Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris

Lawrence "Butch" Morris first attracted notice through his expressive and warmly rounded cornet work in free jazz, even though the execution retained a certain rawness. As years passed, his own instrumental contributions receded behind his activities as a bandleader. He originated a hybrid approach to collective playing that fused predetermined structure with spontaneous invention and labeled it comprovisation. The system depended on a gestural method he termed conduction, in which hand signals guided the ensemble in real time; New York saxophonist and composer Walter Thompson, a lesser-known figure, later expanded on the same principle.

Morris’s roots lay in free jazz. In California during the early 1970s he worked with bassist Wilber Morris, his brother, pianist and composer Horace Tapscott, trumpeter Bobby Bradford, and tenor saxophonist Frank Lowe. By the middle of the decade he was active in New York City alongside baritone saxophonists Charles Tyler and Hamiet Bluiett and tenor saxophonist David Murray. He lived in Paris from 1976 to 1977, beginning to appear on record as a sideman. His first documented performance occurred on a date led by Lowe; he also recorded with French musicians and with the American expatriate soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy. A 1977 Amsterdam concert by Murray’s Low Class Conspiracy, featuring an inexperienced Stanley Crouch on drums, was issued by Circle Records in two LP volumes; West Wind later combined the material for a 1990 CD reissue. The partnership with Murray continued for several more years of playing and recording. Morris assumed the role of director for Murray’s large ensembles, an experience that directly shaped the conduction technique. Throughout the 1980s Murray’s big-band music reflected Morris’s presence at the podium.

During that same decade Morris still performed and recorded on cornet, occasionally under his own name yet most often in the company of Murray, Lowe, and violinist Billy Bang. His interest gradually turned toward conduction as the central form of creative expression. In the 1990s the conductions earned wider recognition within specialized circles and drew notice outside jazz. Morris collaborated with artists working in theater, dance, and film, and he received support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mary Flagler Cary Trust. By the close of the decade he had established himself as a significant presence in new music, presenting conductions and giving lectures across many countries. After receiving a lung cancer diagnosis in August 2012, he was admitted to a Brooklyn hospital and died there on January 29, 2013, at the age of 65.