Morrissey–Mullen were a British
jazz-funk
Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat, electrified sounds, and analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creation of a genre that ranges from ...
/fusion group of the 1970s and 1980s.
[
Considered one of the most popular jazz groups in London, the band was led by Dick Morrissey on tenor and soprano saxes and flute, and Jim Mullen on guitar, who joined forces in 1975, playing together for sixteen years, during which they came to be known as "Mr Sax and Captain Axe" because of their hallmark ]call and response
Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...
style between guitar and saxophone.
History
The band began in New York City where Dick Morrissey and Jim Mullen were recording and touring with their mutual friends in the Average White Band and Herbie Mann
Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), known by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an American jazz Flute, flute player and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone and clarinet ...
.
''Up'' (Atlantic, 1977) included Average White Band as a rhythm section, Luther Vandross
Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American Soul music, soul and Contemporary R&B, R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer. Over his career, he achieved eleven consecutive RIAA certification, RIAA-certified ...
and Cissy Houston on vocals, and New York session musician
A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...
s. A six-week residency at Mikell's in New York City attracted Boz Scaggs
William Royce "Boz" Scaggs (born June 8, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was a bandmate of Steve Miller (musician), Steve Miller in the Ardells in the early 1960s and a member of the Steve Miller Band from 1967 to 196 ...
, David Sanborn
David William Sanborn (July 30, 1945 – May 12, 2024) was an American alto saxophonist. He worked in many musical genres; his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He began playing the saxophone at the age o ...
, Steve Gadd
Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American jazz fusion drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and most highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction i ...
, Steve Ferrone
Stephen A. Ferrone (born 25 April 1950) is an English drummer. He is known as a member of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from 1994 to 2017, replacing original drummer Stan Lynch, and as part of the "classic lineup" of the Aver ...
, Richard Tee, George Benson
George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American jazz fusion guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist.
A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the ...
, Ray Barretto
Raymundo "Ray" Barretto Pagán (April 29, 1929 – February 17, 2006) was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Lati ...
,[''Billboard'']
23 October 1976 Vol. 88, N.º 43 Nielsen Business Media, Inc. ''Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as a performer and composer, received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in ...
, and Randy Brecker
Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock music, rock, and R&B.
Early life
Brecker was ...
.
On their return to the United Kingdom, Morrissey–Mullen concentrated on the small-club/pub circuit, including a residency at The Half Moon, Putney for many years.
In 1979, Morrissey–Mullen recorded an instrumental version " Love Don't Live Here Anymore", originally a hit for Rose Royce
Rose Royce is an American soul and R&B group. They are best known for several hit singles during the 1970s including " Car Wash", " I Wanna Get Next to You", " I'm Going Down", " Wishing on a Star", and " Love Don't Live Here Anymore".
Career ...
, backed with a piece by Jim Mullen entitled "Don't You Worry" - released as a 12-inch single, EMI 12DIG 1001, this was significant in being the first non-classical 100% digitally recorded and mastered record released by EMI
Morrissey–Mullen's backing band included British jazz musicians such as Martin Drew, David Sheen, Chris Ainsworth, Tony Beard, Neil Wilkinson, John Mole, Clive Chaman, John McKenzie, Joe Hubbard, Trevor Barry, and Pete Jacobsen, John Critchinson, Martin Blackwell, Geoff Castle, and John Burch (with whom Dick Morrissey would form an octet in 1984). Although members of the band had included two session musicians from New Zealand, Frank Gibson Jr. on drums and Bruce Lynch on bass, the band was also a springboard for a generation of young British musicians, including Chris Fletcher on percussion, Henry Thomas on bass, Gary Husband
Gary Husband (born 14 June 1960) is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist, keyboard player and bandleader. He is also a composer, arranger, producer and educator.
Husband was a member for 16 years of John McLaughlin's group The 4th Dimen ...
on drums, Rob Burns on bass, Claire Hamill
Josephine Claire Hamill (born 4 August 1954) is an English singer-songwriter. She has collaborated with Wishbone Ash and Yes (band), Yes's Steve Howe (guitarist), Steve Howe in addition to her solo career.
Life and career
Josephine Claire Ha ...
and Carol Kenyon on vocals (both on whom appeared with Dick Morrissey on the 1981 Jon & Vangelis album '' The Friends of Mr Cairo''), Tessa Niles, Linda Taylor
Linda Taylor (born Martha Louise White; January 1926 – April 18, 2002) was an American woman who committed extensive welfare fraud and, after the publication of an article in the ''Chicago Tribune'' in fall 1974, became identified as the "wel ...
, and Noel McCalla.
Morrissey's failing health required too many visits to hospital for the band to be viable. When the band dissolved in 1988, Mullen and Morrissey continued meeting for jam sessions with what they called "Our Band", usually with the same musicians that had accompanied them in the past. They appeared at the 1991 Cork Jazz Festival in the Metropole Hotel in Cork, Ireland.
Morrissey died on 8 November 2000, aged 60, after many years fighting various forms of cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
.
Discography
*1976: ''Up'' (Embryo
An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sp ...
)
*1979: ''Cape Wrath''
*1981: '' Badness'' – UK No. 43
*1982: '' Life on the Wire'' – UK No. 47
*1983: '' It's About Time'' – UK No. 95
*1985: '' This Must Be the Place''
*1988: ''Happy Hour''
References
External links
*Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrissey-Mullen
Jazz fusion ensembles
British jazz ensembles
Groove Production artists
Harvest Records artists
Musical groups established in 1975
Musical groups disestablished in 1988
1975 establishments in the United Kingdom
1988 disestablishments in the United Kingdom