Dick Morrissey

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Dick Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer, born in 1940 in Horley, Surrey. He played tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone and flute and was regarded as one of the best British jazz musicians of his time, although he also worked occasionally in rock and rhythm and blues. He taught himself to play and at sixteen began on clarinet in the school band The Delta City Jazzmen. In the 1960s he came to the fore in the wake of Tubby Hayes.

Music and breakthrough

He made his name as a hard bop player, played regularly at the Marquee Club from 1960 and recorded his first solo album, It's Morrissey, Man!, in 1961. He played briefly in Ted Heath's big band. In 1966 and 1967 he came second in the Melody Maker Jazz Poll, behind Hayes. Many American musicians who toured in Great Britain recorded with him, including Brother Jack McDuff and Jimmy Witherspoon. In 1969, with the guitarist Terry Smith, he founded the early jazz rock group If. After If broke up in 1975, he toured with Alexis Korner and with the Average White Band, and met the guitarist Jim Mullen. Together they formed Morrissey-Mullen, at the time the most admired British jazz fusion band. They made seven albums in sixteen years, including After Dark in 1983.

Influence

Morrissey showed that British jazz could embrace both hard bop and jazz rock. He died in 2000.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1988The Mitchells and Butlers British Jazz Awards 1987
• 2017Jazz For Moderns

In School of Rock

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