There are a lot of lovely witness stories on Butch. Here’s one by Linda Cooper, friend of mine. Linda knew Butch from the very early days. She took this picture which tells something which is behind or hidden in all the stories told.
“Butch was a prince in NYC, especially in the east village. His charisma, personality, generosity – a very likeable guy – who had the talent and conviction that what he was doing would be the future of music. He developed a new musical vocabulary. And many people know he was onto something. Thanks to the almost 200 conductions he left us we will all be able to listen to this treasure chest of music … but we will no longer be witness to the unpredictability of a live conduction. Alas!” Linda Cooper
I met Butch for the last time last september in Norway. On a boat trip. We walked uphill. Assisting him happened in a beautiful natural way. He listened gently and attentively. He wouldn’t say so much but just be. We talked about the orchestration of human talk.
(I developed an approach for (second) language learning inspired by principles of conduction which opens up lots of joyful, creative possibilities)
You can also listen to Kurt Gottschalk’s WMFU radio feature The Long Goodbye (in memory of Lawrence D. „Butch“ Morris) – accessible on demand HERE.
And you can read what Greg Tate wrote. Tate, author-essayist (Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America) as well as guitarist-leader of the Butch Morris “conductioned” band Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber, looked for his evidently unpublished liner notes to the planned 25th anniversary reissue on CD of Morris’ Conduction #1, Racism in Modern America, a work in Progress. He couldn’t find them. Tate emailed : “hey man those notes are lost in the clouds over here but the 1997 VIBE article I did on Butch could be copacetic. . .” So here that is, in Google Books so a bit hard to navigate, but on page 60 if you loose your place.
Tate’s notes to Morris Conduction #1 lost, find his Vibe article HERE.
(all via JAZZBEYONDJAZZ, website of Howard Mandel)
Poet/playwright/critic Allan Graubard has been a close friend and collaborator with Butch Morris, writing notes for Testament: A Conduction Collection as well as their theater work, “Modette,” and the liner notes intended for the 25th anniversary re-issue of Conduction #1, Current Trends in Racism in Modern America, A Work in Progress. Graubard also was working in the months preceding Butch’s death January 29 to complete his book about conduction. Find his liner-notes HERE!
And, last but not least find Howard Mandel’s notes on that work of Butch HERE!