Butch Morris obit

Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, inventor of musical conduction, dead at 65

 

He was not the list.

This morning great musical thinker Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris passed away at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the Fort Hamilton section of Brooklyn following a struggle with cancer. He was 65 years old. Though Morris started out as a cornetist—first in his native California, later in New York—he was known best for “conduction,” a term he borrowed from physics to describe a way of organizing, shaping, and leading group improvisation. He developed an interest in doing so in 1971, after moving from Los Angeles to Oakland; he began working with jazz drummer Charles Moffett, who used a basic set of gestures to spontaneously alter the performance of a given piece. But it wasn’t until 1976, when Morris arrived in New York and got involved with the loft-jazz scene, that his concept of conduction came together.

Morris was born in Long Beach, California, United States. Before beginning his musical career, he served in the U.S. Army as a medic in Germany, Japan and Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Morris came to attention with saxophonist David Murray's groups in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Morris's brother, double bassist Wilber Morris, sometimes performed and recorded with Murray during this period. Morris led a group called Orchestra SLANG. The group features Drummer Kenny Wollesen, alto saxophonist Jonathon Haffner, trumpeter Kirk Knuffke and others. He performed and presented regularly as part of the Festival of New Trumpet Music, held annually in New York City. Morris wrote most of the incidental music for the 1989 TV show, A Man Called Hawk, which starred Avery Brooks, with whom he co-wrote the theme music, along with Stanley Clarke. He also played with well-known artist and would-be drummer A.R. Penck in 1990. For AudioBox Matera 1990: International Festival of Sound Experimentation (Pinotto Fava, curator), Morris created Spiriti Materani featuring Wayne Horvitz (keyboards, electronics), J. A. Deane (trombone, electronics), and Butch (cornet). The project took place in Madonna delle Virtù, a 12th-century rupestrian church in Sasso Caveoso, Matera, Italy.