Francisco Mora Catlett

Francisco Mora Catlett is a New York-based drummer, composer, bandleader, and educator. A former member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, he has worked with a wide variety of musicians from Max Roach and Marcus Belgrave to Craig Taborn and Carl Craig, among others. During his Detroit tenure in the 1980s and '90s, he was an important part of the arts community and issued the influential vanguard Latin jazz set Mora! in 1986. Mora worked with Craig's Innerzone Orchestra in 1996 on the seminal "Bug in the Bassbin." He issued World Trade Music in 1998. After working on Innerzone Orchestra's 1999 long-player Programmed, he moved to New York City, but returned to be part of Ropeadope's release of The Detroit Experiment. He followed it with the Craig-produced Amazona EP on Kindred Spirits in 2004. In 2007, Mora released the long-player Outerzone, which featured Marshall Allen in its core lineup. In 2010, under the Outerzone moniker, he released a newly recorded offering entitled Andromeda-M31, and New Under the Sun, the debut from his Freedom Jazz Trio. The latter followed with Live at the Bronx Museum in 2012. Mora issued the self-titled debut from his AfroHORN MX in 2012; they released Rare Metal in 2013 and At the Edge of the Spiral in 2014. In 2021, Far Out Recordings reissued Mora! and packaged it with Mora II, a previously unissued album recorded a couple of years after his debut. That same year, he debuted his first ever all-electronic album with Electric Worlds. Mora Catlett was born Francisco Mora, Jr. in Washington, D.C. in 1947. He is the eldest child of two Mexican artists, Francisco Mora, Sr. and Elizabeth Catlett. He earned his degree in music at Music School of UNAM, then worked as a session drummer for Capitol Records, Mexico, between 1968 and 1970. After receiving an education grant from the Mexican government, he returned to the U.S. in 1970 to study at the Berklee College of Music, where he studied composition and the drums with Alan Dawson. During the late spring of 1973, he returned to Mexico and that summer caught a concert by Sun Ra's Arkestra. He left Mexico with Ra and remained part of the band until 1980. (Mora Catlett can be heard on the Arkestra albums Beyond the Purple Star Zone and Oblique Parallax.) Upon leaving Ra's employ, Mora settled in Detroit, where he founded a production company that put on a number of concerts, tours, lectures, and workshops devoted to Afro-Latin music. In 1986, together with several other Michigan artists, Mora started a cultural exchange program with Mexican musicians that drew commendation from the United Nations. In 1987, he released his first album as a leader, the Latin jazz-oriented Mora! (he recorded a follow-up with an expanded lineup shortly thereafter, but it would not see release until the 21st century), and soon received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to study drumming and percussion with Max Roach in New York City. Mora Catlett worked with Roach's advanced all-percussion ensemble M'Boom, appearing on two Blue Moon LPs, 1990's To the Max and 1992's Live at S.O.B.'s New York. In 1993, he returned to Detroit and became a visiting professor at Michigan State University, and led his own Latin jazz group, Amigo. In 1996, Mora played percussion on "Bug in the Bassbin," the debut single by Detroit techno producer Carl Craig's groundbreaking jazz/electronica fusion project Innerzone Orchestra. He also appeared on the debut Innerzone Orchestra full-length, 1999's Programmed. The same year, using Innerzone cohorts Craig Taborn (piano) and Rodney Whitaker (bass) as a core trio, Mora -- now Francisco Mora Catlett -- issued his acclaimed second album, World Trade Music, on Craig's Community Projects imprint. Mora left Detroit for New York in 2000. In 2004, leading the New World Jazz big band, he released the Amazona EP for Kindred Spirits. In 2005, George Katsiris' downtempo label Premier Cru issued River Drum, the first release of the Detroit-period music recorded shortly after 1988's Mora! It featured the percussionist leading four different ensembles that included trumpeters Marcus Belgrave and John Douglass; Alex Harding and Vincent Bowens on saxophone; Sherman Mitchell on trombone; Craig Taborn or Kenny Cox on piano; Rodney Whitaker on bass; Emile Borde on steel drums; and Alberto Nacif, Jerry LeDuff, and Mora on drums and percussion. Two years later, Outerzone, a quartet project featuring Marshall Allen, Taborn, Craig, and others, was issued by the label. In 2009, Premier Cru released the 12" Baba Lu Aye (Rezo): Aberiku to Agua EP. In addition to the core Outerzone band, the "Empyrean Version" of the track included guest musicians including bassist Me'Shell NdegéOcello and flutist Bobbi Humphrey. Mora released two albums in 2010. With the newly formed Freedom Jazz Trio (including pianist Francesco Tristano and bassist Carlo De Rosa), he issued New Under the Sun, and followed with Outerzone's Andromeda-M31. The group's evolved lineup included JD Allen on tenor sax, Graham Haynes on cornet and electronics, Taborn on piano and electronics, De Rosa on bass, Val Jeanty on turntables and electronics, Guido Gonzales on trumpet, and Tecla Esposito on keyboards. Rafael Monteagudo played batá drums and Afro-Cuban percussion, while Mora Catlett held down the drum chair. The following year, Freedom Jazz Trio -- with Taborn on piano -- released Live at the Bronx Museum. In 2012, Mora issued the self-titled debut from his AfroHORN MX. Its lineup included pianist Aruán Ortiz; saxophonists Bowens, JD Allen, and Harding; bassist Rashaan Carter; and percussionist/vocalist Roman Diaz. Renamed AfroHORN, they issued Rare Metal in 2013 with saxophonists Sam Newsome and Salim Washington in place of Allen and Bowens. The band's third album, At the Edge of the Spiral, appeared in 2015 from an expanded lineup that included Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets on vocals. Mora has served as a resident artist at University of Iowa, Wayne State University, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Long Island University, Brookhaven College, Richard College, and elsewhere. His presentations often explore the themes of jazz and creativity while highlighting the work of his parents. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Mora returned to virtual studies at Berklee College of Music, taking courses in electronic composition and production. In 2021, Far Out Recordings delivered a deluxe reissue of Mora! and re-released River Drum as Mora 2. Also that year, he released his first-ever album of electronic music, Electric Worlds, on Carl Craig's Planet E Communications.
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