UP & COMER Jordan Morton 18 SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL BASSIST
Jordan Morton I try to come from a sincere place. There are plenty of career paths that a bassist can take, but many of them never felt like the right fit for me. My influences and skill sets are very diverse, and I’ve been frustrated at times because I don’t see a clear line to follow. It feels like I have to bushwhack a path for myself, as a freelancer, composer, and performer, and the music world seems to be rapidly evolving even as we speak. That can be daunting. But at the center of my aspirations lies this solo project for double bass and voice. It is my anchor. I have just finished recording a full-length debut album of entirely original pieces for voice and bass, and am really eager for it to land upon open ears! It’s something that not many people are doing, perhaps. The sound palate is unique as well, and I’m still developing my concept of this quasi solo-duet as an entertainer and artist, as a singer and classically trained bass player. I grew up in Syracuse, NY - mostly with my nose in a book, and fascinated by a bow on a string since childhood. I started on the violin very young, and even after switching to bass in middle school, continued playing violin in a more improvisatory way. For several years I took fiddle lessons, learning a tune by ear each week from a great fiddler in Syracuse named Joe Davoli. I feel like that was very helpful in developing my ear and melodic sense, long before studying theory in school. I also played electric in a ska band for three years, which is where I learned to rock out. I’d say my musical background is an eclectic mix of church hymns, punk ska, folk music, jazz, and classical. My high school orchestra director always let me hang around after class to use the school’s fat Wilfer bass to practice, write and jam. Before college, I did not own a bass and was primarily self-taught. That meant that I had a lot of technique work to catch up on once I arrived at Ithaca College, and probably to this day. But in some sense, I think it freed me up to develop a very personal relationship with the instrument from the beginning, and to never feel limited to one school or genre of playing. I didn’t even know about different schools of playing. All kinds of music were fair game. Bass is versatile like that! I’m grateful to Nicholas Walker for inviting me to join his studio at IC and getting me up to speed over the course of four years. It turned out to be an excellent match, not just because of his clear, balanced and effective pedagogical presence, but because he made a point to help cultivate my own creative voice. Nick seeks to make music at the highest possible level and in the freshest and most genuine voice. By sharing these priorities, challenging me and being a great mentor and friend, he’s done amazing things for me, and for so many other young bass players. I think everyone that comes through his studio can attest to that. He’s also helped to line up many of the opportunities I’ve had since graduating. He’s got a great mind for making connections between people and voices, he’s constantly learning and evolving himself, and he cares. I consider him a lifelong guru and only hope that I can pay it forward someday. I also spent a semester studying at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, which really rocked my world and opened my eyes. I met people from so many different countries who were leading their own musical projects. They weren’t all trying to fit into the same mold. They nurtured their distinct voices and ran with their ideas, and I’m so glad to have been exposed to this and to have collaborated with some of them. It was in Amsterdam that I started to write and improvise more in the specific combination of voice and arco bass. If I had to describe it, I’d call it throughcomposed vocal lieder with pop and folk sensibility. The first time I performed an original in this style was after returning to Ithaca from Amsterdam. I premiered a piece on my senior recital called How Blue The Hills. That tune will be the final track on the upcoming album. Though I am grateful for the thorough education I received at Ithaca College, that semester abroad was so special. Being away from such an intensely structured curriculum during my undergraduate years was liberating, invigorating, and gave me a lot of crazy ideas. I encourage students to study abroad if you can! Leaving your comfort zone can teach you volumes about yourself and what you’d like to do. After graduating, I moved to Paris under an independent scholarship, where I had the great opportunity to study with François Rabbath. That was the fall of 2012, and I stayed until the following summer. It was an incredibly challenging and formative year for me. I spoke very little French at first, and was often very homesick. It was a slow adjustment to city life and the French culture, and also it was my first year out of school, which is a big change no matter where you are. Working with François was amazing, but also very challenging. He demanded a high level of maturity and musicality from my playing that I couldn’t always produce. It took me a long time to put my ego aside and learn from him effectively. And it wasn’t always an intellectual or even describable process. Sometimes, the best parts of lessons were when I arrived a little early and he was still practicing and paid me no attention. To be in the physical presence of his sound was, in and of itself, a priceless lesson, and the reason I had come there. That sound is unparalleled. So resonant! Full and colorful, brave and captivating. He has an unbelievable command of the bow, which he developed in response to his eerie sensitivity to the full harmonic potential of this instrument. For me, the most exciting thing about playing the bass is it’s crazy potential to resonate. You can coax a whole orchestra out of this instrument if you hear it, and if you know how! Studying with François helped me to begin to do both, and I feel so fortunate to have had that time with him. Because I had so much free and unstructured time in Paris, and was exploring a new and very personal sound concept on the bass, a lot of songs began to write themselves. When I feel and hear the bass singing in my hands like that, finally, I can’t help but sing too. Between a harmonic, a pitched note, and my voice, I had three notes at my disposal at any given time, and three is more than enough with which to create. I spent so much time improvising in Paris, so much time pacing and muttering lyrics, meditating on a sound on the bass, trying new things. Also, in comparison with previous years, I felt fairly isolated musically. That can really help you get to know yourself, force you to confront truths about yourself. I had time to explore what I had to say on the bass. Not to mention that composing and improvising was a cathartic necessity. That very frustrating year was the energy and food for over 15 pieces for voice and bass, many of which were first performed in Paris in the spring of 2013. I remember a reaching a breaking point in SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL BASSIST 19
Change language