Michael Morse
Lives in Ontario, Canada
Massachusetts-born bassist, composer, arranger, and teacher Michael Morse studied with Gary Peacock, Warren Grim and Rudolf Watzel. Among the jazz greats with whom he has performed and recorded are
Brian Barley,
Bob Mover,
Lee Konitz,
Roswell Rudd,
Charles Ellison,
Claude Ranger, John Vidacovich,
Jane Fair,
Terry King,
Steve Hall,
Kirk MacDonald,
Pat LaBarbera,
Maury Kaye,
Phil Nimmons,
Bob Fenton,
Linton Garner,
Glen Hall,
Sadik Hakim,
Nelson Symonds,
Norman Marshall Villeneuve,
Michael Occhipinti,
Ted Quinlan,
Roy Patterson,
Billy Robinson,
Karl Berger,
Peter Leitch,
David Mott,
Jessica Williams, and
Tim Brady.
Experienced in virtually every form of North American music, he has performed with
Lightnin' Hopkins, Champion Jack Dupree, Yancy McCoy,
Haitian master drummer Georges Rodrigues,
the Eddie Toussaint Dance Company,
Diane Tell,
Big Sugar, and the
Prague Chamber Orchestra.
Michael Morse is the leader of the
Dignity of Labour Ensemble, and is presently active as a performer with
Credo4 (featuring poet Ian McLachlan), a project with sound poet Christian Bök
and percussionist Joe Sorbara, the Avataar Collective,
the PoetiKs, Satanist Daycare, the Paul Newman Trio, The Jonnie Bakan Trio (with son Timothy on drums!), and Weapons of Mass Neutrality.
Michael's favourite composers include Bartók, Prokofieff, Ellington, Terry King, Leroy Anderson, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Ligeti, Shostakovich, Wagner, Coltrane, Dolphy, Mahler, Strayhorn, Monk, Carla Bley, Jane Gardner, Jay Gach,
the sinister but amusing maestro Baz Booth, Gil Evans, and Barry Campbell.
Michael participated as a bassist in two recent CDs with close friend and collaborator Glen Hall:
Trio Muo's Angles,
with master percussionist and composer Joe Sorbara; and
Strophe,
with brilliant string players Kye Marshall and Rebecca Van Der Post. Michael's compositions are played by many groups; "Ecstatic Regret" was recently recorded by a group led by guitarist Steven Cole.
Michael is an avid participant in Toronto's creative
improvisation scene.
He has played with many of its leading lights, including (in no order whatsoever)
Christine Duncan,
Joe Sorbara,
John Kameel Farah,
Kyle Brenders,
Michael Snow,
Colin Fisher,
Ronda Rindone,
Lina Alemanno,
Jean Martin,
Felicity Williams,
Michael Parsons, Sook-Yin Lee,
Jim Bailey,
Ravi Naimpally,
Dave Clark,
Victor Bateman,
Jason Hammer,
Myk Freedman,
Michael Herring,
Rakesh Tewari,
Paul Newman,
John Wilson,
Michelangelo Iaffaldano,
Brodie West,
Melissa Stylianou,
Sundar Viswanathan,
Geordie Haley,
Nick Fraser,
Ken Aldcroft,
Tomas Krakowiak,
Kye Marshall,
Evan Shaw,
Glen Hall,
Tania Gill,
Michael Keith,
Nick Storring,
Nicole Rampersaud,
Jesse Stewart,
Don Scott,
Brandon Valdivia,
Rob Piilonen,
Scott Thomson,
Kai Koschmider,
Gordon Allen,
Jake Oelrichs,
Rebecca Van der Post,
Parmela Attariwala,
David Story,
Matt Brubeck,
Rob Clutton,
Dave Chokroun,
and Alex Porter.
Other groups and musicians Michael has played with during his years in Toronto include a cooperative trio (featuring Jay Alter and the late, sadly missed
Bob George),
Andy Wernick,
Laurie Corrigan,
Bill Westcott,
EarCam,
Bill King,
Rita DiGhent,
Tony Quarrington,
the International Drone Bandits,
John Brown Trio with Brenda Scott,
Sonora,
Steve Cole,
and one or two whose names he can't recall (or never knew in the first place).
Michael completed both a Master's and a
PhD at York University. His dissertation,
Rhythm,
Musical Time and Society -- Prolegomena to a Sociology of Music, will be published by White Cliffs Media.
New books on musical rhetoric and syncopation are in progress.
Dr. Morse is teaching in the Cultural Studies Programme at Trent University. He has also taught humanities at York University, Humber College, George Brown College, Centennial College, and musicianship courses at CAMMAC summer music camp and the Harris Institute for the Arts.
Michael's former wife is actor Jo-Anne Kirwan Clark. Their children are Timothy, 20, and Molly, 16, who are, respectively, interested in Dostoevsky & Miles Davis, and the welfare of animals.
Sincere thanks to Maria Ljungdahl for her help in putting together this webpage!
[NOTE: if you experience playback difficulties with any of these scores, such as hearing piano instead of drums and percussion, try listening to the MP3 file instead. Just click on the green-ish button underneath the score, in the section called "Score Details."] |
