Podcast 991: A Conversation with Mauricio Morales

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

On its own merits, the music on Seven Days, Mauricio Morales’ latest album, speaks with a strong, persuasive creative voice. The respected bassist-composer-bandleader’s fourth album presents seven distinctive compositions for sextet, with sophisticated shifts in mood and musical structure. In a mode of decidedly modern jazz which also manages to be easy on the ear and heart, the music also benefits from bold, integrated playing and soloing by his young allies from both the east and west coasts--connections made when the Mexican Morales lived and studied in Boston before settling in his current adopted hometown of Los Angeles.

Morales composed this body of work—the result of a self-driven challenge to write seven tunes in as many days--while literally stuck in his native Mexico due to a mysterious Visa renewal snafu. Completing the challenge (barely, as you will hear him say) led to a live performance in Los Angeles, and following the urging of his bandmates to create a recorded version of the work, recorded entirely live over two days in the studio.

Morales has been a rising force as player and bandleader/project-leader for the past several years, but his formative musical life goes back to his picking up the electric bass at 13 years old and the upright bass six years later. Working on the east coast scene after heading to Berklee School of Music in 2012, Morales migrated westward to Los Angeles in 2018.

His diverse discography with the sometimes fusion-tinged tracks of 2021’s Luna, followed by the improvisation-leaning trio album Eclipse in 2022 and The Endless Ride last year.

For the Seven Days project, Morales had bold and empathetic company in the band gathered to realize his vision—saxophonist Edmar Colón, guitarist Horace Bray, trombonist Ido Meshulam, pianist Luca Mendoza and dynamo drummer Jongkuk "JK" Kim. In Podcast 991, we discuss what Mauricio looks for in collaborators, the demands of daily composing and creation, and how he views Seven Days in the contet of his body of work.