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 Michael William MorseE-Mail:
mmorse@trentu.ca Michael Morse is a bassist, composer, arranger, bandleader, scholar, teacher, and writer who grew up in New Jersey. Encouraged by Bill Evans and George Russell, he took up the bass, studying first with Gary Peacock, later with Warren Grim, and harmony at the Berklee School. A year in Germany led to extensive orchestral experience, and further bass study with Rudolf Watzel. Michael began conducting the school choir and orchestra, and had some lessons with Friedrich Tilegant of the Southwest German Chamber Orchestra. Upon returning to university at McGill in Montreal, he concentrated on comparative literature and philosophy. After graduation he performed and taught in Montreal for ten years, playing every type of music from Brahms and Dvorak to Haitian folk music, disco, TV commercials, and, always, jazz in its many incarnations. Highlights in these years included performances with Lee Konitz, Bob Mover, Kenny Alexander, Terry King, Jane Fair, Steve Hall, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Jay McShann, Georges Rodrigues, and Peter Leitch. In 1980 Michael moved to Toronto, continued an active musical career, and began graduate study, first in ethnomusicology, and eventually sociology and social theory. His studies culminated in an M.F.A. (“An Analytic Study of Thelonious Monk’s ‘Round Midnight”), M.A. (“Heidegger and Poetic Rhythm”), and PhD (The Tune in Jazz as a Social Process – Prolegomena to a Sociology of Music). Michael has taught at York and for the last several years in the Cultural Studies Department at Trent University, developing original conceptions for music history and sociology courses, as well as introductory cultural theory and a history of avant garde movements. He has also taught humanities at Humber College, George Brown College, Centennial College and musicianship courses at CAMMAC summer music camp. He continues a busy career as a composer, performer with more than a dozen groups, bandleader, theorist, and author. Michael’s music can be heard at: http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/mmorse. Some Recent Publications, Lectures, and Conferences: - fifteen translations from Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, for book publication with Robert Hullot-Kentor and James Schmidt, summer 2010 - "The Computer, the Community and Music - Some Thoughts for Discussion," Otonabee College Lecture Series, October 6, 2009 -"Musical Rhythm and Social Time," Temagami Colloquium, Trent University, Sept 26, 2009 - "Rows, by any other name? notes on Adorno's Philosophy of New Music," dial "m" for musicology, September 22, 2009, http://musicology.typepad.com/dialm/2009/09/rows-by-any-other-name-notes-on-adornos-philosophy-of-new-music.html - Rhythm, Musical Time, and Society, Edward Mellen, in press - "Twenty Years After: A Review Essay of Musicological Identities," Steven Baur, Raymond Knapp, and Jacqueline C. Warwick (eds), IASPM Online, February 17th, 2009, http://www.iaspm.net/?p=96 - ‘Neumic, mensural, idiomatic: Adorno's conception of time and performance theory,' "Formulate with the greatest care": Adorno and Performance, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK, 13-14 September 2008 - Moderator, Panel discussion, From Word to Sound. Doing it in Public - A Conference in Public, Performance and Poetry, February 29th 2008 - March 1st 2008 at Trent University - "Is Jazz Popular Music? A Response to Simon Frith," Jazz Research Journal, Volume 1/02 2007 153-72. - "Jazz and the Rise of the Uniculture," Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, September 2007 -"Improvisation and Composition: Composing for Improvised Ensembles," NOW Lounge Artist Series, October 2006 - "The Noise-Music Distinction as a Dimension of Improvisation Pedagogy," Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, September 2006 Selected Recent Recordings: Strophe by Sonora, with Glen Hall, Kye Marshall, and Rebecca Vander Post rec. summer 2005 with the assistance of the Canada Council & Ontario Council for the Arts; Tarsier Records CD 102 Angles, by Trio Muo, with Glen Hall & Joe Sorbara, rec. summer 2004 with the assistance of the Canada Council & Ontario Council for the Arts; Tarsier Records CD 106 Jazz it Up!, Brenda Scott Quartet, Schlager PG 101, summer 2002
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