Morris Acevedo / personal biography

Education...
Born and raised in Texas, I attended North Texas State University (now called the University of North Texas). There I studied Jazz Performance and Music Education with Jack Petersen and Rick Peckham. Later I moved to Boston to study for my Bachelors degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging which I received in 1990 from the Berklee College of Music. While in Boston I studied guitar with Brett Willmott, Jon Damian and Mick Goodrick. My arranging teachers included Herb Pomaroy and Ken Pullig. In addition, I've studied improvisation in New York city with Lee Konitz, Richie Bierach and Jerry Bergonzi.

Performance...
I have performed with an unusual variety of Jazz and Pop artists. In the Boston area, I played with Joshua Redman, Jim Black, Ken Vandermark, the Either Orchestra, the Charlie Kolhase Quintet, organ Trio Be-3 and the Matt Wilson group. In the San Francisco Bay Area performances include Richie Cole's Alto Madness Orchestra, Dam East and various groups lead by me. I also spent several years in one of the early incarnations of Charlie Hunter drummer, Scott Amendola's group. Pop music performances include motown / top-40 group the Marsels and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas in the Boston area. The strangest gigs I ever had was an acoustic "un-plugged" performance with pop legend Boy George as part of a dance music conference in San Francisco. Last but not least, I have been a proud member of eclectic pop-groups lead by Emily Bezar, Jessie Turner and Noe Venable. The last Bay Area group I played in was vocalist Ann Dyer's quartet.

Teaching...
Maintaining an active teaching practice in Jazz Guitar and Improvisation for many years, I have been on the faculty of Blue Note Music in Berkeley California and I was a guest lecturer in Jazz Improvisation at the University of California at Berkeley. I taught guitar classes during the summer guitar program at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. I was originator of the JAZZ GUITAR, and CHORD THEORY FOR GUITAR classes at the Bluebear School of American Music in San Francisco California. I have twice received a Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Service to Jazz Education for the International Association of Jazz Educators (I.A.J.E.) for co- leading lectures on harmony and chord voicing concepts for the guitar along with author Brett Willmott. I was the Jazz Guitar and Improvisation teacher the University of California at Berkeley's Young Musician's Program (YMP). It's a program for talented high school and Jr. high kids. I gave lessons and taught Jazz Improvisation classes and Jazz combos. æ

Morris Acevedo FAQ

Who has influenced your guitar playing?

In junior high school I was mostly into heavy rock like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page and Richie Blackmore were early guitar heroes for me, and still are to this day. In high school I got really into Progressive Rock groups like Yes and Genesis. Steve Howe of Yes and Steve Hackett of Genesis are still two of my favorite guitarists. They played in Rock bands but they had lots of non-blues influences like Classical and Jazz guitar. Listening to long-form compositions on those "Prog Rock" records is still influencing the way I write my original music today, especially on the Dam East CD.. One day I saw an ad in Guitar Player magazine of Pat Metheny holding a Guild acoustic guitar. I had read his name several times before and I decided to check out what he was all about. When I could not find his records in the rock section of the store, (the only section I ever checked out) the person working there told me I could find his records in the Jazz section. "Yuck", I thought to myself. I made my way over to that dusty area of the store and found a Metheny record called "American Garage". The back of the record showed the band all with long hair jamming in a garage. "This can't be all that bad" I thought. Once I got home and played it I basically became a Jazz freak right then. I tried to learn as much of Pat's music and solos as I could by ear. I still had no real Jazz education. I did not know any good Jazz voicings or scales. Pat mentioned in an article that he listened to a lot of Wes Montgomery. It took awhile but soon I found myself learning as many Wes tunes and solos as I could.

In the following years I became interested in the whole history of Jazz music, the guitarist as well and all the great players on every instrument. In addition to all the greats like Miles Davis and Charlie Parker and so on, I got really into more cutting edge players like Steve Lacy and Lee Konitz and Lennie Tristano. I'm still trying to learn the Tristano and Konitz tunes from the 1950s, really difficult stuff. The artists on the ECM record label were very influential on my playing and composing as well.

>As far as guitarists go, besides Pat and Wes I have checked out Charlie Christian, Django, Tal Farlow, lot's of George Van Eps stuff from his books, and Johnny Smith. I have even done several transcriptions of the "really " old players like Eddie Lang and Dick MacDougnah but Mel Bay beat me to it and came out with a book of a whole bunch of plectrum guitar transcriptions from the 1920s-1940s.

But probably my all time favorite Jazz Guitarist is Jim Hall. I try and use him as a role model for the kind of Jazz player I want to be. I want to use the whole guitar and really "improvise". I want to play the "right" note at the "right" time and not worry about "hot" licks that impress people. My playing with "Let's Cool One" takes a lot of inspiration from Jim. >My favorite guitarists today are Ben Monder and Kurt Rosenwinkel. I think that they are the folks who are really paving the way for Jazz guitarists to go in the future. Kurt and Ben are to me the freshest sounding new players today, truly inspirational. In the San Francisco Bay Area the guy who inspired me the most was Adam Levy. He's in New York now playing with heavy Pop and Jazz groups including touring the world with Norah Jones. Other Bay Area guitarist I really dig are Dave Mac Nab, Andre Bush, Randy Vincent and Bruce Forman.

Out in New Mexico where my folks live, there is one of the best guitarists I've ever heard. His name is Bruce Dunlap (I can't find a web site for him). He plays nylon string guitars. His tunes are great and his playing is amazing. He has CDs for sale on Amazon.com. Look for his stuff.

GEAR...
Once I heard my friend and Bay Area / New York based guitarist Adam Levy using Fender amps I knew that I would forever be a Fender man. I don't have any cool vintage Fenders. I get by with A Fender "Blues DeLuxe" (now called a "Hot Rod Deluxe") for Dam East and all my Rock / Pop session work and a Smaller Fender "Blues Junior" for most straight ahead Jazz gigs. They both have 12" speakers. The "Blues Deluxe" has a I think around 40 watts and the "Blues Junior" has around 15 watt. I just bought a 1970s Fender Princeton. It's the real thing, the best sounding amp I have really. But, it's not too loud so it really only works for quiet stuff.

I have a Heritage 535 semi-hollow, a Martin 000-16SRGT acoustic, a Vega carved archtop from the 1930s, a Gibson 330 from 1969 and I just bought a Ibanez AF75-BS-01 hollowbody to take to my gigs in New York at the Grassroots. For a $300 guitar, it's pretty awsome for straight-ahead Jazz.

I saw you on the Heritage Guitar web site, what's up the that? Are you a Heritage endorser?
Why yes I am. But it's not because I'm a famous recording artist. I teach at a store (Blue Note Music in Berkeley CA) that sells lots of Heritage guitars as well as many other great brands. Lots of students over the years have bought Heritage guitars on my recommendation from the store. When the Heritage rep. found out, Heritage made me a custom guitar and I am now an endorser.

Who built your site?
I did.

Could you guys play a little softer?
Sure pal.