Butch Morris, who died this past Tuesday at 65, was a cornetist and conductor, best known for developing a musical vocabulary that he called “Conduction.”  The term meant conducted improvisation, where Butch would shape the music through a series of gestures, and both audience and ensemble could watch the performance unfold as they listened.  It is not the type of musical experience that radio is good at capturing, unfortunately; it really is one of those “you had to be there” things.   But we did give it a try, once, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Butch Morris is the father of a innovative musical system called "conduction" that merges improvised jazz with composed classical music. Watch him direct the Nublu Orchestra at Lucky Cheng's on Monday, and download his "Nowhere Everafter" here.