Butch Morris & David Hammons, Fax Festival, Madrid, 2000

Location: The Wattis Institute, 360 Kansas St, San Francisco, CA 94103
7:15 pm: Zeena Parkins introduction and Butch Morris screening
Free

Improvisation requires endless invention and discipline. It demands that decisions be made with conviction and commitment, but also without any kind of plan or map. The late Lawrence “Butch” Morris (1947-2013) not only improvised, but invented new ways to improvise. Butch also invented something called “conduction,” a technique used by a conductor who leads an ensemble with a series of improvised hand and baton gestures. In a Butch Morris performance, it's the conductor who's the improviser. Zeena Parkins introduces a screening of Conduction #15, Where Music Goes II, one of the many conductions in which she performed. This one was recorded at the Whitney Museum of American Art on November 15 and 16, 1989.

This event is the second in the Abstract Languages series, and the fifth in a year-long season about and around the work of David Hammons, and takes place at The Wattis Institute.