MORRIE LOUDEN
Morrie Louden
Bassist, composer, and bandleader Morrie Louden has built an international career distinguished by artistic versatility, performing with some of the world's most celebrated entertainers while establishing himself as an acclaimed jazz composer, arranger, and recording artist. His musical journey has taken him from jazz clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area to concert halls and festivals around the world, sharing the stage with legendary performers, renowned jazz musicians, and some of the world's finest orchestras.
Born into a musical family in Concord, California, Morrie began playing the electric bass at age 12 and added formal studies in acoustic bass and piano the following year. By the age of 14, he was already being hired by leaders of some of the Bay Area's finest bands—often entering through the back doors of nightclubs because he was too young to come through the front. His dedication to music throughout high school earned him a scholarship to De Anza College in Cupertino, California, home to one of the Bay Area's premier jazz programs.
After graduating in 1980, Morrie spent many years touring the world with legendary artists including Engelbert Humperdinck, Barbra Streisand, The 5th Dimension, and Paul Anka, among others. Those experiences led to performances with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra at London's Royal Albert Hall.
In the 1990s, Morrie formed the Morrie Louden Group (MLG), creating a vehicle for his original compositions and featuring acclaimed jazz soloists including Bob Sheppard, Carl Fontana, Rick Margitza, Eric Marienthal, Ralph Moore, Brandon Fields, and many others. During this same period, he acquired the instrument that would become his lifelong musical companion—a rare Rogeri contrabass crafted in 1714 and now more than 300 years old.
In 1996, Morrie founded MoSound Recording Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada, a state-of-the-art recording facility where he devoted countless hours to composing, recording, and producing original music.
After relocating to New York in 2005, the Morrie Louden Group continued performing throughout the United States and Europe. Morrie also began performing and recording with many of the world's leading jazz artists, including Mike Stern, John Scofield, Adam Rogers, Howard Alden, Martin Taylor, Kenny Werner, Eliot Zigmund, Bill Goodwin, Don Braden, and many others.
During this period, he composed and recorded his debut recording as a leader, Time Piece. The project was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Avatar Studios (formerly The Power Station) and Sterling Sound, two of New York's premier recording facilities. Featuring horn and string sections, the recording brought together an exceptional cast of musicians, including Adam Nussbaum and Gary Novak on drums, Bob Sheppard and Seamus Blake on saxophones, Alex Sipiagin on trumpet, Edward Simon and Mike Eckroth on piano, Lionel Loueke on guitar, orchestrations by Gil Goldstein, and vocals by Gretchen Parlato.
Within two weeks of its release, Time Piece entered the Jazz Billboard charts, where it remained for eight consecutive months. The album was named one of the Top Ten Jazz Albums of the Year by the writers of DownBeat magazine and was also included in publisher Chuck Sher's annual Top Ten list.
Today, Morrie continues to compose, perform, and record while leading the Morrie Louden Group. In recent years, he has also embraced singing as another avenue for artistic expression, performing his own compositions and adding a new dimension to his work as a composer and performer.
Whether performing on his centuries-old Rogeri bass or singing one of his own compositions, Morrie Louden continues to pursue music with the same curiosity, passion, and dedication that first took him onto the bandstands of the San Francisco Bay Area as a teenager.
