Randolph Magri-Overend

JOHN MORRISON : LIKE HIS YOUNGER BROTHER A JAZZ LEGEND

John Morrison is a cool cat you can’t help digging.  It’s the type of lingo that John himself would use and having spoken to him at length, I can understand why he is such a well-liked and respected human being, let alone a jazz drummer of the highest quality.

He is James’ big brother, of course, and they both share the gift of eternal happiness. On first meeting you can’t help noticing that John’s eyes twinkle like sparklers on a birthday cake.  Plus, he possesses a grin that threatens to burst into laughter at the drop of a hat and a hat that has become his trademark.  He wears colourful ‘threads’ without being ostentatious and his stance is a mixture of Edward G. Robinson without the cigar and James Gagney with the swagger.  He oozes bon-homme.  When I mention I’d be travelling by train for the interview he volunteers to pick me up at the station.  I decline because it isn’t much of a walk anyway, but after our chat he offers to run me back.  Instead, I opt to accompany him to Luna Park where he rehearses with a school jazz band called Zooo! (they don’t learn to spell like they used to!) whose drummer is unable to attend.  It proves fortuitous because I get to see how John operates as well as stealing a glimpse of Caroline O’Connor rehearsing.

John is the son of a Methodist minister who ‘was born clutching a soldering iron’ and a mother who played the organ her husband had built from a kit.  John played the cornet initially but by the age of ten he had mastered the art of drumming on an assortment of pots, pans, lids and any resonant surface he could find.  He started sharing his love of music with a passion for flying from his late teens.  As a commercial pilot he has logged almost 6,000 flying hours and could have joined Qantas but prefers the exhilaration of ‘stick and rudder’ flying, which includes crop-dusting and ferrying ‘15,000 6 hour-old chicks from coast to coast.’  

Two visits to the United States in the middle 80s with James taught him the value of mixing show-business with music.  He describes how he came across ‘The Great Waldo’, a busker at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.  ‘He had a sign outside a restaurant advertising different performance times,’ John explains.   Crowds flocked to the place.  ‘Then Waldo appeared dressed in an aviator helmet, with goggles and leather boots.  He proceeded to play Flight of the Bumblebee on two trumpets simultaneously – harmonising and going up and down scales.  He must have made $800 that day.’ 

The rest of the time the brothers spent living on a boat rent-free in New York and busking.  They played with an assortment of groups too.  On one occasion John played with an Ukrainian band because ‘I sported a beard and looked the part.’  Their exposure led to a tour of Europe with James playing trumpet for Cab Calloway and John as musical director.  Later, in 1990, they toured Europe again for three months accompanied by Don Burrows and three other musicians.  They roughed it but made valuable contacts playing fringe clubs and major jazz festivals.

In 2000, just in time for the Sydney Olympics, John formed the Swing City Band. With James on lead trumpet, they opened the games with the ‘swingiest fanfare’ the Olympiads have ever heard.  Then thirty two strong, the band is now home to an average of thirteen to seventeen musicians and is sought-after for functions that include the Baby Proms, the Greg Norman Golf Classic, the Taronga Zoo (is that really the correct spelling?) series and corporate as well as other events.

From his modern studios in Crows Nest, John produces CDs for the band and other groups.  He is also involved in post-production and has 80 CD releases to date.  He teaches up and down the country, adjudicates at eisteddfodau and, when he has time, builds radio-controlled planes. 

Naturally, John is passionate about jazz.  ‘Australians tend to intellectualise it too much,’ John laments. ‘But it’s much more basic than that.  I tell them to look at a two year-old and see how he reacts to the sound of jazz.  He is happy and dances because jazz has an uplifting beat and a vibrant sound.’

Now that’s jazz!

Randolph Magri-Overend

This article first appeared in Fine Music Magazine in April 2004. 

 

Published by Randolph Magri-Overend

One of the questions Randolph hates to answer is “Where do you come from?” Why? Because the answer can be so time-consuming and, in a way, also gives away how old he is!! Plus the questioner has to wrestle with the wish he hadn’t asked the question!! He was born in Cairo, Egypt, many moons ago of British parents although he can trace Maltese and Croatian ancestry in his lineage. Educated in a Jesuit college in London his wander lust for things unorthodox drove him to embark on a seafaring career with both Canadian Pacific Steamships and Shaw Savill. That in itself dates him because both lines have been redundant for many a year. One of his boasts is that he was the Purser on the “Gothic” which ten years previously had been Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Yacht soon after her coronation in 1953. One of the objects imported on the ship by HM and left behind was a tape player which Randolph utilised on many a memorable Sunday evening with a classical concert for his passengers. Thus began a journey that not only awakened Randolph’s love for good music but also eventually led to his extensive knowledge of music in all forms. That he loves the era of Sinatra, Crosby, Armstrong, Dorsey (both) and many many more exponents of the post-war music scene is also part and parcel of his appreciation of the music of many an era. These days Randolph is retired but still reviews CDs and DVDs and has written articles on such diverse personalities as Yvonne Kenny, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Alexander Briger, the late Sir John Tavener, Sir James Galway, Dawn Upshaw and countless probes into the music of Gustav Mahler, Elizabeth Shwarzkopf and her husband Walter Legge, Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein and many many more he regrets to admit he has lost track of! Before emigrating to Australia, Randolph spent a number of years as a Flight Dispatcher in Canada. Since arriving in Australia, Randolph has written for The Weekend Australian (especially in their travel pages), The Sydney Morning Herald, Opera Opera and Fine Music magazine as well as some jazz magazines. If you require an extensive coverage of your music to a public that, at last count, reaches the best part of 818,000 please contact David Kary on editor.sydneyartsguide@gmail.com or email me directly on ibmar@bigpond.com. This also includes advertising any forthcoming shows by promoting featured artists. Cheers and thank you.