Byron Morris

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James Byron Morris (born January 7, 1941 ) is an American jazz musician ( tenor saxophone , alto saxophone , soprano saxophone , flute ) who is active in the music scene in Washington, DC .

Live and act

Byron Morris is the son of saxophonist and band leader James William "Jim Billy" Morris (1916–1985). He grew up in Roanoke, Virginia; During his school days he played with Don Pullen in a band called Junior Aristocrats (named after the swing band The Aristocrats , which his father directed from 1947-1960). After graduating from high school in 1959, he studied at Tuskegee University (1964 degree in engineering). From the mid-1960s he worked full-time as an engineer at IBM and at federal agencies; he also worked as a jazz musician. In the 1960s he played in rhythm and blues and jazz bands in Washington, DC ; In 1969 the first recordings were made with a formation that he led together with trumpeter Gerald Wise and to which Byard Lancaster also belonged. In 1970/71 he worked with Joe McPhee , on whose albums Live At Vassar 1970 and Survival Unit II with Clifford Thornton: At WBAI's Free Music Store, 1971 he can be heard. In 1972 he co-founded the band Unity with Vincent McEwan and Gerald Wise.

Influenced by spiritual currents in jazz such as Rahsaan Roland Kirk , Pharoah Sanders and John Coltrane , Unity often worked with singer Jay Clayton . The band's first album, Blow Thru Your Mind (Epi Records), was released in 1973, followed by Vibrations (1975), Themes and Serenades (1978) and Honey, I Love (1981). Then the band came together in different line-ups for live concerts. Furthermore, Morris worked with the formation Three Saxes for Lester and Swingin 'Saxes , both of which were dedicated to the music of Lester Young . In 1994 he founded the By-Mor label , on which material from the Unity sessions ( Vibrations in Time ) and live recordings of the band ( Live! At the East Coast Jazz Festival 1996, and Y2K , 2003) appeared. In 1998 new recordings were made by the group, which now also includes pianist Hilton Ruiz . In the field of jazz, he was involved in 8 recording sessions between 1969 and 2000.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ In the cast Vincent McEwan (tp, flhrn), Byron Morris (as, sop, fl), Mike Kull (p), Milton Suggs (el-b), Abdul Shahid (dr), Tony Waters (perc), Jay Clayton (vcl).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography ( online , paid access required, accessed November 15, 2014)
personal data
SURNAME Morris, Byron
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Morris, James Byron (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1941