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Future is bright for jazz: Morrison

May 22, 2015

The increasing number of young people playing music has helped build the jazz and blues audience across Australia, says renowned composer and multi-instrumentalist James Morrison.

Morrison, who will be in Adelaide next week to participate in the Helpmann Academy and Elder Conservatorium of Music 2015 Jazz Awards, is passionate about music education.

He is also positive about its future, despite concerns expressed by some in recent years about funding cuts and changes to school music programs.

“These days there’s a lot more involvement of young people,” he says.

“When I was in high school, it was a rare school that had a jazz band; now it’s a rare school that doesn’t. That’s a big difference.”

Morrison recalls attending an AFL game some years ago and pondering why football could attract an audience of 100,000, while a symphony orchestra might struggle to fill a much smaller venue.

“Someone said, ‘There’s really one big difference and that’s that every one of these people have kicked a football’.

“I’ve always remembered that and have noticed over the years that as more and more music is played in schools, more and more people are going to watch music.

“The jazz and blues audience has grown a lot and I believe that’s directly attributable to the number of people that play music in schools now and try different styles of music.”

Alexander-Ioakim

Alexander Ioakim, 2014 and 2015 Jazz Award winner.

The Jazz Awards will be presented to the Elder Conservatorium’s top jazz students of 2014 and 2015 at a concert event next Thursday at the InterContinental Hotel, where Morrison will perform.

During the day, he will conduct workshops and master-classes with the award winners and other selected Conservatorium students.

Morrison, who plays multiple instruments including piano, saxophone and double bass, says one of the keys to making a successful transition from study to a professional music career is flexibility to work in as many different styles as possible.

Although it wasn’t common to play a range of instruments when he was starting out, he believes it was a big advantage in helping forge his diverse career, during which he has played all over the world both solo and with orchestras and jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles and BB King.

“I think sometimes there’s a feeling that one can be spread too thinly, trying to cover too many things and not being good at any one, but in the jazz world the one thing you really need to be good at is being adaptable.

“Being niche is not very jazz; one of the hallmarks of jazz is improvisation and spontaneity.”

The musician, who recently established the James Morrison Academy of Music in Mount Gambier, relishes the opportunity to have an ongoing influence in the lives of young musicians.

He believes it is essential that music knowledge, experience and stories are passed on from one generation to the next.

“And the only way to pass that on is first-hand. You can’t learn it from a book. It’s important for the survival of the music itself and for the traditions to be passed on, just as they were to me.

“I’ve been very fortunate to play with most of my record collection, so it becomes a natural thing to do … to pass that on to the next generation.”

As for what the audience can expect from the Jazz Awards concert, where he will perform with graduating Elder Conservatorium students, Morrison says it will all come together on the day – in that well-established tradition of jazz improv and spontaneity.

“If you want to terrify a jazz musician, you give them a large score with lots of notes on it and tell them they have to play exactly what’s on there,” he says, laughing.

James Morrison will perform with top graduates from the Elder Conservatorium at the 2015 Jazz Awards on May 28 at InterContinental Adelaide. Details and bookings here.

 

 

 

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