Dick Morrissey

[sidewinder]

I’ll have to dig out the ‘Storm Warning’ Fontana LP today. Since the original post I got a nice copy, not an easy one to come across. Maybe it was put out in mono only due to the live location recording? If we are lucky, maybe Decca will unearth a stereo version and put it out in their reissue series.

Have to say, I’m not a fan of vocal based groups of this vintage in general but that is likely just me. Agree that Terry Smith is excellent - his Philips LP is underrated and undeservedly obscure (with superb big band lineup and Harry South arrangements). Agree also re: Jim Mullen.

’If’s’ two sax lineup looks like a forerunner of Average White Band, who are a bit more to my liking (prepares to be flamed..)

Edited December 18, 2022 by sidewinder

[RogerF]

28 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

I’ll have to dig out the ‘Storm Warning’ Fontana LP today. Since the original post I got a nice copy, not an easy one to come across. Maybe it was put out in mono only due to the live location recording? If we are lucky, maybe Decca will unearth a stereo version and put it out in their reissue series.

Have to say, I’m not a fan of vocal based groups of this vintage in general but that is likely just me. Agree that Terry Smith is excellent - his Philips LP is underrated and undeservedly obscure (with superb big band lineup and Harry South arrangements). Agree also re: Jim Mullen.

’If’s’ two sax lineup looks like a forerunner of Average White Band, who are a bit more to my liking (prepares to be flamed..)

I bought AWB's eponymous debut album with the big hit Pick Up The Pieces but went off them (as with Jamiroquai). Back with Dick Morrissey I have a feeling he was overshadowed by fellow tenorist Tubby Hayes who desevedly basked in the limelight for almost the entire 1960s. But Dick Morrissey was still nevertheless an important figure on the British jazz scene.

[sidewinder]

Still got my Atlantic 45rpm of 'Pick up the Pieces' from 1975. One of the first records I ever got !

[clifford_thornton]

Killer footage. I'm a fan of "Your City is Falling" and this is an excellent find.

[GA Russell]

18 hours ago, sgcim said:

 

I just met his son online, and he turned me on to this:

 

Thanks sgc!

[adh1907]

9 hours ago, sidewinder said:

I’ll have to dig out the ‘Storm Warning’ Fontana LP today. Since the original post I got a nice copy, not an easy one to come across. Maybe it was put out in mono only due to the live location recording? If we are lucky, maybe Decca will unearth a stereo version and put it out in their reissue series.

Have to say, I’m not a fan of vocal based groups of this vintage in general but that is likely just me. Agree that Terry Smith is excellent - his Philips LP is underrated and undeservedly obscure (with superb big band lineup and Harry South arrangements). Agree also re: Jim Mullen.

’If’s’ two sax lineup looks like a forerunner of Average White Band, who are a bit more to my liking (prepares to be flamed..)

I don’t believe the original Fontana release is a live recording; the sleeve notes may be misleading in describing a Dick Morrissey gig at the Bulls Head. I understand it was recorded at the Philips studio in Marble Arch. There is a live Storm Warning CD which I have, recorded at the Gallery Club in Manchester in 1966, remastered in Brooklyn and issued by Jazzhus in Taiwan. Quite an international effort!

anthony

London 

[clifford_thornton]

need to dig out my CDs of the Mercury/Fontana dates. I remember not really being floored by them but it's been a long time and my tastes have changed.

[adh1907]

Ps wasn’t there some talk about a release featuring a live concert of Jimmy Witherspoon with Dick Morrissey? I think Simon Spillett may have been involved, but I may be mistaken.

[sgcim]

10 hours ago, sidewinder said:

I’ll have to dig out the ‘Storm Warning’ Fontana LP today. Since the original post I got a nice copy, not an easy one to come across. Maybe it was put out in mono only due to the live location recording? If we are lucky, maybe Decca will unearth a stereo version and put it out in their reissue series.

Have to say, I’m not a fan of vocal based groups of this vintage in general but that is likely just me. Agree that Terry Smith is excellent - his Philips LP is underrated and undeservedly obscure (with superb big band lineup and Harry South arrangements). Agree also re: Jim Mullen.

’If’s’ two sax lineup looks like a forerunner of Average White Band, who are a bit more to my liking (prepares to be flamed..)

Dick's son said that DM did countless tours with the Average White Band, and you might be able to hear him on some of their live recordings. He also said Molly was a student of DM's, and his funk playing was very influenced by DM's.

The first time I saw If was at The Fillmore East when I was a kid, and my drug addled friends and I were going to see Black Sabbath, and they were both opening acts for Rod Stewart. If was the opening act, and I had never seen anything like that before; two tenors, organ, a guitarist who actually picked all of his notes instead of using distortion Jim Richardson's incredible chops, and a drummer that played like Dennis Elliot did. When Sabbath came on, I couldn't believe how awful they were compared to If, and by the time Rod Stewart came on with his bottle of Southern Comfort, I had had enough, and walked out. DM said that Sabbath were like a bunch of kids playing nursery rhymes, but appreciated that Rod Stewart tried to swing. It was interesting that DM judged rock bands on their ability to "swing". I assume he was referring to their ability to get in some type of groove.

I saw them again at The Gaslight Cafe in the Village, and Terry Smith was featured much more than he was at the Fillmore, and I left the place thinking that TS was the modern equivalent of Django Reinhardt.

By the time the original band members started to split (he was saddened to see Dennis Elliot join Foreigner, because he thought DE was one of the few drummers who could play jazz as well as he played rock), DM was just doing IF for the buck, and continued to get disillusioned with rockers to the point that he was happiest just playing jazz at local clubs like The Bull's Head, performing standards.

[sidewinder]

3 hours ago, adh1907 said:

Ps wasn’t there some talk about a release featuring a live concert of Jimmy Witherspoon with Dick Morrissey? I think Simon Spillett may have been involved, but I may be mistaken.

Yes - R&B Records did a Morrissey/Witherspoon release on CD some months ago. Don’t yet have a copy.

4 hours ago, adh1907 said:

I don’t believe the original Fontana release is a live recording; the sleeve notes may be misleading in describing a Dick Morrissey gig at the Bulls Head. I understand it was recorded at the Philips studio in Marble Arch. There is a live Storm Warning CD which I have, recorded at the Gallery Club in Manchester in 1966, remastered in Brooklyn and issued by Jazzhus in Taiwan. Quite an international effort!

anthony

London 

Ah yes - I think you are right. I always think of it as being recorded at the Bull’s Head as the first time I heard a track from it on the radio it was introduced as such. I do have a copy of that Jazzhus recording.

[GA Russell]

Was Terry Smith's Fontana release you are referring to called Fall Out?

I see that it was released on Philips.  Now on Sunbeam.  

https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Out-TERRY-SMITH/dp/B000E6EO7A/

*****

I also see an LP made with J.J. Jackson called The Greatest Little Soul Band in the Land.  Used for $14.00.

https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Little-Soul-Band-Land/dp/B008O8L4OG/

Perhaps this is the same recording as J.J. Jackson's Dilemma, which we have discussed before.

https://www.amazon.com/J-J-Jacksons-Dilemma-JACKSONs-DILEMMA/dp/B019G2CZS2/

*****

I seem to recall a Terry Smith album on Verve, but I'm not seeing it tonight.  Maybe it is the same as Fall Out.

[GA Russell]

Now that we are recalling Dick Morrisey gossip, I don't think I have mentioned this before.

Following the first four If albums, the group broke up, and Morrisey created a new band with the same name, and issued an album called Double Diamond.

https://www.amazon.com/Double-Diamond-If/dp/B0B123WBHN/

He then broke that band up, and created a third band called If, which released two albums.  The first of these was called Not Just a Bunch of Pretty Faces.

https://www.amazon.com/Just-Another-Bunch-Pretty-Faces/dp/B001PIBZXC/

As I recall, it was in late '74 (maybe early '75) when that band toured promoting that album.  He was autographing the album at a mall in suburban DC, so I went and picked it up.

He told me that he was not impressed by the singer of the Double Diamond band because he wanted to spend more time working on his motorcycle than practicing with the band.

Can you imagine someone not appreciating the opportunity to work with Dick Morrisey?

 

[Rabshakeh]

I hadn't realised that the Dick Morrisseys of the world were known in the States at the time. What sort of profile did he and other Brit modernists of his generation have over there back then?

[JSngry]

If had a good feature in DownBeat.

9 hours ago, GA Russell said:

I also see an LP made with J.J. Jackson called The Greatest Little Soul Band in the Land.  Used for $14.00.

https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Little-Soul-Band-Land/dp/B008O8L4OG/

Pulled that on out of a cutout bin ca. 1972. Not bad, but let's just say that I'd not pay a full price for it.

[RogerF]

Just listened to my copy of the sampler Journeys In Modern Jazz: Britain, part of Decca's British Jazz Explosion which includes Storm Warning which is the only track on this double LP to be rendered in mono so either it was intended as a mono only recording or they couldn't locate the (stereo) tape. I think this happened with Tubbs' 100% Proof originally reissued in mono on CD (in the Redial series) but miraculously later released in stereo on the huge Tubbs Fontana box set. 

[sgcim]

On 12/18/2022 at 10:40 PM, GA Russell said:

Was Terry Smith's Fontana release you are referring to called Fall Out?

I see that it was released on Philips.  Now on Sunbeam.  

https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Out-TERRY-SMITH/dp/B000E6EO7A/

*****

I also see an LP made with J.J. Jackson called The Greatest Little Soul Band in the Land.  Used for $14.00.

https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Little-Soul-Band-Land/dp/B008O8L4OG/

Perhaps this is the same recording as J.J. Jackson's Dilemma, which we have discussed before.

https://www.amazon.com/J-J-Jacksons-Dilemma-JACKSONs-DILEMMA/dp/B019G2CZS2/

*****

I seem to recall a Terry Smith album on Verve, but I'm not seeing it tonight.  Maybe it is the same as Fall Out.

Terry's only releases now are on a British import label called Actone Records. His playing has changed since having a hand injury a number of years ago. He only plays with his thumb now, so no more of the exciting picking technique that enabled him to beat out John McLaughlin in the Melody Maker Poll for #1 Jazz Guitarist.

I bought the Actone CD from the UK "Tenderly, where he has an organ trio similar to Wes Montgomery's, featuring Pete Whittaker on organ, and Don Burrell on drums.

It's very good, but lacking in the excitement that he exhibited in Fall Out and If. Dick Morrissey's son described TS as reminding him of a typical London cab driver, so I don't think he associates with the younger players in the UK, who AFAICT, don't associate with him.

Whatever you do, if I haven't warned you before, don't buy the recent If reunion album. The only ones left from the original group are Dave Quincy and TS, and the material is sub-standard.

[GA Russell]

19 minutes ago, sgcim said:

Whatever you do, if I haven't warned you before, don't buy the recent If reunion album. The only ones left from the original group are Dave Quincy and TS, and the material is sub-standard.

Thanks.  I was thinking about it.

I would buy it anyway if John Mealing were on it!

[romualdo]

On 12/18/2022 at 12:30 PM, sgcim said:

 

I just met his son online, and he turned me on to this:

 

wow!! what a find - I had IF vinyl way back, not anymore

Initially thought that was John Peel on bass g

[sgcim]

17 hours ago, GA Russell said:

Thanks.  I was thinking about it.

I would buy it anyway if John Mealing were on it!

Yes, Mealing could make anything sound good. I tried to find any jazz things that Mealing did before If, but the only thing I could come up with was a record or two that he did with Passport, which wasn't that memorable. It may have been after he left If. He became a very successful pop/rock producer.

It was funny to hear how Morrissey described J.W. Hodgkinson as a "wide-eyed kid who was completely in awe of of working with these incredible jazz musicians,"

[sidewinder]

 Mealing spent a bit of time with the Rendell/Carr Quintet I think but not aware of any recordings with them.

[sgcim]

4 hours ago, sidewinder said:

 Mealing spent a bit of time with the Rendell/Carr Quintet I think but not aware of any recordings with them.

Thanks, Discogs has him on an album with The Don Rendell Five- Live at the Antibes Festival 1964-68

[GA Russell]

Mealing joined Passport shortly after leaving If, and played on their second album, called Get Yourself a Second Passport.

 

Selections from Passport's first two albums were combined for the band's first US album, whose cover was nearly identical to this.

I think his work with Don Rendell was on piano rather than organ.  Am I right?

8 hours ago, sgcim said:

...but the only thing I could come up with was a record or two that he did with Passport, which wasn't that memorable. 

I guess that my experience was kind of the opposite of yours.  I did not appreciate Mealing's work with If until I heard him with Passport.  I then realized the effect he had on the total sound of both bands.

[sgcim]

1 hour ago, GA Russell said:

Mealing joined Passport shortly after leaving If, and played on their second album, called Get Yourself a Second Passport.

 

Selections from Passport's first two albums were combined for the band's first US album, whose cover was nearly identical to this.

I think his work with Don Rendell was on piano rather than organ.  Am I right?

I guess that my experience was kind of the opposite of yours.  I did not appreciate Mealing's work with If until I heard him with Passport.  I then realized the effect he had on the total sound of both bands.

I'll have to listen to that Passport album again. I don't remember much of it. I don't know which keyboard he plays on the Rendell album, I just found out about it today.

[sgcim]

Dick's son sent me this great article on his father written by Allen Barnes:

https://www.alanbarnesjazz.com/post/top-tenor

[adh1907]

On 12/19/2022 at 1:06 AM, sidewinder said:

Yes - R&B Records did a Morrissey/Witherspoon release on CD some months ago. Don’t yet have a copy.

Ah yes - I think you are right. I always think of it as being recorded at the Bull’s Head as the first time I heard a track from it on the radio it was introduced as such. I do have a copy of that Jazzhus recording.

You may be right. in the May edition of Jazzwise there is an article by Chris Welch about the Bulls Head in which he states that Mercury recorded Storm Warning live there on 22 and 29 November 1965. Still not convinced it is live as there is no audience noise that I can hear. 
 

Anthony