From The Haunting Wail On The Opening Credits For The Hit Tv Show ‘Cold Case’ To The Enya-Esque Harmonies On Her Recordings, You Know You Are Listening To A Very Special Artist
New York, NY - January 25, 2021 - 2020 was proven to be a year of true forward motion for Elise’s bright career, following up a great year in 2019, including a tour in Great Britain, and worldwide chart action with her song “Mardi Gras” reaching #1 on US iTunes Jazz charts and #3 on the Billboard Jazz Digital Sales Charts, “Unto Light Unbroken” reaching #37 on US iTunes Singer/Songwriter charts (#7 in Canada) and “Silently” becoming a featured summer release in Jazziz Magazine. Their review glowed, “The song has the makings of a modern standard.”
MARDI GRAS: https://open.spotify.com/album/4xrN872YBi23fkGtzKD0tP
UNTO LIGHT UNBROKEN: https://open.spotify.com/album/2TDTb4kKXhPLAsCkI3OHG2
SILENTLY: https://open.spotify.com/album/3xCTqBv3N15u9pvdcXYszH
With the release in June, 2020 of her long-awaited album, “Dancin’ With The Boys,” listeners were introduced to her inventive songs that blend influences of jazz, pop, theatrical, classical, progressive, world, experimental, folk … you name it. Morris calls her unique style “jazzbo” because it captures the enigma of music that doesn’t fit into one genre alone but crosses stylistic borders. The single off the album “Times Will Get Better,” a powerful gospel ballad, rose immediately to #8 in the US iTunes Jazz Songs Chart, and #1 in Canada’s ITunes Jazz Songs chart.
TIMES WILL GET BETTER: https://open.spotify.com/album/3j4gSPNaGMBcXlN5phmqJS?highlight=spo...
TIMES WILL GET BETTER MUSIC VIDEO https://youtu.be/QCu7Qh2shOQ
The album features Morris on piano and vocals with her band Band-O-Matic: Frank Burrows on guitar, Christopher Bishop on bass, Warren Odze on drums, and Doug Katsaros on synths. Produced by Morris and Katsaros, the core band is joined on several tracks by world class New York brass and string sections playing Katsaros’ lush orchestrations, and features on demand NYC session vocalists Deborah Berg McCarthy, Janie Barnett, Emily Bindiger, Julie Eigenberg and Bob Stillman.
As a professional studio and stage musician, Morris’ credits cover a wide range of experiences. She was the featured keyboardist/vocalist with Joe Jackson on the international “Heaven And Hell” tour; she headlined the Water Festival in Sweden as a core member of the fusion band GeWaDoKa; she was music director in concert for Ronnie Spector and was a featured vocalist and pianist, performing on prepared piano, playing the highly improvisational score of Tan Dun (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) in the play America Dreaming at The Vineyard Theater in New York. She has played and/or sung with Cy Coleman, Rebecca Pidgeon and Peter, Paul & Mary among others, and has performed with many artists that are part of the vibrant NYC music scene over the years. Before Covid hit, she was music directing the popular NYC band Stoned Soul Picnic playing the wondrous music of Laura Nyro. It is her expectation that those robust days of in-person live music will return and it will be a celebration of art with the hopes of a Renaissance to follow the dark days of the pandemic.
Making the switch to safe-distanced performance she, and her husband Doug Katsaros, bought a green screen and turned their living room into a film studio. Doug has created, filmed, directed and edited a number of music videos of singles off the record, including the title song, “Dancin’ With The Boys” https://youtu.be/Mm8eyZniplo featuring Morris in the middle of W.C. Fields’ 1915 movie debut, “Pool Sharks.”
Her latest video release is “In My Heart and On My Mind” https://youtu.be/eOOhyJIJ8AM
Written by David Nichtern (“Midnight At The Oasis”), this is the only song on the album Morris didn’t write. It is a beautiful and tender ode to love and memories and is an exceptional musical moment.
As a composer, Morris has written scores of songs in her songwriter library. In addition, she has written underscores for Scholastic Audio Books for children, for documentary film shorts, and for straight plays as well as music and lyrics for musicals. Her dance scores have often included her performing live with the dancers around the globe, such as in Switzerland, Mali and Burkina Faso. As a lyricist, she has written lyrics for Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden. Her voice has brought life, color and a world of sounds to myriad tv commercials, and as a voiceover artist she created the character voice of ‘Candy’ for the animated Moviefone promos in theaters. She is a recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Music Composition, the I-Park Sound Sculpture Award and has been awarded multiple artists residencies, fellowships and grants.
Check out Morris' music and sign up for her newsletter at her website, www.elisemorris.com and contact her via the information below for interviews, collaborations, and/or features in playlists or on radio.
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Contact
Elise Morris
PO Box 150
Greenlawn, NY 11740
composerem@aol.com
Links
http://www.facebook.com/jazzbomusic
http://www.instagram.com/elise_morris_music
https://www.youtube.com/AAAComposer
https://soundcloud.com/elise-morris
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2a1UQOvyP5Eeflbs6YwGNI
