free-jazz saxophonist David S. Ware, with whom I had the opportunity to connect briefly and fruitfully during the P.R. phase of my career, moved on to the next plane of existence on Thursday, October 18, 2012, following a lengthy illness and a temporary reprieve, during which he created some of the finest music of his career. Ware’s recent albums are readily accessible and highly recommended, but my Time Out comrade Hank Shteamer has unearthed a rare treasure: Ware’s early LP Birth of a Being, featuring pianist Gene Ashton (later Cooper-Moore) and drummer Marc Edwards, is available for streaming in its entirety on Soundcloud.

Last week, Q2 Music, the 24/7 contemporary-classical web-radio channel run by WQXR-FM in New York, gave me the unique privilege of helping to launch Mixtapes, a new weekly series that does exactly what the name implies, giving composers, performers and other music-types (I guess I fall somewhere in that last category) the opportunity to curate an hour of meaningful music.

I spent most of my segment tracing formative influences, giving air time to pieces that helped shape the way I listen and hear now. The last two tracks reflect current interests. Give it a listen if you’ve an hour (actually, 63:45) to spare, and tune in every Wednesday at 3pm EST to hear a new Mixtape.

Here are the discographical specifics of my selected tracks:

Laurie Anderson: “Difficult Listening Hour” (excerpt) (0:42)
From: United States Live, Warner Bros. 25192-2

Philip Glass: “Act IV, Scene One: Building” (7:30)
From: Einstein on the Beach, Tomato/CBS M4K 38875

Scott Johnson: “John Somebody – Part 1” (5:27)
From: John Somebody, Nonesuch 79133-2; Tzadik 8009

John Zorn: “Tre Nel 5000” (4:38)
From: The Big Gundown, Nonesuch 79139-2; Tzadik 7328

Robin Holcomb: “Nightbirds” (6:08)
From: Todos Santos, Sound Aspects CD 019

Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris: “Othello A” (7:08)
From: Dust to Dust, New World/Countercurrents 80408-2

John Carter: “Castles of Ghana” (13:23)
From: Castles of Ghana, Gramavision R2 79423

David Hykes: “Harmonic Relation” (5:34)
From: Harmonic Meeting, Celestial Harmonies 13013-2

Maryanne Amacher: “Excerpt from Stain – The Music Rooms” (4:04)
From: Imaginary Landscapes: New Electronic Music, Nonesuch 79235-2

Mario Diaz de León: “II.23” (5:45)
From: Enter Houses Of, Tzadik 8065

Sean McCann: “Saints of the Capital” (5:15)
From: The Sky Is Filled with Incredible Wishes, Aguirre ZORN07CS

melvin-gibbs:

Encryption (Ronald Shannon Jackson, Vernon Reid, Melvin Gibbs)- “Cloud To Cloud”- Live In Amsterdam: 06-09-2011

Bassist Melvin Gibbs has posted a simmering slab of recent improv with guitarist Vernon Reid and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. These players have a long history together, particularly in Jackson’s incandescent Decoding Society of the ’80s, and it shows. I caught this trio some years ago at Joe’s Pub, and would love to hear its latest developments ’round these parts some time soon.

Speaking of Jackson, don’t miss this excellent blog post by my Time Out New York colleague Hank Shteamer (@DarkForcesSwing on Twitter; Heavy Metal Be-Bop on Tumblr), which deals with the narrative quality of Jackson’s drumming in a seriously deep way.