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Pocket Guides

Ben Morris

Pocket Guides

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: OA2 Records
UPC: 0805552220322
Catnr: OA2 22203
Release date: 11 November 2022
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1 CD
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€ 19.95
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Label
OA2 Records
UPC
0805552220322
Catalogue number
OA2 22203
Release date
11 November 2022
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
DE

About the album

Writing for his large, uniquely-voiced ensemble, and with influences ranging from traditional Norwegian folk music, modern jazz, and contemporary classical music, composer/pianist Ben Morris's dynamic debut surprises and captivates. With his core group - Zosha Warpeha on Norwegian Hardanger fiddle and violin, Juan Olivares on clarinet, Dan Montgomery on bass, Evan Hyde on drums, and Ben on piano - he was invited to premiere four original pieces at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2019, setting in motion the inspiration to expand the ensemble and compositions to create Pocket Guides. With visions of bustling foreign cities, Norse mythology, tundras and waterways, Morris's music is cinematic, surprising and visceral, the rich textures reflecting his experiences living and studying in Norway, Korea, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, and now Colorado.
Das dynamische Debüt des Komponisten und Pianisten Ben Morris, der für sein großes, einzigartig besetztes Ensemble schreibt und dessen Einflüsse von traditioneller norwegischer Volksmusik über modernen Jazz bis hin zu zeitgenössischer klassischer Musik reichen, überrascht und fesselt. Mit seiner Kerngruppe - Zosha Warpeha an der norwegischen Hardangerfiedel und Violine, Juan Olivares an der Klarinette, Dan Montgomery am Bass, Evan Hyde am Schlagzeug und Ben am Klavier - wurde er eingeladen, vier Originalstücke auf dem Newport Jazz Festival 2019 uraufzuführen, was die Inspiration zur Erweiterung des Ensembles und der Kompositionen zu Pocket Guides in Gang setzte. Mit Visionen von belebten fremden Städten, nordischer Mythologie, Tundren und Wasserwegen ist Morris' Musik filmisch, überraschend und intuitiv. Die reichhaltigen Texturen spiegeln seine Erfahrungen wider, die er in Norwegen, Korea, Florida, Texas, New Jersey und jetzt Colorado gemacht hat.

Artist(s)

Ben Morris (piano)

Ben Morris is a Colorado-based composer and jazz pianist whose music tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. His operatic scores have been described as 'charming and heart-touching' by OperaGene. Ben's creative work and research is inspired by his Norwegian heritage. He recently lived in Oslo, Norway on a Fulbright Grant composing a work for extended big band and video and received an American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant to research the influence of folk music on Norwegian jazz. Ben's debut album, Pocket Guides, is slated for a spring 2022 release and takes elements from Norwegian folk music, jazz, and contemporary chamber music. The music on this album garnered Ben two Downbeat Awards, an ASCAP Herb Alpert Jazz Composer Award, a big band commission...
more
Ben Morris is a Colorado-based composer and jazz pianist whose music tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. His operatic scores have been described as "charming and heart-touching" by OperaGene.
Ben's creative work and research is inspired by his Norwegian heritage. He recently lived in Oslo, Norway on a Fulbright Grant composing a work for extended big band and video and received an American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant to research the influence of folk music on Norwegian jazz. Ben's debut album, Pocket Guides, is slated for a spring 2022 release and takes elements from Norwegian folk music, jazz, and contemporary chamber music. The music on this album garnered Ben two Downbeat Awards, an ASCAP Herb Alpert Jazz Composer Award, a big band commission from New York Youth Symphony's First Music Program, and an invitation to perform with his quintet at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2019.
Also a versatile film, theatre, and opera composer, Ben scored the documentary films American River, which premiered at Montclair Film in 2021, and Saving the Great Swamp: The Battle to Defeat the Jetport, which won best documentary at the 2017 New Jersey Film Festival. He has worked as a music assistant, orchestrator, and copyist for documentary film composer and songwriter Michael Bacon in New York City. Ben premiered a 20-minute opera, Las Auténticas, with librettist Laura Fuentes for the Washington National Opera American Opera Initiative, workshopped an original opera, Perspective, through Eklund Opera's New Opera Workshop with librettist Nnamdi Nwankwo, and developed a new musical, North Pond, at the Midtown Arts and Theater Center (MATCH) in Houston.
Ben seeks opportunities to write for unique ensembles that blur established genre expectations. He has worked with the American Composers Orchestra, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Jazz at Lincoln Center trombonist Vincent Gardner, unassisted fold, NOW Ensemble, Imani Winds, Boulder Altitude Directive, The Living Earth Show, Playground Ensemble, and the NDR Big Band. He has been a composer fellow at music festivals and workshops including the Aspen Music Festival, the American Composers Orchestra Jazz Composers Institute, Red Note Festival, Sibelius Academy Creative Dialogue, New Music on the Point, the International Gugak Workshop in Seoul, South Korea, highScore, Source Song Festival, and the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, and his concert music has received accolades including an ASCAP Morton Gould Award and the International Society of Bassists Composition Contest Grand Prize.
Ben is an Assistant Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition at the University of Colorado Boulder as an ATLAS Fellow studying with Carter Pann and Michael Theodore, received a Master of Music degree from the Rice University Shepherd School of Music, where he was a Brown Fellow studying with Karim Al-Zand and Anthony Brandt, and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Miami Frost School of Music, where he studied with Lansing McLoskey, Gary Lindsay, and Martin Bejerano. Outside of composing and teaching, Ben enjoys traveling, hiking, reading history books, and exploring art museums.

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Composer(s)

Ben Morris (piano)

Ben Morris is a Colorado-based composer and jazz pianist whose music tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. His operatic scores have been described as 'charming and heart-touching' by OperaGene. Ben's creative work and research is inspired by his Norwegian heritage. He recently lived in Oslo, Norway on a Fulbright Grant composing a work for extended big band and video and received an American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant to research the influence of folk music on Norwegian jazz. Ben's debut album, Pocket Guides, is slated for a spring 2022 release and takes elements from Norwegian folk music, jazz, and contemporary chamber music. The music on this album garnered Ben two Downbeat Awards, an ASCAP Herb Alpert Jazz Composer Award, a big band commission...
more
Ben Morris is a Colorado-based composer and jazz pianist whose music tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. His operatic scores have been described as "charming and heart-touching" by OperaGene.
Ben's creative work and research is inspired by his Norwegian heritage. He recently lived in Oslo, Norway on a Fulbright Grant composing a work for extended big band and video and received an American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant to research the influence of folk music on Norwegian jazz. Ben's debut album, Pocket Guides, is slated for a spring 2022 release and takes elements from Norwegian folk music, jazz, and contemporary chamber music. The music on this album garnered Ben two Downbeat Awards, an ASCAP Herb Alpert Jazz Composer Award, a big band commission from New York Youth Symphony's First Music Program, and an invitation to perform with his quintet at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2019.
Also a versatile film, theatre, and opera composer, Ben scored the documentary films American River, which premiered at Montclair Film in 2021, and Saving the Great Swamp: The Battle to Defeat the Jetport, which won best documentary at the 2017 New Jersey Film Festival. He has worked as a music assistant, orchestrator, and copyist for documentary film composer and songwriter Michael Bacon in New York City. Ben premiered a 20-minute opera, Las Auténticas, with librettist Laura Fuentes for the Washington National Opera American Opera Initiative, workshopped an original opera, Perspective, through Eklund Opera's New Opera Workshop with librettist Nnamdi Nwankwo, and developed a new musical, North Pond, at the Midtown Arts and Theater Center (MATCH) in Houston.
Ben seeks opportunities to write for unique ensembles that blur established genre expectations. He has worked with the American Composers Orchestra, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Jazz at Lincoln Center trombonist Vincent Gardner, unassisted fold, NOW Ensemble, Imani Winds, Boulder Altitude Directive, The Living Earth Show, Playground Ensemble, and the NDR Big Band. He has been a composer fellow at music festivals and workshops including the Aspen Music Festival, the American Composers Orchestra Jazz Composers Institute, Red Note Festival, Sibelius Academy Creative Dialogue, New Music on the Point, the International Gugak Workshop in Seoul, South Korea, highScore, Source Song Festival, and the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, and his concert music has received accolades including an ASCAP Morton Gould Award and the International Society of Bassists Composition Contest Grand Prize.
Ben is an Assistant Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition at the University of Colorado Boulder as an ATLAS Fellow studying with Carter Pann and Michael Theodore, received a Master of Music degree from the Rice University Shepherd School of Music, where he was a Brown Fellow studying with Karim Al-Zand and Anthony Brandt, and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Miami Frost School of Music, where he studied with Lansing McLoskey, Gary Lindsay, and Martin Bejerano. Outside of composing and teaching, Ben enjoys traveling, hiking, reading history books, and exploring art museums.

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Press

Play album Play album
01.
Ymir’s Bones
07:20
(Ben Morris) Ben Morris, David Bernot, Juan Gabriel Olivares, Derek Ganong, Magnus Murphy Joelson, Jack Bogard, Zosha Warpeha, Joy Adams, Dan Montgomery, Jonah Udall, Evan Hyde, Sam Gautier
02.
Hongdae After Midnight
06:25
(Ben Morris) Ben Morris, David Bernot, Juan Gabriel Olivares, Derek Ganong, Magnus Murphy Joelson, Jack Bogard, Zosha Warpeha, Joy Adams, Jonah Udall, Dan Montgomery, Evan Hyde, Sam Gautier
03.
A Lost Pair of Kites
07:51
(Ben Morris) Ben Morris, David Bernot, Juan Gabriel Olivares, Magnus Murphy Joelson, Derek Ganong, Jack Bogard, Zosha Warpeha, Jonah Udall, Joy Adams, Dan Montgomery, Sam Gautier, Evan Hyde
04.
Bubbles in a River
10:49
(Ben Morris) Ben Morris, John Boggs, David Bernot, Juan Gabriel Olivares, Magnus Murphy Joelson, Derek Ganong, Jack Bogard, Joy Adams, Zosha Warpeha, Jonah Udall, Dan Montgomery, Sam Gautier, Evan Hyde
05.
Hvalsang
11:43
(Ben Morris) Ben Morris, Juan Gabriel Olivares, David Bernot, Derek Ganong, Jack Bogard, Magnus Murphy Joelson, Zosha Warpeha, Joy Adams, Dan Montgomery, Jonah Udall, Evan Hyde, Sam Gautier
06.
Old Barney
06:59
(Ben Morris) Ben Morris, David Bernot, Juan Gabriel Olivares, Magnus Murphy Joelson, Derek Ganong, Jack Bogard, Zosha Warpeha, Jonah Udall, Joy Adams, Dan Montgomery, Sam Gautier, Evan Hyde
07.
Fellfields
03:00
(Ben Morris) Ben Morris, David Bernot, Juan Gabriel Olivares, Magnus Murphy Joelson, Derek Ganong, Jack Bogard, Joy Adams, Zosha Warpeha, Jonah Udall, Dan Montgomery, Evan Hyde, Sam Gautier
08.
Edvard
08:54
(Ben Morris) Ben Morris, David Bernot, Juan Gabriel Olivares, Derek Ganong, Magnus Murphy Joelson, Jack Bogard, Zosha Warpeha, Joy Adams, Jonah Udall, Dan Montgomery, Evan Hyde, Sam Gautier

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