4th November, 2007

Musical virtuoso James Morrison has just released his latest album, Christmas. The 44-year-old speaks to DAVID ADAMS about Christmas, the power of music and what he’d be doing if he wasn’t a musician...

Why a Christmas album?
“It’s Christmas - that’s the easy answer. I’ve done a Christmas album before. I did one a few years ago with a German orchestra actually...It was your regular kind of Christmas album - it had some carols and it had Santa Claus is Coming to Town and all that stuff on it and it was instrumental only. I thought it was time to do a bit more of a focused Christmas album; one a little bit more on what Christmas is really about. So this is just carols and also I’m got Emma Pask singing on there with me because I wanted people to hear the lyrics. So, yeah, just a bit more focused...a real Christmas album, is how I think of it.”

What does Christmas mean to you?
“There’s all sorts of levels but overall, of course, it's the celebration of being Christian and the start of Christianity with the birth of Jesus. It’s also...a time when all the family get together, the wider family - for us, we’ve got about 60 of us who get together. And it’s a time of inspiration because, you know, as people, as they say, 'get into the Christmas spirit', it always inspires me. I think ‘Well, today it’s so likely that if I bump into somebody in the street they’re going to smile’ or ‘Today, if I’m pulling out into traffic, it’s so likely that they’re going to let me in’ or whatever. Everyone says ‘Well, it’s Christmas Day’ and so they suddenly become way nicer and just take a little bit more care with how they are with other people. What inspires me is - rather than being depressed and saying, why can’t they do this the rest of the time?’ - is saying ‘Wow, they can actually do it!’..."

So, in that sense, do you wish it was Christmas every day?
“Well, yes and no. I wish it was like Christmas every day but of course if it was Christmas every day, then they wouldn’t be like that on Christmas Day, it’d be business as usual. I think it’s great to have a special day where we get that example.”

Do you have a favorite Christmas carol?
“Not really. I have a bunch of favorites which I made a list of, of course, putting the album together. There were too many and the way I culled them was to say 'Well, which ones lend themselves - because apart from being a Christmas album, this is a jazz album - to being done in some sort of jazz style? That narrowed it down. (Generally), it depends what sort of mood I’m in. If it’s the beginning of the day and you’re getting revved up, putting on Joy to the World, which is a funky number, will clear the cobwebs out. But late at night, I might put on The First Noel which is done as a ballad; a duet. So there are different favorites for different times and moods.”

What’s your earliest memory of music?
“Sitting next to mum on the organ stool in church. Dad was in the pulpit preaching and mum was playing the organ - this in the country in New South Wales and it didn’t even have electricity the organ, it was one you pedal ( I think they’re officially called a harmonium). So sitting next to mum while she was playing the organ and hearing the hymns is my earliest musical recollection.”

If you had to use one word to describe your relationship with music today, what would it be?
“Gratitude. It’s very much a sense that I’ve been given a gift and it’s a blessing and so every time I play, every time I write, every time I do whatever to do with music, there’s that feeling of how great is this, how blessed am I?”

Does music play a role in your faith as a Christian?
“Absolutely. Apart from the fact that music is often there at inspirational times, music communicates in one very important way, slightly differently than using words to communicate. It’s this: if I say something with a great message in it which can be inspirational, before you can get that inspiration, you have to take the words in and you have to get the sense of what I’m saying. In other words, you have to understand the meaning...You’ve got to understand it on an intellectual level and then it can become (understood) on a spiritual or an inspirational level. Music bypasses that whole process. If I play inspirational music, if I play great Gospel music, it can move people and they don’t have to understand anything; they don’t have to know what’s going on musically or have any intellectual process come into it. They can just feel the emotion of the music directl. Not to say we don’t need the words, but it is a wonderful thing about music.”

So is there power in music, in a spiritual sense?
“Oh, yes. Music is a great communicator. Its power lies in its ability to communicate like that - directly into people’s souls. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched a movie without music...but having done music for movies, I’ll often get to see a movie with no music yet and the romantic bits aren’t and the scary bits aren’t - they’re just all kind of silly without the music. And that’s the affect music can have on us. Well, that’s just for a movie. If you have a really important message and carry that message with music, it’s really powerful.”

So how does your Christianity affect your music or influence your music?
“In the same way that it affects and influences everything you do. It’s part of it; it’s one of the ways you identify yourself - I’m a man, I’m an Australian, I’m a father and I’m this, and I’m a Christian...It’s what your life is based on and so as you go to play music, you can’t suddenly leave that behind and go ‘Well, I was a Christian while I was having dinner, but now I’m a musician'. You’re a Christian when you’re playing music too, regardless of whether you’re it’s Gospel music or not. So it affects the way you go about it, as it does with everything.”

How would you describe jazz to someone who had never heard it before?
“I don’t know whether I’d try, I think I’d say 'Go and listen'. The thing that's difficult about describing jazz is that any description you give, while totally correct, will miss something vital because you can’t capture what jazz is in words; it includes things that you have to feel. And so any description will, by definition, be inadequate, because jazz is a feeling; it’s a way.”

If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing?
“There’s a list. A lot of people just say, ‘Oh, I don’t know, I just am, I couldn’t do anything else’ but no, I’ve got a list. I’m really lucky that I get to do a lot of things anyway. I love to fly - I’m a pilot, so I could easily be doing that. If I was good enough...I’ve always loved motor-racing and gotten to do quite a bit of that and would certainly take that on as a job if I wasn’t a musician. I love technology and computers and I use them extensively in what I do as a job anyway and there’s all sorts of jobs you could do in there. And finally, I have had, at some stages, a job to do with boats - I was a skipper when I was younger on a charter boat and I love sailing, so I could easily spend my life doing that too. I think I’m probably better off doing the music - as a racing driver, I’m a great trumpeter. But no, they’re all things that I would enjoy. There’s probably more.”

Name three musicians you admire.
“Yeah, it’s picking which three that’s hard. Louis Armstrong - not only a great trumpeter and sort of the father of jazz as we know it, but the joy in him when he played and when he sang, that’s inspirational. (Pianist) Oscar Peterson - he’s the definition of swing for me...and I’d probably say, from personal experience here, Don Burrows. He mentored me from an early age and I remember watching him play and watching him talk to audiences and perform and admiring very much how he managed to be this serious jazz musician and creative person and (one who) at the same time, made contact with everyone and not just the hard core jazz fans.”

What’s been the best gig you’ve ever played?
“Hopefully tomorrow. It’s hard to pick a best gig - there have been so many great times and I don’t sort of judge them one against the other. They’re all amazing experiences in their own right.”

What three songs would be ‘essentials’ on your iPod?
“The Basin Street Blues - that’s been a signature tune for me for many years - and The Old Rugged Cross and I’d have Mozart’s Requiem Mass.”

Have you ever you have a song you can’t get out of your head but wish you could?
“Yes. I’d just wish the kids would stop singing Ten Green Bottles when we’re in the car. It has happened. The only way to fix it, by the way - I have a method - is not stopping thinking about the song or thinking about something else but you actually have to replace it with another song.”

If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
“I’m so blessed with what I’ve been given, all I’d probably change is something mundane. I think I’d change my metabolism - never mind doubling it, let’s make it times 10 because I do like a bit to eat and do enjoy that part of life and it seems that my metabolism does too because it’s very relaxed and keeps it all. So I’d change my metabolism.”

What are you looking forward to?
“Just about everything.”

~ www.jamesmorrison.com.au

REVIEW: JAMES MORRISON'S GROOVIN' CHRISTMAS
This is Mr Morrison at his smooth 'n grooviest. Difference? It’s been seasoned.
For those who have had the privilege of seeing JM live, you will know that there is rarely a bad night and when there is, there’s a joke to go with it. Here, you won’t get any wrong notes, but you will hear the cheekiness and fun that JM and the band bring with them when they jam.
JUSTIN MICHAEL looks forward to a Christmas with James - and his trumpet... | more... |

OUT OF THE ARCHIVES: TRUMPETING TRUTH - JAMES MORRISON GOES GOSPEL

“Inspirational” is the word jazz musician James Morrison chooses to use to describe Gospel music, the subject of his latest album. “There’s a great energy to it and it’s uplifting and inspirational and I think we could use a bit more of that no matter who we are or where we are...” says the 42-year-old Sydney-sider. “I can think of some examples of even musicians I have worked with that have been drawn in unsuspecting to playing some Gospel music when we’re doing some secular music - doing another sort of concert or project - and I’ll pull out one of these songs and they’ll end up playing it."
For the past 25 years jazz virtuoso James Morrison has been entertaining crowds around the world. DAVID ADAMS reports on his first Gospel album, Gospel Collection... | more...|