Realism

Joe Morris’s recording career began in 1983 and has made him one of the most revered avant-garde jazz guitarists. Down Beat magazine dubbed him “the preeminent free music guitarist of his generation,” while The Wire magazine called him “one of the most profound improvisers at work in the U.S.” His revelatory 2012 book Perpetual Frontier / The Properties of Free Music (Riti Publishing) is a detailed and rewarding accounting of his approach to improvisation. He has been on the faculty in the Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Department at New England Conservatory of Music since 2000. This is his fifth album as guitarist on ESP-Disk’: two as leader, two in Fay Victor’s SoundNoiseFUNK, and now this unique duo.

Elliott Sharp began recording in 1979 and has continued prolifically adding to his discography ever since, working fluently in genres ranging from blues and jazz to free improvisation and modern classical composition. A cornerstone of the downtown NYC music scene and collaborator with musicians from around the world, he has extended the vocabulary of the guitar in ways that led Guitar Player magazine to include him in its 30th anniversary issue’s list of “The Dirty Thirty – Pioneers and Trailblazers.” Realism is his first album released on ESP.

Each track on Realism is kind of like three tracks: acoustic, effects, and the combination. Thus, in a way, the players are dueting not only with each other but also with themselves. (Morris is on the left, Sharp is on the right.) There is intentionality but also openness to the unplanned. Sometimes this kind of music is called “abstract” because it’s not made up of just simple melodies, harmonies, and rhythmic beats (and this session reminded me that the guitar is inherently a percussive instrument, though of course great players have ways of sometimes making us forget that). Everything is “abstract” on some level, but that doesn’t mean its impact on listeners is solely abstract. As Albert Ayler demonstrated vividly, the sound of the notes is an integral part of how music is received by listeners, timbres mattering as much or even more than the pitches chosen in the heat of improvisation— the gestural shapes of the players’ lines and the way they intertwine create complex textures that reach our brains on both emotional and abstract levels that are greater than the sum of their parts.

01 Shapes Mentioned
02 Neither Odd Nor Even 

03 Light Asking
04 Freezing in Hell

05 Soft Version

06 Arrokoth

Music composed and performed by Joe Morris and Elliott Sharp

Published by riti publishing (ASCAP) and zOaR Music (BMI)

Credits:

Joe Morris - guitars and effects

Elliott Sharp - guitars and electronics

Recorded and mastered by Jim Clouse, Park West Studios, Brooklyn, NY on July 17, 2023.

Mixed by Elliott Sharp and Jim Clouse at Park West Studios on August 1, 2023.

Produced by Steve Holtje for ESP-Disk’.

DOWNLOADS HERE: https://joemorriselliottsharp.bandcamp.com/album/realism

Musicians: Joe Morris / Elliott Sharp