Joan Morris

Joan Morris (born February 10, 1943) is an American mezzo-soprano and cabaret singer. Born in Portland, Oregon, her musical partner and husband is composer/pianist William Bolcom. The couple specializes in older popular songs, primarily from the first half of the 20th century, but extending beyond that to include both contemporary cabaret, popular songs of the Gay Nineties, and a number of songs dating back to the 1860s. Their recordings for Nonesuch, RCA, Columbia and Arabesque include songs by the great songwriters of the 1920s and 30s such as Kern, Gershwin, Porter, and Rodgers and Hart. They also have performed and recorded songs by the rock-and-roll team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Together, they have taught at the University of Michigan for many years. Morris' performance style is nuanced and vibrant, and she is noted for honoring original versions of songs with historical accuracy. In early 2015 she announced that she and Bolcom would begin to curtail both the length and number of their concerts, offering the next year as an ad hoc "Farewell Tour" after which they would limit performances to "cameo appearances".[citation needed]. 2018 saw the publication of "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy," a brief memoir of her singing career and handbook of her approaches to song interpretation and performance. After the Ball: A Treasury of Turn-of-the-Century Popular Songs, Nonesuch Records, 1974, H-71304 (Grammy Nominated) Who Shall Rule This American Nation? (with Clifford Jackson and The Camerata Chorus, Nonesuch, 1976 Vaudeville: Songs of The Great Ladies of The Musical Stage, Nonesuch, 1976 Wild About Eubie (With Eubie Blake), Columbia, 1977 These Charming People (with Max Morath), RCA Red Seal, 1978 Songs By George and Ira Gershwin, Nonesuch, 1978 The Girl On The Magazine Cover, RCA, 1979 Blue Skies, Nonesuch, 1979 Other Songs By Leiber and Stoller, Nonesuch, 1980 The Rodgers and Hart Album (with Lucy Simon), RCA, 1981 More Rodgers and Hart (with Max Morath), RCA, 1983 Silver Linings, Arabesque, 1984 Black Max: The Cabaret Songs of Arnold Weinstein and William Bolcom, RCA, 1985 Lime Jello: An American Cabaret, RCA, 1986 Let's Do It, Omega, 1989 Night and Day, Omega, 1993 Fountain Favorites From The World of Coca-Cola (with Max Morath), Coke, 1994 Orchids In The Moonlight, Arabesque, 1996 The Carioca, Arabesque, 1997 Moonlight Bay, Albany, 1999 Bolcom and Morris Sing Yip Harburg (with Max Morath), Original Cast, 2003 Bolcom and Morris Sing Gus Kahn (with Max Morath), Original Cast, 2004 Someone Talked!, Equilibrium, 2009 Autumn Leaves, White Pine Records, 2015 Profile, FilmReference.com; accessed May 30, 2016. Profile Archived 2016-03-06 at the Wayback Machine, bolcomandmorris.com; accessed May 30, 2016. Braun, Richard (1976-03-21). "They're Rediscovering the Songs of the Gay 90 's". The New York Times. Retrieved 2021-09-22. Last year, the two produced their second Nonesuch album (with Clifford Jackson, Miss Morris's teacher), "Who Shall Rule this American Nation," a collection of Civil War‐era songs by Henry Clay Work. Interview with Joan Morris (and William Bolcom), June 29, 1986