Morris / Nicholson / Borgmann - Festival St. Ingbert Germany 1998, and Wilber Morris Trio - Collective Improvisations (1981)

A Darker Shade Of Blue

Special original Design by – fftsw 09 (PTeMSF-Am08)

The ROAD REPORT by Elliot Sharp says :

April 25 – performance w/ DJ Soulslinger at St. Ingbert festival in Germany : Carlos and I had a long soundcheck/rehearsal which gave us a sense of each other’s approach and vocabulary. For the gig, we went all out – carlos generating drum n bass, brazilian martial grooves, and deep textures. I played my 8string guitarbass, soprano sax (which could be routed through my electronics) and the Powerbook running LiSa software for manipulating samples and Studio Vision for grooves.
Also on the festival were Graham Haynes w/ DJ Mutamassik & DJ Spazecraft w/ great visuals by Illuminati plus bassist Stafford James group and the group of saxophonist Thomas Borgmann w/ Reggie Nicholson and Wilber Morris . Reggie replaced the drummer of Denis Charles who died in his sleep a few weeks ago, saddening and shocking us all.
Denis was one of the first people i met when i moved to NY and had been an inspiration to me as a child from his pioneering work in Cecil Taylor’s ’50′s groups and his work with my teacher Roswell Rudd w/ Steve Lacy . Denis died a few days after a long five weeks tour w/ Wilber Morris & Thomas Borgmann , just a month ago before this festival….

Label: Bleuregard, Released: July 1, 1981
It was recorded at Air Studio, New York.
Recording engineer was Kazunori Sugiyama, assisted by Emi Sugiyama.
Producers credit go to La Nef des Musiques Label Bleu Regard

Review by Thom Jurek

For a collectively improvised date, this feels like these three cats rehearsed for weeks. It swings — hard, bluesy, and from the heart. The trio, with bassist Morris at the helm, includes the late Denis Charles and the late Charles Tyler, recorded in 1981. There are five tracks here, featuring three musicians at the absolute height of their powers as individuals as well as collectively. Beginning with “Two Fives for a Dime” by Morris, with Tyler kicking through a gorgeous, bluesy vamp to open the melody, Morris follows up the blues with a pizzicato run on hard, funk/bop Horace Silver-style and Charles strides the time while filling with a tasty run of high-hat, snare, and ride cymbal fills. Extensions of color and theme abound as the three wind through, around, and over each other to keep Morris’ theme from getting old. Tyler is particularly impressive, moving the harmonics to include Eastern scales in the intervals and constructing a soft spot for an ever-present space for a backbeat to exist that never gets filled. The ballad “Flamingo” by Ted Grouya is used as a setting for Tyler to play baritone in a subtonal manner. He states his phrases sparingly, allowing for Charles and Morris to over the changes and beats without obstruction or decoration; his mournful, sensitive playing is heightened by Morris playing accents under every line to extend the range of emotion. Tyler quotes “Blue Moon” in the middle of the melody, turning both in on themselves and coming up with a harmonic extension of both in B flat. This is a beautiful recording — one we are fortunate to have among the all too few that feature Morris or Tyler.

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