Joe Morris (born Joseph Francis Michael Morris, September 13, 1955) is an American jazz guitarist. In addition to leading his own groups, he has recorded with William Parker, Whit Dickey, Rob Brown, Joe Maneri and others. Much of his output has been on his own record label, Riti.
Morris was born in New Haven, Connecticut, United States; an important early mentor and playing partner was the legendary but little-recorded pianist Lowell Davidson. Morris is perhaps the most significant guitarist to play free jazz since Sonny Sharrock. Morris has stated that his flowing single-note technique was inspired more by traditional African musics, and by saxophone players like Eric Dolphy and Jimmy Lyons, than by other guitarists. He does not use distortion or effects, preferring a "clean" sound, but has made occasional use of a serrated pick to "bow" the strings of his guitar, creating an otherworldly, harmonic-rich sound. He also plays banjo and banjo-uke, and in recent years has increasingly focused on playing bass.
Famous quotes containing the words joe and/or morris:
“We saw a pair of moose-horns on the shore, and I asked Joe if a moose had shed them; but he said there was a head attached to them, and I knew that they did not shed their heads more than once in their lives.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The white dominant culture seemed to think that once the Indians were off the reservations, they’d eventually become like everybody else. But they aren’t like everybody else. When the Indianness is drummed out of them, they are turned into hopeless drunks on skid row.”
—Elizabeth Morris (b. c. 1933)