Underthru

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Joe Morris is a musical version of the passionate scientist who presents research with exact accuracy, so much accuracy, in fact, that the data seems dispassionate. Morris's modus operandi has, prior to Underthru, oscillated between all-out frenzies of notes storming the ears and chilly abstractions that dance around the head. Here he aims at the hips, or as close to them as Morris will ever get. He enlists violinist Mat Maneri (who played so central a role on A Cloud of Black Birds in 1998) to round out his sleek quartet as they play five astringent melodies atop Gerald Cleaver's groove-inflected drumming and Chris Lightcap's bass. This is certainly not groove-oriented music in the same way as soul jazz, but Morris's approach on Underthru is to lock into a rhythmic framework and explore an often stark mix of clean, precisely hit guitar notes and more slurry, but still pointed, violin strokes. Morris hits all his notes with unerring perfection, even those he intentionally skewers. And the quartet moves as a unit at all times, never leaving the tunes or its members outside the tight-knit community. --Andrew Bartlett

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