Colorfield (album)

Last updated
Colorfield
Colorfield Morris cover.jpg
Studio album by Joe Morris
Released 2009
Recorded May 12, 2009
Studio 7A West Studios, Charleston, Massachusetts
Genre Jazz
Length50:06
Label ESP-Disk
Producer Joe Morris
Joe Morris chronology
The Necessary and the Possible
(2009)
Colorfield
(2009)
Today on Earth
(2009)

Colorfield is an album by American jazz guitarist Joe Morris, which was recorded in 2009 and released on the ESP-Disk label. [1] He leads a trio with pianist Steve Lantner, in his first recording with Morris as leader, and long-time collaborator drummer Luther Gray. The music is inspired, in part, by the Color Field school of painting, in which large patches of color, occasionally just one color, make up the composition. Another inspiration for the music is the early Cecil Taylor Unit recordings with Jimmy Lyons on alto saxophone and either Sunny Murray or Andrew Cyrille on drums. [2]

Joseph Francis Michael Morris is an American jazz guitarist, bassist, composer, and educator.

ESP-Disk record label

ESP-Disk is a New York-based record company and label founded in 1964 by lawyer Bernard Stollman.

Contents

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [3]
Down Beat Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [4]

In his review for AllMusic, Michael G. Nastos states "While there's a clear and present acknowledgment to the old Cecil Taylor Unit's of the '70s, Morris and the trio avoid any clichés while adopting their extended expressionist ideals and the then-new attitude toward making music without boundaries or timing issues that still works." [3]

AllMusic online music database

AllMusic is an online music database. It catalogs more than 3 million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musical artists and bands. It launched in 1991, predating the World Wide Web.

The All About Jazz review by Jerry D'Souza says "Morris, Lantner and Gray are both subtle and powerful; it is the balance of these attributes that makes Colorfield a CD of highly crafted artistry." [5]

<i>All About Jazz</i> comprehensive American website for jazz enthusiasts and professionals, based in Philadelphia

All About Jazz is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, Jazz Near You, about local concerts and events.

In a review for Down Beat Bill Meyer notes that "this record ask more of the listener than Morris' comparatively streamlined quartet recordings on Hatology and Aum Fidelity. But just as you’ll only perceive a painting’s subtle variations of tone and hue after extended contemplation, the closer you listen, the more Colorfield's music deepens, expands and ultimately envelops you." [4]

Track listing

All compositions by Joe Morris
  1. "Transparent" – 6:52
  2. "Silver Sun" – 13:42
  3. "Purple Distant" – 13:39
  4. "Bell Orange Curves" – 15:53

Personnel

Guitar fretted string instrument

The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that usually has six strings. It is typically played with both hands by strumming or plucking the strings with either a guitar pick or the finger(s)/fingernails of one hand, while simultaneously fretting with the fingers of the other hand. The sound of the vibrating strings is projected either acoustically, by means of the hollow chamber of the guitar, or through an electrical amplifier and a speaker.

Piano musical instrument

The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings.

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References

  1. Colorfield at ESP-Disk
  2. Original Liner Notes by Joe Morris
  3. 1 2 Nastos, Michael G.. Joe Morris – Colorfield: Review at AllMusic . Retrieved March 31, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Meyer, Bill. Colorfield review. Down Beat February 10: page 58. Print.
  5. D'Souza,Jerry. Colorfield review at All About Jazz