Difference between revisions of "Phil Morton (Musician)"
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Phil Morton's first contact with what is known as `free improvisation` was Charles Fox `jazz today` programme BBC Radio 3. On hearing the sounds and music of, Barry Guy, Paul Rutherford and Derek Bailey his response at the age of 13 was: they are doing that deliberately to annoy me. It was not a pleasurable sound, but interesting. He is still interested. He would buy the magazine `Musics` at the radical bookshop `News from nowhere`. He speculates his first `improv gig` was Alterations featuring Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack and Terry Day and attended the workshop too. | Phil Morton's first contact with what is known as `free improvisation` was Charles Fox `jazz today` programme BBC Radio 3. On hearing the sounds and music of, Barry Guy, Paul Rutherford and Derek Bailey his response at the age of 13 was: they are doing that deliberately to annoy me. It was not a pleasurable sound, but interesting. He is still interested. He would buy the magazine `Musics` at the radical bookshop `News from nowhere`. He speculates his first `improv gig` was Alterations featuring Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack and Terry Day and attended the workshop too. | ||
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+ | In the mid-sixties, in the low `teens` years PM attended a Sun Ra Arkestra concert at Liverpool University. The Arkestra went through their complete repertoire, PM speculates this was a tight band, well rehearsed and at the height of its power. It was an epiphany. Forty years later this specific gig was given a whole page in the Wire magazine. During this period he also witnessed The Scratch orchestra, John Tilbury playing John Cage, Cornelious Cardew ( false memory?) | ||
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+ | In the late seventies, he formed and rehearsed a quartet that played only five notes from the twelve-note scale or list. Originally a steal from `the gamelan system` the notes for each piece were in fact picked by single (rotating) member of the band using the following criteria; guesswork, random, prior knowledge. This is an early example of his habit of applying `constriction` to open up the music. PM played double bass in this group. | ||
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+ | In the 1980's PM contributed to the management and delivery of `Liberty Hall` a social club for non-aligned socialists, anarchists, and feminists initiated by Bob Dent of `News From Nowhere`. Liberty hall presented: talks, films, theatre groups, live music, washed down with beer and a disco. PM assissted in all areas of activity. He presented: Lol Coxhill, The Feminist Improvisation Group, Mike Westbrook Brass Band. This was a viable and profitable project. | ||
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+ | 1992 - citation required - met Phil Hargreaves and suggested they work on an opera called `Australia has no dead heart`, a fashionable idea at the time. There was no opera, but PM/PH rehearsed for FIVE YEARS (citation required) then recorded click, launched Frakture, and the rest is history | ||
== Frakture years == | == Frakture years == |
Revision as of 10:02, 21 February 2018
Phil Morton (born 1954, in Liverpool) is a musician who has worked mainly in the field of free improvisation since the 1992. He has been active consistently during that time as a promoter of concerts of freely improvised music in Liverpool and the north, providing hundreds of playing opportunities for both local and international musicians.
Contents
Introduction
Early years
Early interest in `free improvisation`
Phil Morton's first contact with what is known as `free improvisation` was Charles Fox `jazz today` programme BBC Radio 3. On hearing the sounds and music of, Barry Guy, Paul Rutherford and Derek Bailey his response at the age of 13 was: they are doing that deliberately to annoy me. It was not a pleasurable sound, but interesting. He is still interested. He would buy the magazine `Musics` at the radical bookshop `News from nowhere`. He speculates his first `improv gig` was Alterations featuring Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack and Terry Day and attended the workshop too.
In the mid-sixties, in the low `teens` years PM attended a Sun Ra Arkestra concert at Liverpool University. The Arkestra went through their complete repertoire, PM speculates this was a tight band, well rehearsed and at the height of its power. It was an epiphany. Forty years later this specific gig was given a whole page in the Wire magazine. During this period he also witnessed The Scratch orchestra, John Tilbury playing John Cage, Cornelious Cardew ( false memory?)
In the late seventies, he formed and rehearsed a quartet that played only five notes from the twelve-note scale or list. Originally a steal from `the gamelan system` the notes for each piece were in fact picked by single (rotating) member of the band using the following criteria; guesswork, random, prior knowledge. This is an early example of his habit of applying `constriction` to open up the music. PM played double bass in this group.
In the 1980's PM contributed to the management and delivery of `Liberty Hall` a social club for non-aligned socialists, anarchists, and feminists initiated by Bob Dent of `News From Nowhere`. Liberty hall presented: talks, films, theatre groups, live music, washed down with beer and a disco. PM assissted in all areas of activity. He presented: Lol Coxhill, The Feminist Improvisation Group, Mike Westbrook Brass Band. This was a viable and profitable project.
1992 - citation required - met Phil Hargreaves and suggested they work on an opera called `Australia has no dead heart`, a fashionable idea at the time. There was no opera, but PM/PH rehearsed for FIVE YEARS (citation required) then recorded click, launched Frakture, and the rest is history
Frakture years
Frakture 1997 - 2014 initially conceived as a `music club` or space developed into a creative arts Organisation nay a `creative industry` .
Discography
Groups
Workshop & activity
Projects commissioned by third parties
The Liverpool Biennial, Sonic Gaze 2005
Liverpool Hope University - Sound relay project 2004
The Long Walk, Liverpool, for More Music 2007