Biography
Francisco Mora Catlett operates as a drummer, composer, bandleader, and educator from his base in New York. Once a participant in the Sun Ra Arkestra, the musician has collaborated across decades with figures ranging from Max Roach and Marcus Belgrave through Craig Taborn and Carl Craig. While resident in Detroit across the 1980s and 1990s, he contributed substantially to the local arts scene and issued the influential vanguard Latin jazz recording Mora! in 1986. In 1996 Mora contributed to Craig’s Innerzone Orchestra on the seminal single “Bug in the Bassbin.” He followed with the 1998 release World Trade Music. After participating in the Innerzone Orchestra’s 1999 album Programmed, he relocated to New York City yet returned to appear on Ropeadope’s The Detroit Experiment. That project was succeeded in 2004 by the Craig-produced Amazona EP on Kindred Spirits. Mora issued the long-player Outerzone in 2007, built around a core lineup that included Marshall Allen. Under the Outerzone name he brought out the newly recorded Andromeda-M31 in 2010 together with New Under the Sun, the first album by his Freedom Jazz Trio; the latter ensemble next delivered Live at the Bronx Museum in 2012. Also in 2012 Mora released the self-titled debut of AfroHORN MX, which issued Rare Metal in 2013 and At the Edge of the Spiral in 2014. Far Out Recordings reissued Mora! in 2021 and paired it with Mora II, an album recorded a couple of years after the original but previously unissued; that same year Mora introduced his first all-electronic project, Electric Worlds.
Born Francisco Mora, Jr. in Washington, D.C. in 1947, Mora Catlett is the eldest child of Mexican artists Francisco Mora, Sr. and Elizabeth Catlett. He completed a music degree at the Music School of UNAM and then served as a session drummer for Capitol Records, Mexico from 1968 to 1970. After receiving an education grant from the Mexican government, he returned to the United States in 1970 to attend the Berklee College of Music, where he studied composition and drums with Alan Dawson. In late spring 1973 he went back to Mexico; that summer he attended a Sun Ra Arkestra concert, departed Mexico with Ra, and remained in the band through 1980. Mora Catlett appears on the Arkestra albums Beyond the Purple Star Zone and Oblique Parallax.
After leaving Ra, Mora established himself in Detroit and founded a production company that organized concerts, tours, lectures, and workshops centered on Afro-Latin music. In 1986, alongside other Michigan artists, he launched a cultural exchange program with Mexican musicians that received commendation from the United Nations. He released his first leader album, the Latin jazz-oriented Mora!, in 1987 and shortly thereafter recorded a follow-up with an expanded lineup that remained unreleased until the twenty-first century; he soon obtained a National Endowment for the Arts grant to study drumming and percussion with Max Roach in New York City. Mora Catlett performed with Roach’s all-percussion ensemble M’Boom, appearing on the Blue Moon LPs To the Max in 1990 and Live at S.O.B.’s New York in 1992.
He returned to Detroit in 1993 as a visiting professor at Michigan State University and led his own Latin jazz group, Amigo. In 1996 Mora played percussion on “Bug in the Bassbin,” the debut single by Detroit techno producer Carl Craig’s Innerzone Orchestra. He also appeared on the ensemble’s 1999 full-length Programmed. That year, employing Innerzone colleagues Craig Taborn on piano and Rodney Whitaker on bass as a core trio, Mora—now billed as Francisco Mora Catlett—issued his second album, World Trade Music, on Craig’s Community Projects imprint.
Mora departed Detroit for New York in 2000. Leading the New World Jazz big band, he released the Amazona EP for Kindred Spirits in 2004. In 2005 Premier Cru issued River Drum, the earliest release of Detroit-era recordings made shortly after 1988’s Mora!, featuring Mora directing four ensembles that included trumpeters Marcus Belgrave and John Douglass, saxophonists Alex Harding and Vincent Bowens, trombonist Sherman Mitchell, pianists Craig Taborn or Kenny Cox, bassist Rodney Whitaker, steel drummer Emile Borde, and drummers and percussionists Alberto Nacif, Jerry LeDuff, and Mora. Two years later the label released Outerzone, a quartet project with Marshall Allen, Taborn, Craig, and additional musicians. Premier Cru put out the 12-inch Baba Lu Aye (Rezo): Aberiku to Agua EP in 2009; its “Empyrean Version” added guest musicians bassist Me’Shell NdegéOcello and flutist Bobbi Humphrey to the core Outerzone band.
Mora issued two albums in 2010: New Under the Sun with the newly formed Freedom Jazz Trio that included pianist Francesco Tristano and bassist Carlo De Rosa, and Outerzone’s Andromeda-M31. The latter’s evolved lineup comprised JD Allen on tenor saxophone, Graham Haynes on cornet and electronics, Taborn on piano and electronics, De Rosa on bass, Val Jeanty on turntables and electronics, Guido Gonzales on trumpet, Tecla Esposito on keyboards, Rafael Monteagudo on batá drums and Afro-Cuban percussion, and Mora Catlett on drums. The following year Freedom Jazz Trio, with Taborn on piano, released Live at the Bronx Museum.
In 2012 Mora issued the self-titled debut from AfroHORN MX, whose personnel included pianist Aruán Ortiz, saxophonists Bowens, JD Allen, and Harding, bassist Rashaan Carter, and percussionist/vocalist Roman Diaz. Renamed AfroHORN, the group released Rare Metal in 2013 with saxophonists Sam Newsome and Salim Washington replacing Allen and Bowens. The band’s third album, At the Edge of the Spiral, appeared in 2015 from an expanded lineup that added vocalist Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets.
Mora has served as resident artist at the University of Iowa, Wayne State University, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Long Island University, Brookhaven College, Richard College, and other institutions. His presentations frequently examine themes of jazz and creativity while highlighting the work of his parents. Owing to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Mora resumed virtual studies at Berklee College of Music, enrolling in courses on electronic composition and production. In 2021 Far Out Recordings issued a deluxe reissue of Mora! and re-released River Drum as Mora 2. Also that year he released his first album of electronic music, Electric Worlds, on Carl Craig’s Planet E Communications.
Born Francisco Mora, Jr. in Washington, D.C. in 1947, Mora Catlett is the eldest child of Mexican artists Francisco Mora, Sr. and Elizabeth Catlett. He completed a music degree at the Music School of UNAM and then served as a session drummer for Capitol Records, Mexico from 1968 to 1970. After receiving an education grant from the Mexican government, he returned to the United States in 1970 to attend the Berklee College of Music, where he studied composition and drums with Alan Dawson. In late spring 1973 he went back to Mexico; that summer he attended a Sun Ra Arkestra concert, departed Mexico with Ra, and remained in the band through 1980. Mora Catlett appears on the Arkestra albums Beyond the Purple Star Zone and Oblique Parallax.
After leaving Ra, Mora established himself in Detroit and founded a production company that organized concerts, tours, lectures, and workshops centered on Afro-Latin music. In 1986, alongside other Michigan artists, he launched a cultural exchange program with Mexican musicians that received commendation from the United Nations. He released his first leader album, the Latin jazz-oriented Mora!, in 1987 and shortly thereafter recorded a follow-up with an expanded lineup that remained unreleased until the twenty-first century; he soon obtained a National Endowment for the Arts grant to study drumming and percussion with Max Roach in New York City. Mora Catlett performed with Roach’s all-percussion ensemble M’Boom, appearing on the Blue Moon LPs To the Max in 1990 and Live at S.O.B.’s New York in 1992.
He returned to Detroit in 1993 as a visiting professor at Michigan State University and led his own Latin jazz group, Amigo. In 1996 Mora played percussion on “Bug in the Bassbin,” the debut single by Detroit techno producer Carl Craig’s Innerzone Orchestra. He also appeared on the ensemble’s 1999 full-length Programmed. That year, employing Innerzone colleagues Craig Taborn on piano and Rodney Whitaker on bass as a core trio, Mora—now billed as Francisco Mora Catlett—issued his second album, World Trade Music, on Craig’s Community Projects imprint.
Mora departed Detroit for New York in 2000. Leading the New World Jazz big band, he released the Amazona EP for Kindred Spirits in 2004. In 2005 Premier Cru issued River Drum, the earliest release of Detroit-era recordings made shortly after 1988’s Mora!, featuring Mora directing four ensembles that included trumpeters Marcus Belgrave and John Douglass, saxophonists Alex Harding and Vincent Bowens, trombonist Sherman Mitchell, pianists Craig Taborn or Kenny Cox, bassist Rodney Whitaker, steel drummer Emile Borde, and drummers and percussionists Alberto Nacif, Jerry LeDuff, and Mora. Two years later the label released Outerzone, a quartet project with Marshall Allen, Taborn, Craig, and additional musicians. Premier Cru put out the 12-inch Baba Lu Aye (Rezo): Aberiku to Agua EP in 2009; its “Empyrean Version” added guest musicians bassist Me’Shell NdegéOcello and flutist Bobbi Humphrey to the core Outerzone band.
Mora issued two albums in 2010: New Under the Sun with the newly formed Freedom Jazz Trio that included pianist Francesco Tristano and bassist Carlo De Rosa, and Outerzone’s Andromeda-M31. The latter’s evolved lineup comprised JD Allen on tenor saxophone, Graham Haynes on cornet and electronics, Taborn on piano and electronics, De Rosa on bass, Val Jeanty on turntables and electronics, Guido Gonzales on trumpet, Tecla Esposito on keyboards, Rafael Monteagudo on batá drums and Afro-Cuban percussion, and Mora Catlett on drums. The following year Freedom Jazz Trio, with Taborn on piano, released Live at the Bronx Museum.
In 2012 Mora issued the self-titled debut from AfroHORN MX, whose personnel included pianist Aruán Ortiz, saxophonists Bowens, JD Allen, and Harding, bassist Rashaan Carter, and percussionist/vocalist Roman Diaz. Renamed AfroHORN, the group released Rare Metal in 2013 with saxophonists Sam Newsome and Salim Washington replacing Allen and Bowens. The band’s third album, At the Edge of the Spiral, appeared in 2015 from an expanded lineup that added vocalist Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets.
Mora has served as resident artist at the University of Iowa, Wayne State University, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Long Island University, Brookhaven College, Richard College, and other institutions. His presentations frequently examine themes of jazz and creativity while highlighting the work of his parents. Owing to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Mora resumed virtual studies at Berklee College of Music, enrolling in courses on electronic composition and production. In 2021 Far Out Recordings issued a deluxe reissue of Mora! and re-released River Drum as Mora 2. Also that year he released his first album of electronic music, Electric Worlds, on Carl Craig’s Planet E Communications.
Albums
