Chris Morrissey

Chris Morrissey operates out of Brooklyn as a bassist, singer, producer, arranger, bandleader, and songwriter whose work has moved fluidly across jazz, pop, country, reggae, and indie rock. Although he has spent the bulk of his time on stage as a supporting bassist, he has also functioned as a studio player, a solo recording artist, and music director for Sara Bareilles’ Little Black Dress tour in 2014. Born and raised in Minnesota by two musician parents, he began on trumpet before switching to bass during his mid-teens. After moving to New York in his twenties, he issued his first full-length recording, The Morning World, with the Chris Morrissey Quartet on the Sunnyside label in 2009; the album blended contemporary indie jazz elements. Under the Taurus moniker he self-released the indie-rock album Cannon Falls Forever in 2011, while North Hero, a jazz quartet date under his own name, appeared on Sunnyside in 2013. Worldwide touring credits on bass include stints with Andrew Bird, Roseanne Cash, the Jim Campilongo Trio, and Trixie Whitley, and his session work encompasses recordings with Cyndi Lauper, Ben Kweller, Lucius, and Sara Bareilles on her 2013 album The Blessed Unrest. He has sustained his partnership with Bareilles while continuing extensive road work with assorted indie and jazz acts, and he supplied the arrangement of Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile” used in the “in memoriam” portion of the 2014 Emmy Awards telecast.