JOE MORRIS QUARTET

GRAFFITI IN TWO PARTS

Joe Morris
Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris
Malcolm Goldstein
Lowell Davidson

Joe Morris: guitar, banjouke
Lowell Davidson: drums, aluminum acoustic bass
Malcolm Goldstein: violin
Lawrence D. « Butch » Morris: cornet

Graffiti - Part I

37:22

Graffiti - Part II

31:42

Tag

0:53

All compositions by Joe Morris, Lowell Davidson, Malcolm Goldstein, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris

Recorded live on May 11th 1985 by Micha Schattner at The Cambridge Dance Center, Cambridge, MA, USA
Mastering: Jean-Pierre Bouquet, L’Autre Studio, Vaires-sur-Marne, France
Liner notes: Joe Morris
Cover design: Max Schoendorff
Cover realization: David Bourguignon
Producer: Michel Dorbon

This was the period when the art world was fixated on graffiti artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Keith Haring etc. But street graffiti was everywhere back then and much was written about the quality, form and the act of “tagging”. To me, graffiti contained a similar spirit of subversive messaging to that of the music I was making with Lowell and elsewhere. The idea of tagging messages anywhere without permission using a kind of proto-tribal imagery even if was merely a cryptic scrawl had artistic and cultural power to me. The symbolism of the other or indefinable—identified as a name or logo, but otherwise secret—reflected what I sought as a combination of modern and ancient codes in my music using this new material. Being aware of this I decided to organize a concert with the title “Graffiti in Two Parts” meant to display these qualities in sound.
This recording is very special to me. It is only the second recording of Lowell Davidson to be released commercially. It represents a special period in my life and work and a unique community of musicians in Boston who did work that has gone mostly unnoticed, not unlike some encoded cryptic scrawl in an alley somewhere. If you listen closely you can hear street noise on the recording. Not planned, but welcome. Joe Morris, excerpt from the liner notes