Butch Morris

I first met Butch Morris in New York around 1980.  He was part of a new wave of artists, many from the West Coast, that included David Murray, Arthur Blythe, and James Newton.  There was a revolution going on, and I wanted to be part of it.  Butch was still playing coronet at the time.  They say you only regret the things you don't do.  I had wanted to record with Butch, I had an idea to call it Blue Flute Clan.  By the time I had my own label in the early 80's, Butch had left the coronet and was doing his conductions exclusively.  We would meet with mutual friends over the years, usually when I was visiting New York.  My producer Cookie Marenco also knew Butch through Dino J.A. Deane, a long time collaborator of Butch's.  Dino was one of the very first samplers, and Butch would incorporate that into his conductions.  A couple of years ago Butch was awarded a residency at Montalvo, and Cookie and I had several meetings and dinners with him.  Butch was looking for a label to release his film score to L'Amore Cache, and one of his music box pieces, Nowhere Everafter.  http://butchmorris.downloadsnow.net/  We agreed my label would release them.  We spoke of perhaps doing a live recording to DSD of his Nublu Orchestra, perhaps with myself and/or Emily Palen.  While never famous in mainstream media, Butch's influence among musicians and composers is immense.  He was such a gentle soul, and had a wonderful sense of humor.  Like Harry Partch and Lou Harrison, he was extremely prolific in spite of not receiving the recognition and rewards he deserved.  I've always considered that persistence an act of great bravery, and I am inspired by it.  Vale, Butch, it was a privilege, an honor, and a blast to know you.  Thank you for all the music.  That will be with us forever. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/newsounds/blogs/new-sounds/2013/jan/31/remembering-butch-morris-length/

  

Number 61 January 5, 2011

We just spent the day on a photo shoot  with Emily Palen at Grace Cathedral.  It was wonderful to hear her play again in that sacred space.  Our photographer David Papas is brilliant, and all the crew were wonderful.  Visitors to the church would stop and listen as Emily played, and sometimes take pictures of our photo shoot.  One dear woman asked me if Emily was improvising, as she had never heard the music before.  I responded that it was indeed improvised, and that the two nights of recordings would be released presently on our Valence Records.  When I mentioned that Butch Morris is also on the label, she said that her brother-in-law is a friend of Butch's, and a big fan.  What a small world!

Number 55 November 11, 2010

Last Friday I saw Bitches Brew Revisited at the Palace of Fine Arts, as part of SF Jazz.  There has been a renewed interest in electric period Miles Davis in recent years.  Yo Miles  , which dates from 1999, was probably the first revival.  Miles From India  and Marcus Miller and Christian Scott's Tutu Revisited both have musicians who actually played with Miles, to better effect.  After the successful  marginalization by Wynton Marsalis and Ken Burns of late 60's and 70's Afro-American music, including electric Miles, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, and Butch Morris, among many others, I knew it would take a generation for a new appreciation for this music to arise.  Bitches Brew Revisited has two musicians that Miles would have used, Cindy Blackman and the great Blood Ulmer (whose compatriot, Sonny Sharrock did play with Miles).  The rest of the band, I'm afraid, would not have been up to Miles' high standards.  In truth, none of the revival bands have the emotion or taste of the original music, because they lack the genius himself, Miles Davis.  Better to try and make some new music, as Christian Scott has set out to do.  Asked why he wasn't interested in re-creating earlier periods of his music (Kind of Blue in particular) Miles deadpanned "Ain't that why there's records?"

Number 26 November 30, 2009

“Success is doing the right thing, at the right time, with the right people” Duke Ellington

I’ve spoken before of my dear friend, the brilliant composer/conductor Butch Morris. http://www.conduction.us/ Butch comes from the jazz tradition, and played with Steve Lacey in Paris, among many other legendary improvisers. For 25 years he has been performing what he calls conductions. Working with symphonies (largely in Europe) improvising musicians, even spoken word ensembles, Butch directs various members of the group to play, to repeat passages, to lay out, etc. using hand signs, as a conductor. The result is a fresh, spontaneous, performance that builds and follows its own internal logic. (These are my descriptions, Butch has a very developed methodology, and is writing a book on his conduction methods.)

While Butch is the foremost practitioner of this, it is not without precedent. Count Basie (especially in the early days in Kansas City, before the pieces became codified in recordings and countless gigs) would signal a horn section to improvise a riff, and would then signal other sections of the band to comment on, or repeat, variations of the riff. In the Count’s band, he would usually start with piano, then bass and drums, and the tunes would build in volume and density (think One O’clock Jump). My record label (I will be changing the name from Rogue Records to Valence Records, more on that shortly) will be releasing some very important work of Butch’s in the new year.

Gregory James

Number 22 November 7, 2009

My engineer/producer Cookie Marenco mentioned to Butch Morris the other week that I go to more concerts than anyone she knows. I have been blessed with seeing all kinds of amazing performances since childhood. From musicals to opera to jazz to blues at The Fillmore West. I subscribe to SF Jazz Festival, The SF Opera, and Cal Performances, among others. The Bay Area is an amazingly rich place for performance art; rivaling New York. This year’s SF Jazz Fall season is exceptional. Thursday the 29th was Ravi and Anushka Shankar. I’ve been going to Ravi concerts for over 40 years, and have seen him many times. He is the ultimate musician to me, and Anushka is well on the way. At age 89, his energy and speed have been in a bit of a decline, but this was the best I have seen him in many years. It was one of the top 3 performances I’ve ever seen, and one of the other two was also Ravi. Later that evening I got to see the paintings of Krisztina Lazar. I think she is brilliant, and I realized one of her paintings would make a great cover for The Valence Project. You can check out her art and design projects at www.transcendentbird.com

Gregory James