James Morrison
I've known James for forever it seems, certainly since the 80s. James was a sort of vertical takeoff. As a kid he was already playing with people like Don Burrows. The word was out that he was one to watch.
When James was, around 18-19, he was already known to be this three ring circus, he could do everything. We first worked together as we were both invited to be members of the Australian Jazz Orchestra, a 1988 Bi-centennial project, which brought together generations of Australian jazz musicians.
It featured the likes of Don Burrows, Bernie McGann and Bob Bertles, Alan Turnbull, Doug DeVries, Dale Barlow. James Greening, Gary Costello and more. After that I joined his quartet, heading to Europe to perform in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
We remained friends but hadn’t performed together for many years. It was the Melbourne Jazz Festival that brought us back together. Curator Sophia Bruce presented a series called Underground at the Melbourne Town Hall and I was booked to perform in a duet with Kram, the rock drummer from Spiderbait. That was the first time I'd met Kram. We were thrown in the sandpit, we played and it was fun. Kram said, ‘Paul, I've got this idea’. It sounded so whack to me that I probably didn't even take much notice of it. Kram said, ‘I really want to do this thing with you and James Morrison’. I just thought to myself, well, how the hell is that going to work? I mean, James is straight ahead music, really, you know, he would play what I call yachting club jazz, jazz for men who wear blazers with gold buttons. Kram is rock, and then there's me, whatever I am, you know, the man who leaves no shadow sort of thing. I had no idea how this would work.
Sometime later, I got a phone call inviting me to fly up to Sydney. To James's studio on the northern beaches to jam with James and Kram and see what happens. So we did. It was amazing. We called the project The Others. Then, life and careers got in the way and the project remained a dormant idea for many years.
Years later, an author wrote a biography of James Morrison. In this book about James, one of the last chapters is called The Others. James had talked about this project and it went into the biography, even though nobody had ever heard it. So there were these unreleased recordings and there was a concept. But no one had actually heard it.
James’ book put The Others into the public domain. Subsequently Adrian Jackson, Artistic Director of Wangaratta Jazz invited us to perform at the festival. We went on to play venues such Melbourne Recital Centre, the Blue Mountains Festival and UKARIA. It is an unexpected combination of artists, but there is something glorious about the combination of approaches and the result that ensues.
But what, what is James like? James is an enigma to me. There's are so many facets to him. James is a person who, you know, has extraordinary gifts and is quite unique. He has an extraordinary mind. He seems to be somebody who's able to sort of problem solve on a very, almost like a meta level. His brain is able to process things beyond the average mind. He can figure out how things work. He knows all about cars. I think he's even got a jet pilot license. There's nothing he can't wrap his head around. And that's why playing his instruments is sort of an easy equation. It doesn't present the same series of problems to him that it might to a normal person. He's somehow able to systematize how they all work whilst being capable of playing really, really beautifully too. He has a capacity for playing with great lyricism and great sensitivity.
