After his stand-out performance here last year as part of Tony-Joe Bucklash with Tony Buck, Joe Bevan and Dominc Lash, the great American improvising guitarist Joe Morris returns to OTO for a night of solo performance. With over 50 albums to his name and a long list of collaborators including Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Joe Maneri, Ivo Perelman, Ken Vandermark and DKV Trio, Daniel Levin and David S. Ware, Morris has carved out a place as one of the most original and distinctive guitarists working today. This performance is a rare opportunity to catch a solo set from a master at work.
"… a guitarist whose sound is completely his own, oscillating between deadpan sweetness and dangerous, shrapnel-like caprice." THE VILLAGE VOICE
JOE MORRIS / Guitar
Joe Morris is one of the rare ones. A player who sets up great challenges for himself, and proceeds to meet them head on with resounding success. He plays the guitar like no one else; for comparative description, it's actually easier to refer to a horn player like Jimmy Lyons or Eric Dolphy than any other guitarist in the history of the instrument's existence. To be honest, the fretboard leaps unleashed to actualize the phrasing in his music often times seem superhuman.
For the last 30 years and over the course of well over 50 albums recorded since the early 80's, Morris has been creating a body of work that stands and walks with giants. It is his first-hand awareness of music's ability to transform a listener's mental state outside of the here and now, that has driven him to reach levels of virtuosity and a breadth of expression on guitar which are presently unsurpassed. The silk in the web he weaves is of the absolute finest grade. The web of music itself however, it's intricacies and continually revealing patterns, prompts true awe.
