Sweatshop

by Thom JurekWhile this is technically guitarist Joe Morris' second trio release, it's his first on CD. It's also the one most engaged with the soul/funk/R&B axis of his four areas of exploration post-Hendrix, new jazz, solo acoustic, extended techniques. Of all Morris' records, this is perhaps his most accessible and his weirdest. Accompanied by Sebastian Steinberg on bass and Jerry Deupree on drums, Morris comes up with nine tunes, all of them collective improvisations that showcase the soloing of the entire band, often simultaneously. There are themes that get stated -- often after a period of collective improv -- and the band moves on parts or the whole of that theme. This is very simple in theory, but very complex in execution. "Four Pests" opens the album, with its four/four time signature that evaporates into a whir of deep-groove-oriented cacophony. Morris is playing off of Steinberg as much as Steinberg is Morris. Deupree is running through the time rather than with the beat, coming up just in front or behind to accent the razor-sharp Hendrixian (à la "Machine Gun") riffs Morris is kicking out against the double- leaded bassline. On "World IZ Big," that theme gets a different treatment for the same groove dialectic. Everything is in ascending thirds and then brought back down to the basic riff. Solos cascade around the thirds and the backbeat. The set closes with two longish tracks: "Are You Warm Now?," with its demented drum intro opening up a massive Ornette/Blood Ulmer-like harmolodic funk essay, and "Slow Learner," which is a dirtier-grooved version of the same type of study. Morris' phrasing comes right from Ulmer Blood's obsession with drop-string blues playing. In all, this is one of Morris' least-original (in terms of personal signature) works in a sense, but the ensemble playing is so deft, tight, and meaty, it is easily as enjoyable as his more groundbreaking later recordings.