While it's always great to hear Joe Morris do new things, there's one thing he does best. Banjos, basses and mandolins are only so far from his native guitar, it's true, but hearing him work the subtle peculiarities of thin, amplified strings is one of the current high points in freeform jazz and, truth be told, in the history of the electric guitar.
And hearing Joe Morris with players ready and able to reshape the language he has inherited and rearticulated is, of course, to hear him at his best. The 2009 studio session that resulted in Colorfield finds Morris in great company: pianist Steve Lantner and drummer Luther Gray. They get the first 90 seconds of the first track, in fact, setting a fast and quiet shower which Morris pierces with single-note ease. From there on they are engaged in the moment, the act of creation without hesitation. Morris writes in the brief liner notes that the Cecil Taylor Unit albums served as inspiration for this recording, and it's evident. While the trio hardly has the ferocity of Taylor's 1970s horn-driven ensemble, it does have a similar networking of little logics.
The fact that the trio is, by classical formulation, a rhythm section — there is no horn or vocalist out front — allows them, in a sense, to all become lead, resulting in a continuously shifting array of melody jetties. It's an open improvisation but, as Morris writes, rules about interaction were established prior to the recording. As a result, there is the feeling of a system at play, even if those rules aren't divulged to the listener. It's this sort of intuition and foresight that lifts Morris above the fray in the potentially oxymoronic position of leading a leaderless group. He always delivers, and certainly does here.
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