Lawrence D. 'Butch' Morris was an American cornetist, composer and conductor from Long Branch, New Jersey, who began his professional career in the late 1960s and worked across jazz, free improvisation and experimental music. He developed 'conduction', a system of conducted improvisation using hand gestures and graphic cues that he applied to small ensembles and large orchestras, bridging improvisational jazz practices with compositional frameworks and placing his work within the downtown New York experimental music milieu.
