James Morrison's lockdown: From jazz superstar to busy boat builder

Newport man Morrison is many things - a jazz superstar, youth mentor, husband to a Miss Australia, father of three, and these days he even counts boat building among his wide range of talents.

He first picked up an instrument in primary school, and in the decades since the musician and composer has not only recorded 44 albums, he's also met many of music's, and indeed the world's, greats.

He's played with Ray Charles, BB King and Aretha Franklin. At a gig backstage, without realising who he was talking to, he once asked Phil Collins (singer-songwriter best known from rock band Genesis) to get out of his way as he had to get ready to perform. He's even hobnobbed with the then US President Barack Obama at the White House, but more on that later.

In his early years, life wasn't so full of glitz and glamour for this born and bred northern beaches local. Morrison was just nine years old and a student at Mona Vale Public School when he picked up a cornet (closely related to a trumpet), and began playing with the school's brass band.

"Jack Akhurst was the name of the music teacher who ran the brass band," he said. "We played on assembly every morning. It was just amazing to be in that band."

Morrison also played in the Mona Vale Methodist Church Jazz Band. He was "hooked straight away" and it didn't take him long to realise he wanted to make a career out of music.

"My first professional gig was at the supermarket in Mona Vale. Where Pittwater Place is now there used to be an old Coles New World with a big rocket on the roof," Morrison said.

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"We used to play there every Saturday morning, my quartet and I. I was nine and the drummer was an old guy, he was 11, it was my brother John. It was a proper gig, we weren't busking, they paid us $1 to play out the front of the supermarket."

Later, Morrison started a big band among his fellow students at Pittwater High School and remembers music teacher Mrs Long guiding him in his love of jazz. Science teacher at the school, Bob Hamilton, who loved playing trumpet, was also in the band.

He also recalls seeing The Stevie Wright Band, with their then support act AC/DC, play on stage at the school hall during his Pittwater High days.

The northern beaches has long been a breeding ground for musical talent - from INXS to Midnight Oil, and these days, The Rions and Lime Cordiale, and Morrison found inspiration in all the talent.

You might think Morrison is all about the trumpet, but that's only the beginning. He almost looks perplexed when asked if he does indeed play all the instruments listed in his bio - trumpet, trombone, tuba, euphonium, flugelhorn, saxophone, clarinet, double bass, guitar and piano.

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"I find it easy, I find they're just tools," he said. "To ask me about playing different instruments is like going to a carpenter and saying 'oh my goodness, you were using a hammer a moment ago, now you've picked up a saw'. He goes 'no I'm building a house, I'm not a hammerer or a sawer, I'm a house builder."

Morrison explains: "I'm not a trumpeter or a trombonist, I'm a musician. They're just the different tools I use".

During our interview at Manly historic Q Station, when I ask him to make me jealous by telling me about all the legends he has played with, he laughs and explains that he's been "very lucky" to collaborate with many of his idols. He keeps laughing as he "name drops" the best of the best jazz musicians.

"Some of the amazing people that I've had the privilege to play with and tour with are Ray Charles and BB King. I was on a show with Aretha Franklin, one of her last - which was amazing," he said.

"A boyhood hero of mine was Dizzy Gillespie. I remember when I first met him [in the late 1970s], it was when I was in the Young Northside Big Band," he said. "I thought 'I wonder if I'll get to play with him one day'. Fast forward a few years and there we were making an album together at the Monterey Jazz Festival."

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In 2008, Morrison was invited to play again at Monterey to help celebrate Quincy Jones' 75th birthday, and it was here the backstage encounter with Phil Collins took place.

In the half-darkness at the side of stage Morrison, trumpet and trombone in hand, encountered a man standing in the way. "He could see that I was trying to get past and wasn't moving," Morrison explained. "I said 'excuse me, I just need to get past' and he said 'oh I'm sorry' and I said 'I'm on next' and he said 'oh me too'."

Morrison initially couldn't really see who he was talking to until a glimmer of light shone on the man's face. "Oh Phil, Phil Collins how are you," Morrison said in surprise to the rock icon.

During this interview, he still can't quite believe how he told "Phil Collins to get out of the way, I'm on next". "What a great way to meet someone: trying to push them out of the way," he laughed.

As much as he would have loved to, Morrison never got to meet the father of jazz, Louis Armstrong, who died in 1971.

"I played at the White House the night Barack Obama renamed it 'The Blues House' and they lit it up all blue. Morgan Freeman compered the night and all sorts of people were on [stage], Sting was on, and Jamie Cullum, and Aretha. It was incredible," Morrison recalled.

Does he ever get nervous meeting his idols?

"You don't want to be too cool and calm because you're obviously putting it on, and you don't want to go all fan moment because then you're just a drag for everyone around," he said. "You're there to work, you're there to play. It's just this fantastic excitement to meet these amazing musicians, these amazing people. It's fantastic, I'm very lucky."

Writing the fanfare for the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in 2000 counts as one of his absolute career highlights. Despite the global audience, he admitted he's not the kind of person who feels pressure.

"That's not pressure, that's fun. That's 'wow, this is so cool, this is so big, a billion people are watching, oh that's even more fun'," he said.

Like everyone else in arts and music COVID-19 has been tough. Morrison had only just returned to playing gigs in early December before the Omicron variant took hold of NSW and Australia.

"There's never been a time in my lifetime when suddenly the arts and music just stops," he said. "It leaves you feeling like the world doesn't seem right."

But the downturn in music brought about an unexpected silver lining for this jazz great.

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"To my middle son and my wife, I said 'let's build that houseboat we've always talked about'," he said.

But, rather than build traditional houseboats that "look like a fridge that fell over", they're building boat houses - complete with gabled roof, weatherboards and a verandah.

If you've been down to Rowland Reserve in Bayview during the past 18 months, you may have seen their work in progress as it was moored just off from the popular park.

"We had it down at the dog park at Bayview there sometimes tied up to the wharf," he said. "When we were putting more wood on and taking it out to the mooring to do more building, people would come and say 'what's this?'. It got a bit out of control, people saying 'we want one' so I said 'well, I suppose we could build more' so we started Tiny House Boats.

"The first one, we built in a car park! At my studio in Warriewood, there's a big underground car park. At night when no-one's there we'd pull all the bits out and keep building and then put them away in the daytime until it was ready to launch. We launched it off The Newport, the Arms, we've got a mooring there.

"Do I want to go back to jazz? Yeah, absolutely! But I want to keep building boats because we love it."

Morrison was the "token musician" for the celebrity race of the 1987 Australian Grand Prix, when he met the then Miss Australia Judi Green, and admits he instantly knew she was 'the one'.

"When we sat down at one of the functions, I immediately thought 'you're my wife, you're my soulmate' and she thought the same," he said.

At this time in their lives they were both busy and on the road, and only had two dates in the month after they first met.

"I waited a few weeks - I think it was five weeks she worked out - before proposing just so it didn't seem too soon," he said.

She said yes. They've now been married for 33 years and have three sons together. Morrison said there's a few secrets to their successful marriage.

"You have your ups and downs and all sorts things, but we've got lots of ideas and beliefs that align," he said. "You're going to have challenges, you're going to have times when you go 'who is this person, why are you here' and it's your sense of humour that gets you through."

In his role as an ambassador for LifeChanger, Morrison is a youth mentor and he said the workshops not only inspire him but also the teens he helps.

"There's a lot of work to be done and lots of kids who need help," he said. "Have you ever been there when the light comes on in someone's eyes, that's what I get out of it."

He also heads the James Morrison Academy of Music which has been fostering the musicians of the future through tertiary education and bachelor degrees.

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