James Morrison

There are multiple artists called James Morrison: 1) an English singer-songwriter from Rugby 2) an Australian jazz musician who plays numerous instruments; best known for his trumpet playing 3) a notable south Sligo-style Irish fiddler. 1. James Morrison (born James Morrison Catchpole in 1984) is a singer/songwriter from Rugby, Warwickshire, England. He says that his musical influences include Al Green, Otis Redding, Cat Stevens and The Kinks.

1) an English singer-songwriter from Rugby
2) an Australian jazz musician who plays numerous instruments; best known for his trumpet playing
3) a notable south Sligo-style Irish fiddler.

1. James Morrison (born James Morrison Catchpole in 1984) is a singer/songwriter from Rugby, Warwickshire, England. He says that his musical influences include Al Green, Otis Redding, Cat Stevens and The Kinks.

At 13 Morrison began to learn guitar when his uncle showed him how to play a blues riff. He started busking when he lived at Porth near Newquay, in Cornwall. After years of playing other musicians' songs, he eventually started to write his own.

Polydor Productions took charge and signed him. He became the supporting artist for Corinne Bailey Rae on her tour supporting her debut album.

In 2006 he debuted with his single You Give Me Something which became a hit single around Europe and Japan. It reached the #2 spot in Holland and the #5 spot in the UK. And James proves that he isn't a one-hit-wonder - his debut album Undiscovered went straight to #1 in the UK and has sold more than 2,000,000 copies world wide.

The second single released from the album is "Wonderful World," which has already been a top 10 hit in the UK reaching the #8 spot.

It was announced that Morrison's first single from his third album, The Awakening", will be "I Won't Let You Go," and will be released on September 19, 2011 (I Won't Let You Go Songfacts)).

2. James Morrison (born 11 November 1962 in Boorowa, New South Wales) is an Australian jazz musician who plays numerous instruments, but is best known for his trumpet playing. He is a multi-instrumentalist, having performed on the clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, flugelhorn, bass flugelhorn, trombone, euphonium, tuba and piano. He is also a composer, writing jazz charts for ensembles of various sizes and proficiency levels. He performed the opening fanfare at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. In 2009, he joined Steve Pizzati and Warren Brown as a presenter on Top Gear Australia.

Morrison has performed with Dizzy Gillespie (the first Australian to do so), with Don Burrows, as a member of the Don Burrows Band, and with Ray Charles and B. B. King for a 1990 world tour. He has also worked with Ray Brown, Wynton Marsalis, Frank Sinatra, Cab Calloway, Jon Faddis, Woody Shaw, Whitney Houston, Arturo Sandoval, Phil Stack, George Benson, Mark Nightingale, and Red Rodney.

In 2005, he was the guest soloist at the 150th anniversary concert of the Black Dyke Band and in 2007, he again appeared as guest soloist at concerts with the band in Manchester and London. In 2003 he founded the band On The Edge together with the German keyboarder and composer Simon Stockhausen (CD released on Morrison Records).

Morrison has also had a long association with Composer and pianist Lalo Schifrin (of Mission Impossible fame) and has recorded a number of CDs on Schifrin's "Jazz Meets The Symphony" series. These include recordings with the London Symphony and the Czech National Symphony.

3. James Morrison (3 May 1893 - 1947), known as "The Professor", was a notable South Sligo-style Irish fiddler.

Morrison was born in 1893 near Riverstown, County Sligo at the townland of Drumfin. Morrison grew up in a community steeped in traditional Irish culture especially music and at the age of 17 he was employed by the Gaelic League to tutor the Connacht style of step dancing at the Gaelic League school in County Mayo.

In 1915, at the age of 21, he emigrated to America and settled in New York. In 1918, Morrison won the fiddle competition at the New York Feis. Morrison become associated with other leading Irish musicians such as Michael Coleman, Paddy Killoran who were also from County Sligo.

Morrison was one of the leading Irish music teachers in New York in the 1930s and '40s. In addition to the fiddle, he could play the flute and button accordion (and wrote a tutor on the latter) and taught hundreds of young Irish-American students to play traditional music on various instruments.